History Main / SexAsRiteOfPassage

-->-- '''Arthur Shelby, Jr.''', ''Series/PeakyBlinders'' [[note]]It's his cousin's 18th birthday[[/note]]

* The universe anime and manga ''{{Manga/Loveless}}'' has a unique aspect in that all virgins have cat ears and a tail until they first have sexual intercourse, and this is utilized in various ways to show a character's personal life. It's also [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] and questioned, especially with Soubi [[spoiler:who loses his ears as a result of sexual abuse by his teacher in a traumatic experience]]. What makes it more twisted is that [[spoiler: Soubi was raped by Ritsu because Ritsu resented Soubi's mother for marrying someone else]].

-->-- '''Arthur Shelby Jr.''', ''Series/PeakyBlinders'' [[note]]It's his cousin's 18th birthday[[/note]]

Conventionally the hero is successful, thus finally experienced and reassuring the insecure male virgins in the audience that they, too, will someday get laid. AnAesop about love being more important than sex will then be shoehorned in, and the hero will settle down with a nice girl--quite possibly the [[ChildhoodFriendRomance unlucky childhood friend]] he completely ignored in his quest to "get some". Whether this happy ending satisfies the MoralGuardians varies; the wholesome 10% may shed some sanctity on the rest, but that's not what the audience is paying to see. They're there to enjoy the titillating adventures of a protagonist who wants only to get laid.

* In ''Anime/TurnAGundam'', the protagonist and other children would celebrate a coming-of-age ceremony as per tradition: among other things, they would go to the top of a mountain, strip naked, and put leeches onto each others' backs to create marks. It isn't shown what happens after this (Loran's and Sochie's ceremony is interrupted by the Moonrace's first attack), but considering they pair off into boy-girl pairs and are unsupervised, many fans have wondered.

* ZigZagged in ''Fanfic/{{Myrmidons}}''. After nineteen-year-old Cadet Sheri Walford has her first time with a warrant officer after her birthday party, her boss, Admiral Kanril Eleya, gives her a mild talking-to for sleeping with an enlisted man (it's not allowed because she's an officer), but then commiserates with her a little on the experience.

* Taken to another level in TheMockbuster Creator/TheAsylum film, ''The 18-Year-Old Virgin''. The titular virgin is a female HollywoodNerd who wants to lose it to her crush at a party. The guy is open to the idea, but doesn't want to have sex with a virgin, so she has to find ''someone else'' to take her virginity before she can hook up with her dream guy. HilarityEnsues.

* In the 80s AffectionateParody of westerns, ''Film/RustlersRhapsody'', the hero is confronted with the fact that one of the requirements to being an official, sanctioned hero is that he has to be a "confident heterosexual". He thought it was ''just'' heterosexual.

-->'''Cindy:''' "Girls have to everything. Guys are clueless when it comes to sex. It starts with them trying to unhook our bras,fumbling around, and it never changes. Wait until they try to put their dick into you."\\

* ''Film/{{Blockers}}'' is about three 18 year old girls who make a pact to have sex for the first on prom night. In the end only one of them goes through with it, and the others describe her as "a woman among girls".

* A very literal example in ''Film/TheWickerMan1973'', where a teenage boy (who may or may not be a virgin given [[EveryoneHasLotsOfSex Summerisle's general level of sexual freedom]]) has a pleasant evening with the ReallyGetsAround daughter of the local innkeeper...which is explicitly part of the island's May Day pagan religious celebrations, and is treated very much like a priestess initiating a novice. The rest of the townsfolk downstairs in the tavern sing a rather sweet BawdySong about young lovers and sexual experimentation, and the young man is seen taking a leadership role in several May Day events afterwards.

* ''Franchise/TheDarkTower'': In ''Wizard & Glass'', Roland goes downtown and gets a prostitute immediately after becoming a 14-year old gunslinger. He does it for no other reason than because he could. Although it's a [[SubvertedTrope subversion]] because immediately after this Roland's father busts into the room and lets him know he's still got a fair way to go before he's truly grown up.

* In the sci-fi novel ''[[Literature/GreatwinterTrilogy Eyes of the Calculor]]'' a fifteen-year old youth is going off to fight a duel against a more experienced opponent. He intends to stop off a brothel first because dueling as a virgin is regarded as bad luck, but the 22-year old maid seduces him figuring she'd be a better inspiration to live than some anonymous whore.

