A Man Is Not a Virgin/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: He's not a Real Man unless he's gotten laid.

  • Straight: Bob is ostracized because he's never had sex.
  • Exaggerated: Bob isn't even allowed to make eye contact with his peers until he's lost his virginity.
  • Downplayed: Bob is slightly teased about his virginity, but nothing more.
  • Justified: Since Bob is at his sexual prime, others feel like he's missing out because he's a virgin.
  • Inverted: Bob is admired for his virginity.
    • or: Alice is mocked as being a prude because of her virginity.
  • Subverted: Bob reveals his virgin status, and no one makes fun of him.
  • Double Subverted: But they really don't accept him until he's gotten laid.
  • Parodied: Bob's friends keep Moving the Goalposts as to what makes them consider him a real man - once he's gotten laid, he has to have a threesome. Once he's done that, he has to do some other kink, et cetera.
  • Zig Zagged: Bob gets laid, but by a man named Alex. Bob tries to redeem himself in front of his friends, who always figured that he was gay. Bob finds Alice, a prostitute, has sex with her, but it just isn't worthwhile. Bob returns to Alex, only to realize that Alex is with Alice.
  • Averted: Bob's virgin status isn't a plot point.
  • Enforced: "All right, in every teen sex comedy there's a character who hasn't had sex yet."
  • Lampshaded: "Bob? How can you be our rescuer? I didn't think you had it in you. You were always so pathetic. None of us ever wanted to go out with you..." "Why, thank you so much for your vote of confidence, Alice."
  • Invoked: ???
  • Exploited: ???
  • Defied: "You know what? I don't care. I'm proud of my virginity."
  • Discussed: ???
  • Conversed: ???
  • Deconstructed: Bob is so desperate to lose his virginity that he throws himself at the first willing partner he finds, which results in a very, very unhappy relationship.
    • This assumes the partner is even willing. In some cases, he might be so desperate to shed himself of his virgin status that he turns to rape.
  • Reconstructed: Nonetheless, this act of desperation works insofar as this Sex as Rite-of-Passage convinces all of his peers that he's awesome and permits his reintegration into society, disturbing as the implications of this result may be.
  • Played For Drama: All of his peers are cruel to Bob for not being sexually active, although their own sexual escapades have brought them and their girlfriends nothing but trouble. In fact, everybody hates him for not sleeping around, because he's in a Crapsack World that loathes sexual purity and punishes it diligently.
  • Played For Laughs: All of Bob's friends are in hilariously unhappy relationships, while the single, unattached Bob is happy to be alone. All of his friends insist he's missing out.

Back to A Man Is Not a Virgin. Maybe don't come back to that page 'til you've gotten some play.

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