A woman appeared on ITV’s This Morning to explain why at the age of 27 she is still a virgin.
Alice Riley told hosts, Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield, her choice to remain a virgin is not down to any religious view but more to do with choice and circumstance.
Her revelation comes after new research revealed one in eight people are still virgins at the age of 26, the onus being put down to a ‘culture of hypersexuality’ and a general ‘fear of intimacy’.
However, Riley denies these are the reasons as to why she has yet to experience sexual intercourse.
Speaking today on This Morning she says:
I think it’s partly circumstance and partly choice.
I think when it comes to losing your virginity there are two camps of thought, when one wants it to mean something and wait for the right person, and obviously some people don’t care.
I guess I was in the first category, I wasn’t looking for the man I was going to marry, but I wanted something that wasn’t going to be a one night stand, a connection more than sex. I guess I just never found the right person.
Despite still remaining a virgin it hasn’t stopped her from dating and being in intimate relationships. She revealed how in her last relationship, which lasted for five weeks – as reported in The Independent, sex was very much ‘on the cards’. But things never progressed further as the man she was dating was still hung up on his ex-girlfriend.
Riley went on to say:
The main misconception that people have if you’re a virgin is that you’re completely disinterested in sex altogether which is not the case.
She was joined by relationship expert and psychologist Emma Kenney, who commended Riley’s decision to remain a virgin. She states the act of sexual intercourse should not be looked upon as some kind of exchange of power, a message which often gets lost in translation when discussing the subject of virginity.
Kenney told Willoughby and Schofield:
When we say that our body is something that is based on whether we have virginity or no virginity, we create what would be considered a patriarchal argument over our bodies.
My body’s mine, if I want to play with it, that’s okay.
She told Riley:
You’re going to be just as worthwhile the day after you’ve had sex as you are right now.
When posed with a hypothetical question as whether it would matter if her first sexual partner had a sexual history which could be construed as ‘colourful’, Riley, who works as a digital marketer and blogger, said it would not a be a concern so long as they expressed a form of commitment to her.
Kenney went on to say:
This isn’t a thing about you wishing to be a virgin, this is actually just about you finding a guy you want to have sex with.
I think that’s a very different situation than when we talk about the power play that can be involved in a woman feeling that virginity makes her ‘pure’, it doesn’t make you pure, it just means you haven’t had sex.
While some will undoubtedly view it as odd someone her age has yet to experience sexual intercourse, they key thing to take note of is it is her choice. Riley is not opposed to the idea of sex, she just wants her first time to be something special and meaningful, as opposed to a casual one night stand.
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