The Ambiguity of "Having Sex": The Subjective Experience of Virginity Loss in the United States is an article written by Laura M. Carpenter and can be found in The Journal of Sex Research. In the article the author investigates and analyzes group and individual responses to questions concerning sex and virginity loss. The article also contains many statistics recorded throughout the investigation, which allow the reader to obtain a better interpretation of the responses given by the research participants.
Several different investigative techniques are used in this particular analysis. One such technique is open, in-depth interviews in which the sociologist asked questions and allowed the respondent to respond without being interrupted or probed for more information. Through this technique the data was recorded and researched thoroughly through the grounded theory. The interviews were researched until the sociologist could determine the respondents beliefs on sex and virginity through metaphorical answers given in the interview. .
The article brings many important issues to the surface that deal with virginity loss. Many people have different ideas about what is, and what is not, sex. Therefore many people have different opinions about what is considered virginity loss. Among the college students interviewed 41% believed oral sex was a loss of virginity and 81% believed anal sex constituted loss of virginity. The only form of virginity loss that was agreeable among those polled was coitus, or vaginal intercourse with the use of male genitals. All of the participants polled believed that coitus was considered to be sex and constitutes virginity loss. .
The author also performed a technique which enabled the participants to give personal examples of their virginity loss. Through this investigation it was recorded that a third of the people believed virginity was a social stigma, or something that is not considered to be "cool" among people in today's society.