When I was in my early teens, there were girls I wanted for a girlfriend, and “going steady” was what most of us did. though I had no sexual desire. Things like sex were talked about in private but not actively pursued I don’t think. We were still too shy, in many cases, for even the first kiss. Being accepted, going steady was enough.

Or, that’s what I felt at the time.

By the time I was 14, many guys (especially the rough, thuggish types) were talking and bragging about active. lurid sex. Parts were mentioned in crude, demeaning words.
Even in my late teens, however, I don’t think it was normal for average adolescents to be in a sexual relationship—though I think after the mid teens, some were indeed sexually experienced and many more desired it as something for the future – maybe wanted it but one or both held back, saving it for marriage.

I am just curious about how normal I was, and what the expectations of the girlfriends really were. Like many, I had about four or five “going steady” relationships from age 13 through 18.

Helpful answers might include YOUR memories or expectations or those of others you know. I myself just remember sex as being something reserved for the future, when I was a teenager. But I might have just grown up in a more puritanical environment than many.