I didn’t say that having sex with a new person for the first time isn't special, I said there is nothing special about virginity itself. Sure I said it in a crass offhand way, but that was what I said.

Women are taught our virginity is this incredibly important special thing that needs to be held close and only given to that one special person. We are taught our virginity is so sacred that it must be cherished. This creates the idea that after a woman has sex for the first time, she is somehow broken or unclean. It creates a hierarchy of women who have lost their virginity and women who haven’t. You would not believe how many of my friends treated me like a slut because I lost my virginity to my boyfriend at the time, a guy I dated for over 2 years after. But because we were horny and fucked after dating for 2 weeks (something I brought up before him), that made me a whore. Just me though, not him, he got high fives from friends.

The point is, maybe we should stop teaching people that women’s virginity is sacred and teach them about how to have safe sex instead. Perhaps if we taught people about safe and healthy sex as a natural activity that many people engage in, young virgin girls wouldn’t be something that adult men thirst so hard for.

Notice it’s only women’s virginity that is held to this standard, not men’s virginity. Whether you like it or not, putting women’s virginity on a pedestal the way people do, it’s perpetuating purity culture and patriarchy. It’s another to see women as lesser than men.

I feel like that moment is pretty insignificant to most young girls.

But i think that's exactly the point being made, there shouldn't be that much pressure on it because it is very often disappointing. Building it up in your head as a moment that will define you often has no benefit to your life.

Bible shaggers will disagree for obvious reasons, but nobody is going to them for measured romantic and sexual advice.

Have sex when you feel ready. Make it special if you want to. No need to make it an implicit societal pressure.

Again, disagree. The average is not much younger than I was, 17 is closer to average (at least in the US). And I didn’t say it shouldn’t be with someone you care about, I said, there is nothing special about virginity.