BY Lux Alptraum
May 16, 2007
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I know I am late to the discussion of the New York magazine Sex and Love issue, but hey: that is just how it goes some times. The issue itself covers some pretty interesting ground (MILFs! Married men! How much sex are New Yorkers really having?), but what really caught my eye was the slideshow of portraits of New York City virgins.

I’m already fascinated with virginity — the absence of sexual activity often tells us far more about ideas and attitudes around sex and sexuality than sex itself does — and this series does provide interesting insights into why its subjects have chosen to abstain (spoiler: most of them aren’t intensely religious or waiting for marriage). However, I’d like to know why it is that, of the seven subjects, only two of the profiles feature men (and four are young, hot women in their twenties).

Is it that much harder to find male virgins? Do male virgins have a harder time publicly admitting to their choice? Is female virginity just a sexier, more titillating topic? Though everyone faces pressure to get down and get busy (don’t you know that you’re less of a person if you’re not getting laid?), it seems fair to say that there’s more pressure on men to to lose their virginity — and thus (for me at least), it seems way more interesting to read about why men have chosen to keep it in their pants.

But that’s just me: and apparently, New York and I are not in agreement.