** Though simply knowing how [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin "stork summoning"]] is done is enough to become part of the Conspiracy. Jenny Elf and Gwenny Goblin are shown uncensored Tapestry pictures of a couple going at it, in order to initiate them, as they needed the knowledge to complete their Humphery-given task. (Che didn't count; as a centaur he already knew the "raw facts")
*** This trope is played so straight that in one book, the plot kicks off with a goblin having to take her kid brother to a forgetfulness spring, because he's gained tremendous power just by learning to ''swear''. Lord knows what would have happened if he'd found out about stork summoning.

** Also note that Atia at this time believes Octavian has been penetrated-by Uncle Caesar, because he can't tell her where they disappeared to one night (Caesar was actually having an epileptic seizure). But the Romans saw it as necessary for Octavian to do the penetration to become a man.

* Sid of ''Series/{{Skins}}'' is under pressure from his best friend Tony to lose his virginity, as Tony is embarrassed to be friends with a virgin. JJ in the third season is also miserable about being a virgin, especially when his two best friends manage to be very sexually successful, but eventually his lesbian friend Emily sleeps with him out of pity.

* ''Series/HarryEnfieldAndChums'' has a comically [[ExaggeratedTrope exaggerated]] example in the last regular episode, when Kevin the Teenager, an extreme stereotype of the horrible teenage boy, finally loses his virginity. The next morning he has been transformed into a charming, polite and helpful young man, to his parents' incredulous delight (and his friend Perry's disappointment). Though the transformation (but not the sex itself) was [[{{Retcon}} retconned]] in a subsequent Christmas special, turning out to have been just a beautiful dream of his mother's.

* Main focus of "La Première fille" by French singer Georges Brassens. The narrator goes on to detail all the different girls it could have been, and all the different ways it could have happened, regardless of which he will always remember his First. This incidentally allows the narrator to imply [[TheCasanova a very rich]] sexual life on his part by enumerating random female names saying that they'll all be forgotten long before he forgets his OneTrueLove. Brassens uses the phrase "baptism of love" which is exactly this trope, as well as SelfDeprecatingHumor about how awkward and nervous he was while trying to keep his cool which could imply this trope in retrospect.

* Alistair in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'' [[SubvertedTrope subverts this trope]] by refusing female!Gray Warden sexual advances until he falls in love with her, despite the fact that he admits sexual attraction and current virginity.

* In ''Webcomic/ScaryGoRound'' when The Boy loses his virginity he immediately becomes a MAN, and resolves their problem. Once he's done though, he's expended all his strength and reverts to "callow youth".

** One episode parodies this plot, in full-blown DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything style. Stan is upset because although he is a CIA agent, he has never killed a man, and ARealManIsAKiller. So he sets out to find the right person to be his first kill.

* A very literal example in ''Film/TheWickerMan1973'', where a teenage boy (who may or may not be a virgin given [[EveryoneHasLotsOfSex Summerisle's general level of sexual freedom]]) has a pleasant evening with the ReallyGetsAround daughter of the local innkeeper...which is explicitly part of the island's May Day religious celebrations, and is treated very much like a priestess initiating a novice. The rest of the townsfolk downstairs in the tavern sing a rather sweet BawdySong about young lovers and sexual experimentation, and the young man is seen taking a leadership role in several May Day events afterwards.

* In ''Literature/TheRedTent'', girls in Padan-Aram undergo a ritual upon reaching their first period where they are masturbated with a small household idol by their female relatives, in order to a) break their hymen to offer the resultant blood to the goddess Inanna, and b) encourage (via orgasm) the girl undergoing the ritual to [[DreamingOfThingsToCome dream about what her destiny holds]]. (The Canaanite women, who do not do this ritual, view it as {{Squick}}.)
** In the same book, [[LoveInterest Prince Shalem]] mentions having been [[ProfessionalSexEd taken to the high priestess to lose his virginity upon reaching puberty]]. She kept the room dark, so he couldn't actually see her, the idea being that he was sleeping with whatever goddess she served or represented. He fondly remembered it as "like a dream within a dream," although he says it does not compare to his honeymoon with [[TheProtagonist Dinah]].

* Manga/InterspeciesReviewers: {{Averted}}, at least within the usual trappings of this trope. Despite being introduced as a virgin in a world where EveryoneHasLotsOfSex, Crim loses his virginity within a day with little fanfare. It also fails to cause any change in Crim's character on its own, with his acceptance and even enjoyment of casual sex only happening after many repeat experiences. Even then, he's still a bit apprehensive about it, doing it largely for the money his reviews get or out of loneliness if Stunk and Zel aren't present. His friends do have a reaction much more akin to this once he goes to a succugirl brothel entirely on his own without their prompting, however, viewing ''this'' as proof he's a real man.

