'Sex Is A Symbol Of Popularity At My School'

Throughout the months of September and October, HuffPost Teen is highlighting the way teens think and feel about sex through anecdotes written for our series, "Teen Sex: It's Complicated." All of the authors are teenagers who have agreed to be published anonymously. If you want to share your thoughts, join the conversation here.

By Garrison, 17

To me, the word "sex" is a symbol of popularity. As a teenage Asian male in a predominantly Caucasian private school, I feel that sex is a vital part of the social culture at school. Sex is often talked about all throughout school, especially when the guys are hanging out together.

In our conversations, sex is a symbol. It is a symbol of status as well as popularity. We often judge each other and girls based on rumors and hearsay of sexual history. We judge each other in status and popularity based on a few criteria.

First, we judge whether or not each other has had sex, and from that we ask the amount of times we have had sex. Second, we judge on the attractiveness of the girls that the person we are judging has had sex with, and it often leads the flipping through of the girl's Facebook photos. Thirdly, we are judged based on the popularity of the girl that has had sex with a particular guy.

Through those three criteria, we determine the status as well as popularity of the guy in our social group. Sex plays a huge social dynamic in our teenage years, and to be frank, it often affects us in our choices of dates as well as relationships with girls.

When we choose a date, one of the first things we consider is what our friend group will think of her and the previous comments that have been said about her. At times, we will often refuse a girl's offer for a date or a dance based on these opinions.

Furthermore, when we actually do date someone who is not highly regarded in the our friendship groups, we often choose to keep it quiet as we are afraid of a social embarrassment. Sex plays way too big of a role in the social dynamics of teenagers. However, it isn't something that I can see will change anytime soon.

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