‘American Pie’ Sexually Awoke a Generation

Being from a generation that bridged the gap between a pre and post-internet world, I feel like things like porn and sex were still a wild concept. Those with internet access weren’t gaining too much traction in their sex-ed lessons compared to those of us who just had to depend on a late night with Cinemax because back in 1999, the internet was basically as bare-bones as a Kmart that’s still somehow standing today. However, there was one movie all of us sort of latched onto as our hormones started to kick in and that was ‘American Pie.’ 

Looking back, there was a lot, A LOT, in ‘American Pie’ that went right over my head as an innocent, nerdy, no-boy-ever-thought-of-me-that-way 12-year-old. The whole going down on a girl…what even was that? The only thing I really understood was the whole let’s fuck before we graduate thing because the basics of sex were pretty much all I had wrapped my head around by that time thanks to movies my mom let me watch like ‘Pretty Woman’ and ‘Dirty Dancing.’ 

While I was probably the least sexually aware in my class at the time, I’m 100% sure that teens and tweens around the country were all sexually awakened by this movie as it introduced us to a myriad of sexual notions that perhaps we weren’t aware of before popping this VHS in after we somehow talked our parents into letting us rent it from Blockbuster for a Friday night slumber party, convincing them it was just another run of the mill teen movie like ‘She’s All That’ and ‘Clueless.’ 

Of course, it was far from the simple minute makeover plots of those teenage romcoms, instead, it put four dudes at the center of the action while they, well, did anything they could to get action of their own before graduating and saying adios. I wonder how many people my age went on to think that leaving high school a virgin would deem them a fucking loser? If that’s the case…I was the biggest loser of them all! 

However, despite their bet and how it made us feel at an age where sex was on our mind thanks to hormonal overloads, ‘American Pie’ was an instant classic that I feel was able to stand the test of time when it comes to teen movies. The various sequels…well, not so much. We didn’t need to see anything after graduation, but if you enjoyed them – to each their own.