Was sex at school less stigmatised in the late 90s?

[blubberball]

I was at school in the late 90s. I see things online now about "body count" and how that can be used by some to shame people (women). I don't know about your school and the general attitude around at the time, but it really seemed like the opposite was true back then. The cool people at school were the ones who had experience. Admittedly my town did have the highest teenage pregnancy rate in Europe at the time. Was this the case when others were at school? People didn't seem ashamed of sex when I was at school. It was the opposite, they were very proud of it and laughed at the inexperienced people.

The whole "body count" and "slut shaming" things is just male pushback to third wave feminism, which was only just beginning in the 90s

Yes, being pregnant was seen as quite cool and exciting. I think a lot of magazines and soaps tried to show the gritty reality but unintentionally ended up glamorising it. We had four teenage pregnancies in our year, I think. Strange to think their babies are now approaching thirty.

In my first couple of years teaching pregnancy was quite common but then seemed to wane. I’m not sure why.

I was definitely in the too ugly to get a bf group. I must have glowed up slightly after leaving school. In my mind, the only people having sex looked like super models. I didn't think ordinary geeks like me would ever have sex

Teenager in the early 80s . There were a few sexually active at school. Mostly in long term (over a year together) relationships. Only know of 2 girls who were pregnant in my year and one girl in the year above. They all had their babies thats how we knew. Abortion was very secretive then so there could of been more but kept very quiet. The pill was difficult to get without parental permission and you still had to convince the GP you were in a long-term relationship. I cant think of anyone being looked down on for being sexually active. A few years later there was the Victoria gillick legal challenge that tried to stop girls under 16 being prescribed contraception without parental consent so there must of been a lot of girls trying to obtain it. Most used condoms.

I was at school in the mid 00s. Boys and girls had relationships, but the "casual sex" thing was never really a thing, so it was probably before my time.

I agree that "body count" sounds like a very strange term. Do people actually use that term? "Body count"? And I imagine for the overwhelming majority of people it's going to be in the single digits anyway, so I'm not sure why it would even be an interesting question to begin with. Seems like a very strange thing to ask anyone.

This.

At my school (in the nineties) if you were sexually experienced you were a slag. Boys always talked if a girl did anything. They would sing a finger of fudge to any girl who got fingered.
it really put me off doing anything. But if you didn’t you were frigid or a d*ke.
Lovely place

It wasn’t really stigmatised in my school. In fact it wasn’t uncommon for people to skip school to go have sex or be found in the alley by school giving/receiving blow jobs in the middle of the day .

Im really hoping times have changed

I will never understand making a decision about something as personal as whether or not to let another human being into your body based on what other people thought was cool or what they might think (let alone a bunch of teenage idiots). Who gives a shit?

Yup this is what I remember. Like hell would I make any decision about my life based on what that bunch of tossers might think.

Yes I lived not far from Doncaster the nights out were legendary back in the day. But yes I think there was a documentary that highlighted the std levels. Pretty grim.

I left school in 1999 (a virgin)
Looking back it seemed to be the thing that being a virgin was shame inducing (I certainly felt this) but also the girls that had sex with multiple partners were “slags” seems crazy looking back now. 🤷‍♀️

Mid 80s and it was certainly seen as cool to have an older boyfriend with a car, especially one who would pick you up from school. Looking back 15yr olds with men in their mid 20s or older. It was all a bit Bob, Sue and Rita too and would be seen as grooming now.
It was definitely not acceptable to fall pregnant though and that was looked down on.
Just read other replies, mine was an all girls school, so no boys to be giving the slag insults.

It might be more of an American thing, but like everything it spreads across the world online.

It is a strange thing to ask any one really. It would be a red flag

I was in secondary in the early 00’s and sex was definitely cool. Peers would want to know all the gossip about what and who.

Pregnancy was definitely a no no though. Unsurprisingly however a lot of us got pregnant during our college years.

Zero stigma at being sexually active at my school in the 80s. Highly academic private school and everyone took contraception extremely seriously. Pregnancies were completely unheard of.

When I was at school grown men having sex with school girls wasn't stigmatised. It was very cool and the girls loved getting picked up by men driving their cars around town.
I'm glad it is stigmatised now. I've got two teens and have work with someone in their early 20s. They find it disgusting for adults to sleep with teens under 18.
The body count thing is misogynistic trope picked up from the Andrew Tate crew.

I started secondary school in 1993 and it was definitely seen as a cool thing to be having sex.
I remember feeling like the oldest virgin in the world.. Ridiculous because I lost my virginity age 17, I was the oldest out of my friends though.

I love how everyone who grew up in a rough area was told it had the highest teenage pregnancy rate in Europe. When I read that I thought you must be from Burnley, because I was sure we held that crown for a bit too. 😂

You're definitely right. Culture swings from one extreme to the other and my experience was early noughties rather than 90's but it was definitely cool to sleep around. I got the piss taken out of me for being a virgin at 16. I don't think they all neck a full bottle of MD 20:20 then pass out on a park bench anymore so some of the changes might be for the best. The "body count" thing is misogynistic though, all a bit red pill.

I would echo this. Boys quite vile about the girls, heavy use of slag and slapper. I recall a a boy telling his mates he had fingered a girl (at the under 18 disco) and she was a right slag for bouncing up and down on his fingers and enjoying it. A 19 year old asked me why I hadn't shagged him yet, I was 16 and when I said I wasn't ready he said "What's wrong with you are you frigid?"

I think amongst the girls there was a sort of awe for the girls who were having sex but actually they were probably pressured into it and everyone was calling them names behind their backs.

Fucking hell - 12??? That’s so sad

Literally my username, early 90’s. A heady mix of trying to stay mysterious, not getting pregnant and not shagging anyone but also shagging hot blokes. Not teachers or pervs who were clearly wanting shags from 15-18 year olds.

Being sexually active was fine where I went to school in the 1990's, but I remember that a couple of girls were known as "bikes" because lots of people had a ride on them. Not a nice way to refer to them.

Quite a few in my year group started to loose their virginity around 12/13 years old.

The 16 year old virgins definitely the anomaly.

I was at secondary school 1996-2000. I’ve never really thought about it being better but yes, without doubt it was less stigmatised than it is now. I lost my virginity very early to my ‘long term’ school boyfriend. Some friends did the same, some much later. No judgement, the usual silliness from boys but nothing like the misogyny that is present now. That makes me really sad actually - no idea that the times we were living would be so much better then than now.

Although thinking about it, there has been some postive progress; the term gay was very much used as an insult. I can’t recall any boy being openly gay and definelty not any girls, lesbian was used even more as an insult. I’m so glad that sexuality is so much less of a big deal now.