Check it out--the Multifandom Virgin-By-Choice Fic Challenge!

[beatrice_otter]

quinfirefrorefiddle is running a multifandom Virgin-By-Choice Fic Challenge in her journal.

Why did I want to start this challenge? Because modern media has turned the word "virgin" into an insult, almost a bad word. It is time to take that word back. Being a virgin isn't a bad thing in itself, and there are a number of reasons why an adult might be a virgin by their own choice.

I hate that being a virgin is something that mass media tells me I'm supposed to be embarrassed about. (For this particular topic, fandom is quite definitely part of mass media.) Something I'm supposed to be ashamed of- especially at my age. I hate that mass media, when portraying someone who remains a virgin for this long, consistently makes them an extremely conservative religious type of some sort- and you ever notice they tend to be sweet girls with long hair who wear long flowy flowery skirts and don't wear makeup? No guys, no women who dress otherwise. Virgins are prudes, virgins are afraid of sex, virgins are incomplete, virgins don't take risks, virgins are most likely to end up as homemakers- and oh yes, virgins are always always always women- or fourteen year old pimply boys. And often enough, virgins don't have a choice in the matter- they are oppressed by the system they are in, by their parents. They never have any power over their own life- because hey, if they did, they'd be having sex, right?

I want to see biker virgins. I want to see kickass military virgins. I want to see religious virgins who are in control of their own damn lives and make their own decisions, thank you! (And if some of them happened to be clergy, well, hey, that'd be cool as well.) I want to see thirty year old male virgins- who do not live in their parents' basement. I want to see historical character virgins who seriously can't wait for their wedding night. I want to see extreme sports virgins. I want to see people who are virgins for strictly practical reasons- fear of STDs and pregnancy. I want to see people who are virgins because being that physically vulnerable with someone freaks them the hell out. I want to see virgins who just haven't met the right one yet, and will be damned if they settle for less than who they want. I'm looking for people who don't have giant dramatic/traumatic pasts that act as "excuses" for their virginity.

I think it's kind of ridiculous how much the word itself freaks us out. You ever notice how people tend to drop their voice a bit when they say it out loud? I kind of want to go around working "virgin" into as many conversations as possible for a few days- except I really can't have my coworkers wondering why. But maybe if we use it a lot some of the stigma will go away. Virgin. Virgin virgin virgin. Virgin virgin.

Go check it out, and maybe write some fic!

Comments

[revdorothyl]

Thanks for linking to this! This sounds like my kind of challenge (to read the fics afterwards, if not to write), and I love that someone else has come out on the side of 'there's nothing inherently funny, demeaning, or shameful about being a mature virgin'.