At Bella’s Hacienda Ranch, a brothel on the outskirts of the rural Nevada truckstop town of Wells, a half-priced special for adult male virgins this May has gone off with a bang.
What may seem like a publicity stunt has compassion behind it. May is Mental Health Awareness Month in the US, and the brothel’s 74-year-old namesake owner and operator, Madam Bella Cummins, wants to raise awareness of what she describes as a “virginity epidemic”. She blames digital platforms supplanting young people’s in-person, “IRL” experiences, leading to stunted social development. Brothels, she argues, offer a safe space to work through resulting feelings of anxiety, shame and isolation.
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There is evidence that adult virginity and sexual inexperience are on the rise in the US, Canada and other western countries, according to Marie-Aude Boislard, director of the Canada Research Chair in developmental sexology. Approximately 15% of individuals born in the 1990s are virgins in their early 20s, the highest rate of sexual inactivity since 1985. Many report “difficult emotions” and interpersonal struggles due to social stigma, the dearth of visibility of sexual inexperience in adulthood and a lack of intimacy.
Wasn’t sure if I should share this or not, but I wrestled with it in my head for like five minutes and here we are.
My buddy has been in so many lopsided relationships. Like dating moms who are still married and he’s just the side piece. Or dating a foreign girl who visits him in the US, but refuses to leave her marriage in Spain.
We went on vacation together. My wife, kids, and my buddy. And after a lot of consideration, explored the red light district and fooled around with the sex workers.
I don’t know what happened fully. But after our trip, he had this fire in his eyes… He shared how he opened up the workers and how my wife & I’s normal vacation squabble made him realize his prior relationships weren’t healthy. And he’s committing himself to finding a real relationship.
I suppose the moral of the story is that there are many paths to enlightenment and, if it works for someone (and no-one else is harmed by it) then that’s the important thing.