“No one believes I’m a virgin” is a common refrain during the premiere of Hulu’s new dating competition series, Are You My First? The reality show centers on “the largest group of eligible virgins ever assembled,” the hosts claim—apart from a high school cafeteria, one might assume—to follow the tried-and-true format that defines shows like Love Island and Too Hot to Handle. A perfectly staged villa’s worth of conventionally attractive people in their twenties and early thirties are sequestered in tropical splendor to “find love.” In this case, the “and have sex” that is usually implied is a little more blatant. The twist on the format here is that all of these bombshells are sexually inexperienced. Some of them are religious and don’t believe in sex before marriage. Some of them have never been in a serious relationship. And one of them, a 30-year-old Miami cocktail waitress named Rachael, has a little-known but surprisingly common medical condition called vaginismus that makes sex painful, if not impossible. Still, despite these wide-ranging reasons for remaining celibate, every virgin seems committed to finding their first among the palm fronds and pineapple sippers in artificial paradise. “I haven’t lost my virginity because I don’t lose, period,” says contestant Katya, a 28-year-old artist from New York City who lives by the adage “Everything is about sex, except sex, which is about power.” “There’s power in having sex, and there’s also power in withholding,” she continues. “Do you think Anne Boleyn went from lady-in-waiting to Queen of frickin’ England because she put out?” Politics plays a role for both the virginal cast members and for those watching from afar, like Ida, a 24-year-old whose own admissions about her virginity propelled her to TikTok virality this summer. “My mom was like, ‘I’ll literally pay you to go on dates,’" Ida says. "And I said, ‘You don’t need to pay me. Find me a non-Republican in Orange County.’ She couldn’t do it.” TikTok content This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from. Ida’s videos about dating in New York City, where she candidly discusses her fear of physical intimacy or her first time kissing someone while naked, have been viewed by millions of people at a time when virginity seems to be reaching a new cultural apex. Chaste Scene Are You My First? is the third reality series in recent months to focus on virgins, following Virgin Island on Channel 4 in the UK and TLC’s Virgins. In June, pop singer-songwriter Lorde released an album called Virgin, which reflects an evolution in self-perception more than sexual novice. But a 2022 survey by the Kinsey Institute and Lovehoney found that one in four Gen Z adults have never had sex—the same generation now making up most of the cast of these reality shows. Rates of virginity among Gen Z have slightly risen, but what appears to be a sudden influx of virgins and cultural fascination about young people remaining abstinent may be less of an indicator about changing sexual behavior and more about what we’re willing to share publicly, says Justin Garcia, the executive director of the Kinsey Institute.