Premarital sex in the context of "Married"

Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and between them and their in-laws. It is nearly a cultural universal, but the definition of marriage varies between cultures and religions, and over time. Typically, it is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually sexual, are acknowledged or sanctioned. In some cultures, marriage is recommended or considered to be compulsory before pursuing sexual activity. A marriage ceremony is called a wedding, while a private marriage is sometimes called an elopement.

Around the world, there has been a general trend towards ensuring equal rights for women and ending discrimination and harassment against couples who are interethnic, interracial, interfaith, interdenominational, interclass, intercommunity, transnational, and same-sex as well as immigrant couples, couples with an immigrant spouse, and other minority couples. Debates persist regarding the legal status of married women, leniency towards violence within marriage, customs such as dowry and bride price, marriageable age, and criminalization of premarital and extramarital sex. Individuals may marry for several reasons, including legal, social, libidinal, emotional, financial, spiritual, cultural, economic, political, religious, sexual, and romantic purposes. In some areas of the world, arranged marriage, forced marriage, polygyny marriage, polyandry marriage, group marriage, coverture marriage, child marriage, cousin marriage, sibling marriage, teenage marriage, avunculate marriage, incestuous marriage, and bestiality marriage are practiced and legally permissible, while others areas outlaw them to protect human rights. Female age at marriage has proven to be a strong indicator for female autonomy and is continuously used by economic history research.

A born-again virgin (also known as a secondary virgin) is a person who, after having engaged in sexual intercourse, makes some type of commitment not to be sexually active again. Often, this commitment is intended to last until the adherent enters a marriage. It can more broadly refer to any kind of re-identification as a virgin, for whatever reason, and however virginity is defined.

The concept has been taught in abstinence-only sex education courses, and more commonly used among evangelical and fundamentalist Christians, who place a strong emphasis on abstinence from premarital and extramarital relations. Christian organizations such as True Love Waits or Silver Ring Thing have promoted versions that also encouraged born-again virgins to make a virginity pledge, in the form of a "written, web-based, or public ceremonial declaration".

A shotgun wedding is a wedding arranged in response to pregnancy resulting from premarital sex. The phrase comes from the figurative imagining that the relatives of the pregnant bride threaten the reluctant male groom with a shotgun in order to ensure that he marries the woman.

Extramarital sex is sexual activity in which at least one sex partner is a married person and the partners are not married to each other. The term may be distinguished from premarital sex where neither partner is married.

Where extramarital sex does not breach a sexual norm, it may be referred to as consensual non-monogamy (see also polyamory). Where extramarital sex does breach a sexual norm, it may be referred to as adultery or non-monogamy (sexual acts between a married person and a person other than the legal spouse), fornication, bigamy, philandering, or infidelity. These varying terms imply both immoral or religious consequences, charged whether via civil law or religious law.

The sexual revolution, also known as the sexual liberation, was a social movement that challenged traditional codes of behavior related to sexuality and interpersonal relationships throughout the Western world from the late 1950s to the early 1970s. Sexual liberation included increased acceptance of sexual intercourse outside of traditional heterosexual, monogamous relationships, primarily marriage. The legalization of "the pill" as well as other forms of contraception, public nudity, pornography, premarital sex, homosexuality, masturbation, alternative forms of sexuality, and abortion all followed.

The term "first sexual revolution" is used by scholars to describe different periods of significant change in Western sexual norms, including the Christianization of Roman sexuality, the decline of Victorian morals, and the cultural shifts of the Roaring Twenties. Sexual revolution most commonly refers to the mid-20th century, when advances in contraception, medicine, and social movements led to widespread changes in attitudes and behaviors around sex. The sexual revolution was influenced by Freud's theory of unconscious drives and psychosexual development, Mead's ethnographic work on adolescent sexuality in Samoa, Unwin’s cross-cultural studies, and the research of Kinsey and later Masters and Johnson, all of which challenged traditional beliefs about human sexuality.