The unofficial @xuvirgins club is helping its members stay the righteous path

By Griffin Brammer, staff writer

For the past couple of months, one group has taken college campuses by storm.  As of late last month, Xavier is now home to its very own unofficial virginity club via Instagram, joining a symphony of college campuses.

The phenomenon has spread among colleges across America quicker than COVID-19. Several Ohio universities, like Ohio State, Case Western and the University of Cincinnati, have started their own virginity clubs.

The ‘clubs’ are student-run and are always sure to clarify in their bios that they are not affiliated with their respective university. 

Instead of holding meetings, the groups post satirical content aimed to look like official university-affiliated club announcements, boasting the importance of virginity and tips to keep your celibacy.

Xavier’s virginity club (@xuvirgins on Instagram) started the club’s page themselves after being inspired by the other colleges’ virginity clubs. 

“To be completely honest with you, I saw that another college made a similar page, and I found it pretty funny so I said, ‘Why not?”’ one of the page’s owners, stated.

Anonymity, as it turns out, is a big part of these pages’ success. The owner expressed that the point of these pages is to look like any other campus-run club, explaining, “As you can see from the outline of the posts and the way they are set up, it looks really official.”

The current number of contributors to Xavier’s virginity club is unknown. 

“The amount of people working on this will remain discrete,” the account owner said. “But, I will say we have some creative people in this school, and in fact, one of our creators is celibate.”

Among the page’s first followers was Mason Hofrichter, a first-year nursing major. 

“I followed them to show my support,” Hofrichter continued.  

“In college, a lot of people think that sex is a positive outlet for stress when, in fact, it’s not, and I believe you should save yourself for that special someone,” said Hofrichter. He later assured his allegiance to the club by jokingly stating, “Anyone I bring in my room past 10 p.m., I’m playing checkers with.”

As of Monday, Feb. 15,  @xuvirgins celebrated their 100th follower milestone, posting a pastel-colored gif stating the page had reached “100 virgins,” and thanking their fellow students for their support.

“My goal for the page is for it to get so popular that kids look at it and go: ‘No way this is real’ and can have a laugh sort of thinking it’s real,” the owner explained. “It’s kind of like a meme.”

However, popularity isn’t the owner’s only goal for the account. 

“Xavier is a stressful environment for a lot of people… For me, it can get extremely stressful. I guess this is just my way of trying to make people in my situation feel better,” they said. “I think (the page) is a great way for students to get a laugh out of something.”

So while some may not think ‘best majors for virgins’ or ‘best celibacy spots on campus’ to have an altruistic message behind it, the mysterious owner wants to remind us all to take a moment, relax and laugh. 

“Everything we do today in our lives is so serious and strenuous on our mental health that it’s good to laugh for a while, possibly even at ourselves,” they said.