Three 20-something women trying to figure out what it means to be lay, Catholic, and modern all at once.


October 18, 2010

Superfreaks

Has any ever written to a television station? Because I'm really close to doing so. I'm fed up with virginity being construed as some sort of deviation from nature.

As I was unpacking the last remnants of my trip to France this week, I decided to put on mindless television in the background, namely, Grey's Anatomy. Why? I have no idea. For some reason I'm still holding out hope that this show will touch on very human pain and redemption, but instead, it just riles me up.

One of the latest episodes was entitled, "Superfreak," and intended to tackle the fact that all of us, no matter how put together we seem, struggle with some sort of neurosis or fact about ourselves which can make us feel like a "freak," or just really odd. Someone suffered from arachnophobia, another from PTSD, and another....from being a 28-year-old virgin. As a 26-year-old virgin, I was infuriated, mostly because the young woman didn't seem to be bothered by it, until she was ceaselessly taunted by her colleagues and mocked during several of the vignettes.

My virginity is not something that I am ashamed of, nor is it something that I lord over people who are sexual active. It is something I am convicted about, and not something that makes me a "freak." Why is it okay to engage in all sorts of sexual behavior but not to remain chaste? Why isn't hooking up portrayed as the unnatural route instead of abstinence (which, by the way, was mocked on The Office this past week, too)? Why am I the one with the problem?

With a movie entitle, "The Virginity Hit," out in select theaters documenting a young boy's loss of virginity and mocking the experience, I want to scream loud and proud that this is not a disease, not something freakish. Will you join me?

2 comments:

Angela Miceli said...

I'll sign that petition with you! I think it all stems from Descartes separating mind and body and Hobbes reducing man to his appetites and as a being seeking pleasure. Blame Descartes and Hobbes for everything wrong in the world...

Jennie said...

Hi Julian!
Sorry this reply is a bit late, but you totally should write in to the TV station. If you're a viewer, they will definitely listen to what you have to say, especially if you represent a certain demographic of people.
I wrote to ABC last Spring for Mother's Day when they aired a special lauding the invention of the birth control pill (on Mother's Day of all days). Apparently I was not the only one appalled at the segment. Who knows what effect my letter had, realistically probably very little, but you never know if you plant a small seed in someone. I say go for it.

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