If you’re watching this season of The Bachelor, you’ve learned by now that leading man Colton Underwood is a 26-year-old virgin.
The former NFL player’s virginity is a focal point of Season 23, with ABC using his sexual inexperience as a major storyline. Before the series kicked off on Jan. 7, the network’s promo material included multiple references to his status as a virgin, and even the tag line, “What does he have to lose?”
So far, a few episodes in, Underwood’s virginity has been brought up on group dates and one-on-one dates, at cocktail parties and in conversation with host Chris Harrison. In other words, it’s been talked about a lot.
So why are people making a big deal out of Underwood’s lack of sexual experience? According to Laura M. Carpenter, a sociology professor at Vanderbilt University and author of Virginity Lost: An Intimate Portrait of First Sexual Experiences, Underwood’s chastity is “unusual,” and Bachelor producers know that.
“He’s conventionally handsome, he’s an athlete, he’s all these things that signal masculinity, and in our culture, another signal of masculinity is someone with great sexual prowess,” Carpenter said to Global News.
On The Bachelor, where a group of strangers compete for the affection of one person, sexual attraction is the driving force of the show. Watching a virgin bachelor navigate romance is new, and it’s a trait that makes Underwood unique.
“Because we see male virginity as especially strange, or more unusual than female virginity, [Underwood’s virginity] becomes a story,” Carpenter explained. “It’s a story in part because of the kind of guy that he is.”