Young People Ask . . . Is It Normal to Be a Virgin?

VIRGINITY.  In times past  it was a badge of honor. Nowadays, many youths view it as a cause of shame and embarrassment, and abnormal condition, a malady to be "cured" as soon as possible.

Not surprisingly, youths are giving  up their virginity in record numbers. For example, a 1883 survey  of German youths revealed that only 9 percent of 15-year-old girls and 4 percent of 15-year-old boys had experienced  sexual relations.  By 1989 the numbers had risen to 25 percent respectively!  Similar trends are noted all over the world.

What, though, has given virginity a bad name among  youths?   Youths of all generations have had to deal with the strong feelings aroused during puberty. Today's youths, however, grow up in a world that gives them little or no moral guidance. In one European land, a group of Christian elders report: "In spite of a religious veneer, this is essentially an amoral country. Immoral sex is tolerated as a 'human weakness.'  Children are raised in families where the parents are not married. Sex-oriented advertising is worse here than in any other country in the Western world."

Youths in developing lands are likewise exposed to powerful cultural economic  forces that encourage  promiscuity. ' If a young man doesn't have sex,' youths in one African land are warned, "then his body will be weakened.' Equally common is the belief that 'a girl  does not know life until she has had sex with a boy.' 

Furthermore, because of widespread unemployment and poverty, a girl may be afraid to turn down a prospective employer's demand that she have relations with him. Teachers may likewise demand sex as payment for passing grades in school. Why, it is not unusual for poor girls to suffer sex in exchange for basic necessities-even for a bar of soap! "Having sex is considered much like have a drink or a meal." report observers in one developing land.

Next time: Young People Ask . . . Is It Normal to Be a Virgin? - Peer Pressure

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