[quote=@POOHEAD189]
Men, women, black, white, we're all people.

<Snipped quote by Dagger>

Interesting. I don't know if I've noticed that but its good to take note of. On the flip side, men do make a lot of women less than experienced which frankly, is just stupid. Of course it can be written well, but I never understood the 'purity' trope as a prerequisite for a goodly woman protag.
[/quote]

A lot of it has to do with religion. A notable example was the push by Evangelicals only 30 or so years ago for "purity pledges" and abstinence from sex before marriage so that they remained pure and a good Christian in the eyes of God and/or Christ. Other than that, [@Andreyich] basically summarized it for me a few posts above.