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Start Date
25-6-2022 12:00 AM
End Date
25-6-2022 12:00 AM
Abstract
Though many scholars have researched representations of virginity loss in teen-oriented television series, much of this work concentrates on young women, double standards, and consequences. For instance, a 2010 article by Maura Kelly categorizes popular virginity-loss episodes from the early twenty-first century into various scripts, most of which reproduce gendered stereotypes of scorned women and studly men. Fewer scholars, however, have paid attention to young men’s virginity loss beyond hypermasculine expression. The coming-of-age genre includes more sympathetic portrayals of young men’s first sexual encounters, but not many have appeared in popular teen dramas from the past two decades. This paper argues that pulling these examples out of obscurity allows us to reinvent the discourse surrounding young men and sex on television.
Specifically, this study closely reads an episode from ABC’s The Wonder Years (1988-1993), titled “Carnal Knowledge,” in which protagonist Kevin’s best friend, Paul, has sex for the first time. Although this episode aired thirty years ago, this paper hopes to demonstrate that a more compassionate script for young men’s virginity loss already exists; now, it is up to us to locate and analyze other similar examples. In “Carnal Knowledge,” while Kevin and his friends attempt to cast Paul in a hypermasculine narrative, Paul himself rejects the role. Instead, the episode emphasizes Paul’s self-doubt, as well as Kevin’s questions about whether their friendship must change. The narrative prioritizes self-reflection over hypermasculinity, modeling an understudied script that can help us revamp the way we discuss masculinity and sexuality in adolescent programming.
"It was dark and confusing ... that's it:" A Close Reading of Male Virginity Loss in The Wonder Years
Though many scholars have researched representations of virginity loss in teen-oriented television series, much of this work concentrates on young women, double standards, and consequences. For instance, a 2010 article by Maura Kelly categorizes popular virginity-loss episodes from the early twenty-first century into various scripts, most of which reproduce gendered stereotypes of scorned women and studly men. Fewer scholars, however, have paid attention to young men’s virginity loss beyond hypermasculine expression. The coming-of-age genre includes more sympathetic portrayals of young men’s first sexual encounters, but not many have appeared in popular teen dramas from the past two decades. This paper argues that pulling these examples out of obscurity allows us to reinvent the discourse surrounding young men and sex on television.
Specifically, this study closely reads an episode from ABC’s The Wonder Years (1988-1993), titled “Carnal Knowledge,” in which protagonist Kevin’s best friend, Paul, has sex for the first time. Although this episode aired thirty years ago, this paper hopes to demonstrate that a more compassionate script for young men’s virginity loss already exists; now, it is up to us to locate and analyze other similar examples. In “Carnal Knowledge,” while Kevin and his friends attempt to cast Paul in a hypermasculine narrative, Paul himself rejects the role. Instead, the episode emphasizes Paul’s self-doubt, as well as Kevin’s questions about whether their friendship must change. The narrative prioritizes self-reflection over hypermasculinity, modeling an understudied script that can help us revamp the way we discuss masculinity and sexuality in adolescent programming.
Bio
Blue Profitt is a third-year Ph.D. student in English (Media, Cinema, and Digital Studies) at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Her research interests include postwar U.S. coming-of-age films, gender and sexuality studies, film phenomenology, and affect theory. Most recently, she has presented on the relationship between Beatlemania and second wave feminism in the U.S. through a close reading of the film I Wanna Hold Your Hand (1978). Currently, she is developing a project on 1980s coming-of-age cinema and multisensory spectatorship.