"Virgins" is a short story focusing on a brief moment in the life of our 15 year old African American main character, Erica, who lives in an impoverished community and spends the majority of her time with her best friend, Jasmine, who is also 15 and African American. Although the story is titled, "Virgins", the only actual virgin in the story is Erica, whose overall attitude towards men is that they are not to be trusted. Even Michael, the only male character in the short story that the girls seem to trust, often acts as if the girls are his property, and it is assumed by the general public that he is sexually involved with one of them - a fact that the narrator is very aware of. Erica and Jasmine live in an environment where sex is inevitable and expected of girls at a very young age. However, whereas Jasmine has recently lost her virginity, Erica seems largely indifferent to the topic, consistently refuting the sexual advances of the men around her. However, at the end of the text, Erica decides to have sex with her Michael's brother, Ron, stating, “there was no such thing as safe, only safer; that this, if it didn't happen now, would happen later but not better” (25). This moment can be seen as Erica giving up to the pressure placed on her by society, or it can be looked at as her taking control of her sexuality. However, what it really demonstrates is that Erica, as a character, is a realist and understands the society in which she lives and desires to operate it with as much control and agency as possible.




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