Consummate Virgin

This book is a study of female virginity loss and its representations in popularAnglophone literatures. It explores dominant cultural narratives around whatmakes a "good" female virginity loss experience by examining two key forms ofpopular literature: autobiographical virginity loss stories and popular romancefiction. In particular, this book focuses on how female sexual desire and romanticlove have become entangled in the contemporary cultural imagination, leading tothe emergence of a dominant paradigm which dictates that for women, sexualdesire and love are and should be intrinsically linked together: something whichhas greatly affected cultural scripts for virginity loss. This book examines theways in which this paradigm has been negotiated, upheld, subverted, and resistedin depictions of virginity loss in popular literatures, unpacking the romanticisationof the idea of "the right one" and "the right time".