Basic Trope: Virginity is presented as shameful.
- Straight: Bob refuses to engage in sexual activities with anyone and is mocked and shamed for it.
- Exaggerated:
- Bob has never been in any sexual relationships (or any relationships for that matter) with anyone and has never even been kissed. Because of this, he is hated by his family, friends, and the rest of society as a whole, including women who are being slut shamed by society.
- Even worse, Bob becomes a Cosmic Plaything for his lack of sexual experience.
- Bob's society is so offended by a virgin of his age existing that they try to kill him.
- Downplayed: Bob refuses to have sex with a woman. He gets called a loser by some people, but others shrug it off and treat him as normal.
- Justified:
- Bob is asexual and a victim of acephobia.
- Bob lives in a society where a man is expected to have sex, which will gain them the reputation of being a "real man" and those who don't are labeled as losers.
- Bob is a virgin due to his refusal to have sex before marriage as a result of his strong religious beliefs, leading people to assume he has a Holier Than Thou attitude.
- Bob talks a big game about his nonexistant sex life.
- Bob is an "involuntary celibate" who cannot get laid to save his life, because of how socially inept, unhygienic and misogynistic he is. People who consider him a loser because of the way he is explains why he is a virgin.
- Inverted:
- Bob is sexually promiscuous and is reviled by society.
- Bob is praised and respected for his virginity.
- Bob thinks his first sexual experience "makes him a man", and tries to throw his weight around, only to get laughed at.
- After all the pain and suffering chasing after something he wasn't even interested in, Bob gives up and becomes more powerful. At age 30, he becomes a wizard and becomes the most powerful man in town, now respected and praised by the townspeople.
- Gender Flipped: Alice is a virgin and gets labeled as a loser by society.
- Subverted:
- At first, Bob is insulted by other characters for his virginity; later, however, there is an opportunity for him to use Virgin Power to his or others' betterment.
- Bob complains about being treated poorly for being a virgin, only to be told his holier than thou attitude is what makes him so insufferable.
- Bob turns out to still be a virgin because Alice died right before they could have sex, mentally scarring him. And he can't move on. Once the truth is revealed, the townsfolk regret their mockery and will no longer tolerate jokes about the subject.
- Charlie, who has a lot of past lovers, mocks Bob for his virginity. Bob turns the tables on him by asking why none of them ever come back for more. Bob then reveals he learned from Charlie's past "conquests" that he basically just treats his partners like living sex toys.
- Bob tries to hide his virginity, fearing he'll be made fun of. But turns out it was an Open Secret and nobody shames him.
- Double Subverted:
- The other characters turn out to be Ungrateful Bastards who still mock him even after he saved their lives.
- Bob's holier-than-thou demeanor is a defense mechanism that he took up in response to the heckling.
- The townsfolk insult Bob for failing to "get over" Alice and "become a real man".
- Alternatively, the townsfolk point out that Bob's mourning of Alice has reached unhealthy extremes and he needs to learn to love again.
- Charlie's "conquests" are because he travels a lot. The Lousy Lovers Are Losers part was false information Bob dug up, and if Charlie were to ever come back to the countries where he had his conquests, he'd come back as a National Hero for being such a Sex God.
- But then five years pass and Bob is considered a loser for being this old while still being a virgin.
- Parodied:
- Bob has sex ten times a day, with a different woman each time. Normally this would make Bob The Casanova but everyone has such a ridiculous amount of sex, that his sex life is considered not nearly enough.
- The shaming ritual is bizarre. The first step is having a clown dance around Bob all day while honking a phallic-looking horn.
- Zig Zagged:
- But some of the people Bob saved let it go later on.
- The narrative doesn't reveal whether the mockery or Bob's snobbery came first and deliberately leaves it ambiguous.
- Bob berates his peers for their callousness. This time, his words stick.
- Whether or not the other characters are okay with Bob's virginity varies in each episode.
- Charlie taunts Alice for having too much sex and taunts Bob for not having sex. They both tell him plainly to stop being nosy and to stop prying in other people's lives.
- Averted:
- No one makes a big deal out of Bob's virginity.
- Bob is not a virgin.
- Enforced:
- A male writer, who firmly believes that virgins are losers, designs Bob as a virgin and the series' primary Butt-Monkey.
- This trope is used to prey on the audience's own insecurities.
- Lampshaded: "These 'real men' need to get over themselves."
- Invoked: Bob tries to goad his peers into shaming him for his virginity. He believes the shame will give him the motivation he needs to finally ask Alice out.
- Exploited: Bob's father manipulates him into thinking that virginity is shameful just so Bob can not only feel like a "real man", but also give him some grandchildren.
- Defied: Bob refuses to let anyone mock him about his lack of sexual experience - anyone who tries to bring it up gets brutally beaten up to the brink of their dear life by him and his cronies.
- Discussed: "So if a man has never had sex, he's a loser? Then why do women get bashed for doing what men are expected to do?"
- Conversed: "Oh great, another high school movie where everyone's an asshole because the main character hasn't had sex yet. He's only 15! And why is he still friends with these people?!"
- Deconstructed:
- Tired of getting mocked for being a virgin, Bob decides to have sex with women, but he is rejected at every chance and because of this, he gets bullied and heckled even more. Angry at this, Bob decides to leave town.
- Sick of being ridiculed for not having sex, Bob loses his shit and goes on a mass raping spree before deciding to take the most attractive women in town and make them his sex slaves.
- When Bob finally becomes an item with Alice, his disbelief that a woman could ever love and/or want to have sex with him causes trouble in the relationship.
- Bob is alienated from society as a result of his virginity.
- Bob loses his virginity to a prostitute and realizes that this didn't actually change anything.
- Reconstructed:
- Can't reconstruct 1. The town, which was notorious for its virgin shaming in the first place, couldn't give two shits about Bob. At least Bob gets a happy ending through the form of him actually losing his virginity.
- Bob is vilified as a mass rapist, as he would've been in a society that didn't shame virgins.
- Bob learns a skill even more important than sexual prowess: communication. He opens up about his insecurities to Alice. She reminds him why they're together in the first place. Feeling more comfortable around each other, they later start discussing when they want to have sex for the first time, what they each enjoy, etc.
- Bob gives the finger to the society that shames his virginity. As a Celibate Hero, he decides that being himself is more important.
- But because he lost his virginity, he can now stop obsessing over this. He undergoes self-improvement and can no longer be considered a loser.
- Played For Laughs: The only people who care about Bob's virginity and inexperience also happen to be virgins.
- Played For Drama: Being a virgin and thus, inexperienced, gives Bob great anxiety, especially when he finally does get a significant other and worries that he may not be able to satisfy them in bed.
- Implied: Bob is widely considered to be a loser and he's never seen getting along well with women.
Back to Virgin-Shaming, loser!
