Male virginity
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More and more novels recognize male virginity.
While there are certainly more than enough virginal heroines in popular romance novels, we have, in recent years, seen a growing presence of male virgins in romance. Our oversexed alpha males in need of taming have been re-written as under-sexed heroes in search of being initiated.
The most famous of these male virgins is, of course, Edward Cullen, the 107-year-old virgin. While we may debate about whether or not the Twilight Saga is a romance, the point is that male virgins are also appearing in the romance novels of Eloisa James, Monica Burns, Bonnie Dee, Jo Davis, and Courtney Milan, to name but a few.
The male virgin is an interesting character whose history in the genre has yet to be tracked. However, it seems that beginning in the 1990s we see the advent of the male virgin. Novels like First and Forever (1991, Harlequin Temptation #360) by Katharine Kendall and Secret Admirer (1991, Harlequin Presents #1554) by Susan Napier introduced the male virgin hero. In both narratives, the virgin hero is something of a surprise for the reader. The reader, like the heroine of Secret Admirer, is shocked to learn that the hero is a virgin:
“What?” Grace stared at him blankly.
He scooped up a slice of toast and bit into it. “Couldn’t you tell, Grace? Was my gift such a paltry thing? I thought one’s partner could always tell.”
What was he talking about? To her horror, Grace suddenly realized that, although he had used protection afterwards, the first, rough coming-together had been utterly spontaneous and Scott certainly hadn’t held back. [. . .] “What gift? T-tell—what?” she stammered, raising her cup to hide the quiver of her mouth, hoping he wasn’t going to prove as selfishly arrogant as she suspected!
“Why, that it was my first time of course.”
Virginity in the romance novel has changed, however. In Courtney Milan’s Unclaimed (2011), the opening sentence reads, quite matter of factly: “Sir Mark Turner did not look like any virgin that Jessica had ever seen before.” Heroic males are now virgins.
There has been a paradigmatic shift that relocates sexual inexperience in the romance novel in the past twenty years: the heroine can now be experienced and the hero entirely virginal, untouched, pure. Ann Snitow’s claim that “virginity is a given here” can nicely and provocatively be re-read precisely because it is no longer the heroine who must be a virgin. While virginity may be a given, it does seem that progress is being made towards virginal equality. Male virgins are not yet as popular as female virgins in romance, but they are also not the exceptionally rare commodity they once were.
In forthcoming entries, we will speculate about why there are so many more virginal heroes now than ever before and how the culture of virginity, abstinence, and purity have, perhaps, informed these discussion.
Jonathan A. Allan
University of Toronto
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“The male virgin is an interesting character whose history in the genre has yet to be tracked. However, it seems that beginning in the 1990s we see the advent of the male virgin.”
If one’s looking at romances from much earlier decades, in which the sexual experience of the hero was simply never mentioned, it’s not going to be possible to tell for certain whether or not he’s a virgin. Looking at Heyer’s novels, for example, one can be sure that the Duke of Avon (These Old Shades) is not a virgin. But what about Freddy Standen (Cotillion) or the Duke of Sale (The Foundling)? It seems to me that silences like these might present some difficulties for anyone writing a history of the virgin hero in popular fiction.
Laura, in my own research on female virginity (I have checked all 900+ ‘Modern Romance’ (Harlequin Presents…) romance published from 2000-2009 to see if the heroine is a virgin or not) I came across this very problem – quite a lot of the romances did not explicitly state whether the heroine was a virgin or not. This was especially marked in those romances which did not include sex (of which there were more than I was expecting).
I have tended to conclude that where there is no mention of virginity/non-virginity, that the reader is encouraged to make their own decision about whether they think the character is a virgin or not. Given that more of the heroines in the novels I looked at were virgins than non-virgins, I tend to think that even as the romance novel has moved away from the alpha-virgin equation, the status quo prompts us to assume that the heroine is a virgin. In short, because the tradition of virginal heroine is still so prevalent in ‘Modern Romance’ titles, in novels where her virginity is not mentioned, we are led to assume that she IS a virgin, as this is still the default status.
Thank you for the feedback. I think you are correct when you suggest that “silences like these might present some difficulties for anyone writing a history of the virgin hero in popular fiction.” Indeed, writing the history of male virginity is problematic for this very reason, and perhaps explains why that history hasn’t been written. In terms of popular romance, I have focussed specifically on characters who acknowledge virginity, that is, they must say they are virgins. I can think of only one case where I interpret a character as a virgin, however the title of the book alludes to his virginity _Galahad in Blue Jeans_.
This made me immediately head over to Amazon to check the date on “Snowdrops and Scandalbroth” which featured a virgin hero….and yes, it appears to have been the nineties.
I can think of only one case where I interpret a character as a virgin, however the title of the book alludes to his virginity _Galahad in Blue Jeans_.
Google Books turns up four Harlequins with Galahad in the title:
Galahad in Blue Jeans by Sara Orwig
Dad Galahad by Suzanne Carey
Galahad’s Bride by Ada Steward
Her Galahad by Melissa James
I don’t know about the Orwig (which I assume is the one you read) or the Carey or the Steward but I know for sure that the Galahad in the James is not a virgin (he’s the father of the heroine’s child) so it’s certainly possible for HM&B authors to use “Galahad” to indicate a similarity to a “knight in shining armour” but not as an allusion to male virginity.
Thanks for posting Laura!!
I look forward to meeting you in person some day!
Laurie
Thanks Laura. Of course it is possible for HM&B authors to use “Galahad” to speak of “knight in shining armour,” however, by the same token, the connotations of purity and virginity certainly seem to be a part of the cultural legacy of Galahad. Perhaps there is a paper to be written on the figure of Galahad in HM&B.
“Sutton’s Way” by Diana Palmer was written in 1989 and it is the first book that I can remember that had the hero be a virgin. The heroine and I were both surprised to find out that Quinn was a virgin, considering he had been married & his wife had borne a child, but it was explained very well in the book. Quinn even tells Amanda the heroine that it’s probably not as uncommon as she believes. His neighbor was an elderly gentleman who was somewhat of a hermit and Quinn believed that the neighbor had never had sex either due to geographic isolation and possibly religious beliefs. Claire is surprised in Diana Gabaldon’s “Outlander” when she discovers on her wedding night to Jamie that he is a virgin. But it’s understandable given the time period and religious beliefs of that time. Despite what is represented in most historical romances I doubt that every man was promiscuous or a rake. Just a thought….