Shit People Say to Adult Virgins

I had to get my birth control prescription refilled today, which always makes me a little sad and causes some nice anxiety attacks, because the one thing no amount of sex therapy and sexual information can tell me is how to find a sexual partner. (At 38, I am past Late Bloomer and into There's Something So Wrong With… » 7/01/14 3:15pm 7/01/14 3:15pm

Creepy Yet Gorgeous Portraits of Purity-Pledging Daughters and Dads

Photographer David Magnusson is not American, nor is he Christian, nor does he have a daughter who has pledged her virginity to him in one fringe tradition that nearly unanimously squicks mainstream America out. But that didn't stop him from traveling cross country to assemble images of fathers and daughters who have… » 6/06/14 7:00pm 6/06/14 7:00pm

I Shouldn't Need an Excuse to Be a Virgin

A few months ago, my friends went around the table talking about the most bizarre places they've had sex. When was my turn, their jaws dropped at my response. Then someone made a soft, "Awww," — the kind you give a baby after she lets out a burp. It was the first time I admitted to a group of feminists that I was a… » 3/12/14 12:00pm 3/12/14 12:00pm

Nearly 1% Of Women Claim They Were Virgins When They Gave Birth

Virgin births: not just for teen Jewish girls hanging out in Bethlehem barns anymore. According to research, almost 1% of American women claim that they, too were unpenetrated by the peen of a man when they became pregnant. » 12/18/13 12:20pm 12/18/13 12:20pm

Chris Brown Didn't 'Lose His Virginity' at Age 8. He Was Raped.

This weekend, Chris Brown told The Guardian that his first sexual experience happened when he was 8 years old, a claim met with doubt from some and horror from others. Brown didn't discuss what happened to him — uh, child rape, and the law is crystal clear about that — as something traumatic or hurtful; instead, he… » 10/08/13 6:00pm 10/08/13 6:00pm

New Documentary Explores WTF Is Up With the Virginity Obsession

Many of us are taught to hold our virginity close — to tuck it deep inside That Which Is Most Sacred until a modern day Jesus finally proposes and we can finally unclench our vaginal walls and let in the Married Penis Divine. » 10/08/13 12:20pm 10/08/13 12:20pm

The 10 Best Stories About the First Time You Had Sex

When we asked for the best stories about the first time you had sex, we knew there would be some weird offerings. And there definitely, definitely were. » 9/13/13 4:25pm 9/13/13 4:25pm

Fox & Friends Segment on 'Daddy-Approved' Prom Dresses Is So Creepy

Between Gretchen Carlson's idiot suburban mom cosplay and her male cohosts' awkward attempts at amiable harumphing, Fox & Friends is rarely a non-awkward viewing experience. But a segment on today's episode that focused on a new line of "Daddy-approved" prom dresses really Got Weird. » 9/10/13 5:45pm 9/10/13 5:45pm

Lena Dunham Wrote to a Sex Advice Columnist About Being a Virgin at 19

Today in endearing moments about celebrities and their sex lives: Lena Dunham #tbted to her fullest and best potential Thursday by revealing the extensive question she sent to TimeOut New York's sex columnist Jamie Bufalino in 2005. Then 19, Dunham wanted to know whether she should tell whatever hypothetical dude she… » 8/22/13 11:00am 8/22/13 11:00am

Over at The Atlantic, Abigail Rine examines the Evangelical push to revise the obsession with female purity and the "damaged goods" metaphor so heavily used in the religion's teachings. » 5/24/13 4:30pm 5/24/13 4:30pm

Pregnant Teen Photos Banned From Yearbook Because 'Abstinence'

A Michigan school district won't let two pregnant students show their baby bumps in the high school yearbook because it would promote teen pregnancy and thereby contradict the state's abstinence-only sex ed approach. We can't make this shit up. » 5/16/13 6:20pm 5/16/13 6:20pm

It Really, Really Doesn't Matter How You Lost Your Virginity

If you didn't lose your virginity on a canopy bed with pink satin sheets, surrounded by rose petals and flickering white candles while Enya crooned in the background, you're fucked (not in a fun way) for the rest of your sexual life, according to a new study which found that "your first time really matters." But… » 1/31/13 11:55am 1/31/13 11:55am

How to Be a Virgin

So I was a virgin until I was twenty-five (and a half!) and I spent about seven years freaking out about telling people, not telling people, even—so ironically—accepting a job to contribute to a sex and dating column for a women's magazine (they reached out to me; I'd been fired the previous month and needed to do … » 12/20/12 2:30pm 12/20/12 2:30pm

The New Sex Trend: Losing your V-Card in Your Twenties

Outspoken 20-something virgins are often obnoxiously smug about holding on to their "purity." But now, more 20-year-olds are losing it in books and on television without talking shit on sluts or bringing Jesus into the equation. » 11/27/12 7:15pm 11/27/12 7:15pm

Brazilian Woman's Virginity Sold at Auction for $780,000

So, that virgin auction just ended, and we have a winner. And by winner, we mean enormous loser, because what grown man buys a virgin off the internet? He's obviously not looking for a great sexual experience, and if it's for the novelty of having sex with a woman with an intact hymen, that's iffy seeing as that… » 10/25/12 10:00am 10/25/12 10:00am

It's Official: HPV Vaccine Doesn't Turn Teens Into Whore Monsters

New research today from the Department of Oh My God Why Does This Study Have To Exist — turns out, vaccinating teenage girls against HPV won't cause them to go from innocent children drawing pictures of flowers with crayons to unstoppable slutzillas. Sort of like how wearing seatbelts doesn't cause car accidents, or… » 10/15/12 11:40am 10/15/12 11:40am

Taxpayers Still Giving Millions of Dollars to Abstinence-Only Education…

Somewhere in America, grown adults are getting paid real legal currency to teach teenagers how to not have sex. And thanks to a deal the Obama administration was begrudgingly forced to cut with conservative legislators, these hoboes on the abstinence-only education gravy train will be able to continue riding the rails… » 10/11/12 5:25pm 10/11/12 5:25pm

Meet Catarina Migliorini, Who's Selling Her Virginity To Raise Money…

A 20-year-old Brazilian woman currently listed on the website Virgins Wanted is about to rake in at least $160,000 for her virginity in an auction that ends October 15. What Catarina Migliorini is offering to the highest bidder (currently one Jack Miller, American) is one (1) occurrance of sexual intercourse on an… » 9/29/12 4:10pm 9/29/12 4:10pm

Oh, Look, People May Not Be Taking Purity Balls as Seriously as We…

You remember purity balls, right?! The ones that are like "put on a white dress, hold a white rose, dance with your dad, sign a contract to Ziploc your vagina, and also it's sorrrrrt of like you're marrying your dad but shhh?" Those? As it turns out, they're not as ubiquitous as it initially seemed. Which is GREAT,… » 7/21/12 1:30pm 7/21/12 1:30pm

Iraqi Brides Continue To Undergo Court-Ordered Virginity Testing

Above: the Baghdad suburbs. » 7/01/12 2:00pm 7/01/12 2:00pm

How Not to Die On the World's Tallest Waterslide (By Someone Who Lived) 1.5k people reading on Gizmodo

Top 10 Things You Might Be Doing Wrong Every Day 1.3k people reading on Lifehacker

Self-Guided Bullets That Change Course Midair Are Now Terrifyingly Real 1k people reading on Gizmodo