Easy Because Everyone is Doing it

With sex there is a stigma that everyone is doing it. The movie Easy A takes a modern approach to this idea by twisting the book "The Scarlett Letter” with the idea of high school virginity loss. High-schooler Oliver Pendergast helps out a friend who is in the closet by pretending to have sex with him; the gay friend cannot take being bullied anymore and wants to pretend to lose his virginity in order to stop the bullying. Once the friend discloses his deal with Olive to another "nerdy” guy, boys start to come to Olive and ask her to pretend they had sex so they won’t be thought of as an uncool virgin anymore. As more and more boys come to Olive for help she gains a reputation for being a slut because she is presumed to be having sex with different boys. The movie focuses on how Olive is portrayed negatively as a slut and the boys she "slept with" become less bullied; this story line shows how the urgency script is emphasized within high school culture. Meaning that, "virginity loss is necessary to affirm a gendered identity as sexually sought-after individual, to be perceived by others as desirable, and to achieve social status (Kelly, 5). Because of this emphasize on losing virginity, a stigma occurs where people believe that everyone is having sex, and when you're in high school if everyone is doing something and you're not, you aren't cool. The movie points out the belief that everyone is having sex besides you can lead to a culture revolving around sex that is so extreme people are willing to lie in order to fit in.
                                
The many different boys that come to Olive in order to "lose their virginity," show how they believe that losing their virginity will make them cool or more desirable to other girls. So many different boys come to her in order to pretend that they lost their virginity that it becomes obvious that there are a lot of virgins within the high school, but they are ashamed about it. All of the boys that ask Olive to lose their virginity exhibit the urgency script, but the fact that the script exists is because these students believe everyone else is doing it. The shame and nervousness that these boys feel about sex and being virgins occurs because they think everyone else is having sex and they are one of the last virgins standing. These high-schoolers believe that if people think they’ve had sex then they’ll be cool. This phenomenon of thinking more students are sexually active then there actually are provides an example of pluralistic ignorance, meaning that its “a false belief share by two or more individuals about the ideas, feelings, and actions of others" (Chia, 302). High-schoolers cultivate this culture that in order to be cool they need to be like everyone else, which means having sex.

This desire to be like everyone else can stem from the images and portrayals that come across in media. Television shows such as Gossip Girl, One Tree Hill, Secret Life of the American Teen and many others play into the cultivation theory, which makes heavy viewers of television believe that the things represented in the media are an accurate portrayal of everyday reality, meaning that it makes sex in high school the norm (Chia, 303). Once high-schoolers and college kids are exposed to these representations they are primed to think that sex is the norm in high school and college, and are more likely to feel as though they are the only one not doing it. The endless cultivation of sexually related content that is thrown in our faces through commercials, movies, music, and television can make people feel as though they are not included in the widespread sexuality phenomenon.

Cite:
 Chia, Stella. "How Media Contribute to Misperceptions of Social Norms About Sex" MASS COMMUNICATION & SOCIETY, 2006, 9 (3), 301–320 

Maura Kelly (2010) Virginity Loss Narratives in“ Teen Drama” Television Programs, The Journal of Sex Research, 47:5, 479-489, DOI:10.1080/00224490903132044 

YouTube.com "Easy A Trailer" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNbPnqyvItk