Week 9- 40 Year Old Virgin

Before I saw this movie I was sure that it would prove to be a radical text, largely due to the scenario alluded to by the title. So when I watched it in its entirety over the weekend I was surprised to find that it actually upholds many of the standards of traditional romance. Even though Steve Carell's character is a virgin, the gender roles in this film are not completely reversed. The story line is still boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy does something crazy to prove his love and they live happily ever after. Plus, he waits until after he's married to have sex; upholding traditional norms. His co-workers are not any more fulfilled by having lost their virginities; none of them have a stable, loving relationship with a woman. As was said in class, Carell and his co-workers are equally immature (though it manifests in different ways).
Laura Carpenter's article provides a terminology and further understanding of the essential dilemma that is never resolved in the film (regarding the middle ground between these two polarizing attitudes towards virginity). In the context of the article we can say that Carell's character sees his virginity as a gift, the giving of which will probably not be as satisfying as the wait may have lead him to believe. He upholds traditional values by waiting until marriage to lose it, yet keeping it for so long created other problems for him (as far as maturity and social interaction). His co-workers saw virginity as a stigma, but their loss of it and subsequent sexual activity was not satisfying for them either (emotionally and developmentally speaking). Carpenter says that viewing the loss of virginity as a "process" is the least detrimental to one's overall being, but for whatever reason this alternative is not presented in the film.