By Erendy Torres |Staff Writer|

If you have a vagina and are no longer a virgin, chances are you have been considered a slut at least once in your lifetime. Actually, you don’t necessarily even have to be deflowered to be considered a slut. If you have a vagina, you still qualify.

“It seems the word slut can be applied to any activity that doesn’t include knitting, praying, or sitting perfectly still lest any sudden movements be deemed whorish,” stated Jessica Valenti in the article, “He’s a Stud, She’s a Slut: The Sexual Double Standard”

Women should not be viewed as slutty or whoreish if they decide to maintain an active sex life with multiple men throughout their life.

If most men believe that having sex with many women makes them badasses, why shouldn’t women be considered the same in their sexual endeavors?

Sadly, we still live with double standards. To this day, many religions and cultures believe we all should wait to lose our virginity, but only women are persecuted for it. But why? Because women have vaginas and that’s the way it should be?

I remember the day my dad asked me, “Do you think women should wait until marriage to lose their virginity?”

I felt extremely awkward. The gears inside my brain began turning. Tick tock, tick tock. I felt like I thought about my answer for an eternity. Do l tell him how I really feel? Or do I tell him what he wants to hear?

Of course, I told him what he wanted to hear, “Of course dad, women should wait until marriage.” Lies.

I had to lie. I couldn’t tell my dad, “Don’t get mad, let me get mine.”

C’mon, we are all the same. We all have needs and urges.

Why should men be rewarded with our virginity? What makes them so special?

Society has constructed the idea that every time a woman has sex, she loses value as a person.

“Female virginity is valuable to society, but a man’s isn’t really worth anything; in fact, it’s better for a man’s social status if he is not a virgin,” stated Erin McKelle in the article, “5 Reasons Why We Need to Ditch The Concept of Virginity For Good”

“And this ties into what is known as the sexual double standard: Women are shamed for having sex and men are rewarded for it,” continued McKelle.

“The girl I am with cannot have a past with like five to six dudes. There’s no way,” said a CSUSB student who only gave his last name—Macias.

When I asked him why not and what makes it different for men and women, he answered: “Well, it’s different. Nothing goes inside a male. You get me?”

The last question I asked him was: “Do you think it would be better in any way that your future girlfriend or wife is a virgin?” He simply smiled and said, “Of course.”

Macias wasn’t the only male that had this point of view. Eight out of 11 male students I interviewed shared that they would like to marry a virgin girl over a girl who has “history.”

Ironically, none of them were virgins themselves—or so they said.

As frequently heard in society, “a key that opens many locks is called a master key, but a lock that allows itself to be opened by many keys is a terrible lock.”

This absurd analogy accurately sums up the double standard that our society still has about sexual partners between genders.

I however, agree with the alternate analogy that “a pencil that allows itself to be sharpened by many sharpeners makes a useless pencil.”