** Also note that Atia at this time believes Octavian has been penetrated-by Uncle Caesar, because he can't tell her where they disappeared to one night(Caesar was actually having an epileptic seizure). But the Romans saw it as necessary for Octavian to do the penetration to become a man.

* [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] in an episode in ''{{Series/MASH}}'' with a wounded soldier who is taunted by his for waiting to have sex until marriage. He finally has enough when they deal him a hand of pornographic cards just to tease him for being flustered and claims to be volunteering for a dangerous mission, even going so far as to request the necessary paperwork to do so. He is ultimately convince by Potter that he shouldn't do anything he is uncomfortable with, be it sex or putting his life in even greater risk, in order to prove himself as a man to anyone.

A plot in which a man (usually) who has no sexual experience will be mortally embarrassed about the fact and feel the need to get de-flowered as soon as possible. The plot follows his attempts to meet girls and get them into bed so he won't be harassed like hell in college. This is almost always a comedy plot, so his attempts are inept or nerdish and HilarityEnsues.

A plot in which a man (usually) who has no sexual experience will be mortally embarrassed about the fact and feel the need to get de-flowered as soon as possible. The plot follows his attempts to meet girls and get them into bed so he can win his place among his fellow men. This is almost always a comedy plot, so his attempts are inept or nerdish and HilarityEnsues.

Conventionally the hero is successful, thus proving his masculinity and reassuring the insecure male virgins in the audience that they, too, will someday be men. AnAesop about love being more important than sex will then be shoehorned in, and the hero will settle down with a nice girl--quite possibly the [[ChildhoodFriendRomance Unlucky Childhood Friend]] he completely ignored in his quest to "get some". Whether this happy ending satisfies the MoralGuardians varies; the wholesome 10% may shed some sanctity on the rest, but that's not what the audience is paying to see. They're there to enjoy the titillating adventures of a protagonist who wants only to get laid.

* [=YouTube=] personality [=DrNerdLove=] challenges this thinking in "The Virginity Paradox", saying that losing your virginity doesn't really change the person you are, that you'll still be the same person you were before it happened.

* [=YouTube=] personality [=DrNerdLove=] challenges this thinking in "The Virgin Paradox", saying that losing your virginity doesn't really change the person you are, that you'll still be the same person you were before it happened.

** Speaking of porn, a couple of the (non-Debbie) cheerleaders in ''DebbieDoesDallas'' invoked this trope, in the shower, in order to carry on their money-raising scheme. Unfortunately, one of the actresses had a c-section scar, which undermined the scene's authenticity!

Often a subtrope of the ComingOfAgeStory. Contrast with the CelibateHero theory, which says, "Real men can resist sex." Compare SexIsCool. Often found in the SexComedy. A subtrope of this trope is ProfessionalSexEd. See also TheirFirstTime.

* The internet legend ''Densha Otoko''/''Franchise/TrainMan'' is the story of a virgin {{Otaku}} who falls for a woman he saved from a [[TheChikan train groper]]. While he does throw out his Otaku-ish things once he realizes he's fallen in love with her, his real enemy isn't his desire to prove himself so much as his own self-confidence.

* The universe anime and manga ''{{Manga/Loveless}}'' has a unique aspect in that all virgins have cat ears and a tail until they first have sexual intercourse, and this is utilized in various ways to show a character's personal life. It's also [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] and questioned, especially with Soubi [[spoiler:who loses his ears as a result of sexual abuse by his teacher in a traumatic experience]].
** What makes it more twisted is that [[spoiler: Soubi was raped by Ritsu because Ritsu resented Soubi's mother for marrying someone else]].

* ...or "Nothin' Like the First Time" by Music/LadyAntebellum....

* Main focus of "La Première fille" by French singer Georges Brassens. The narrator goes on to detail all the different girls it could have been, and all the different ways it could have happened, regardless of which he will always remember his First. This incidentally allows the narrator to imply [[TheCasanova a very rich]] sexual life on his part by enumerating random female names saying that they'll all be forgotten long before he forgets his OneTrueLove. Brassens uses the phrase "baptism of love" whih is exactly this trope, as well as SelfDeprecatingHumor about how awkward and nervous he was while trying to keep his cool which could imply this trope in retrospect.

** [[CrowningMomentofFunny "Octavian, have you penetrated anyone yet?"]]