Jerry Holkins of Penny Arcade once wrote, "The urge to create stable frameworks and legitimize our fantasies, to make them internally consistent an therefore more real is something we’ve poked at before. I can’t resist it. I always feel the strong compulsion to build upon whatever I enjoy, to understand it better." It's in that spirit that fans of any given series, story, or other creative work will discuss, debate, and dream about various aspects of the subject of their shared enjoyment.
That's also the reason behind this blog post. Recently, on another thread on this wiki, a question was raised about possible issues with the members of the mixed-gender Team JNPR all sharing a single living space. While not explicitly stated as such, the question broached the larger topic of the sexual culture - that is, the attitudes and practices with regards to sex - among the students, as well as the faculty, at Beacon Academy.
Finding the topic interesting, I posted some thoughts on the subject in a series of posts on the aforementioned thread. These were largely my own guesses on the issue (something discussed further below), back up where necessary by external citations to support my reasoning. In the end, I was able to come to several conclusions that I felt were entirely within the realm of possibility, and perhaps even likelihood, given what we know about RWBY.
The responses to my analysis were largely mixed. While I did receive several comments of approbation, several posters objected to what I had written. Oddly, this was more often about my choice of vocabulary than with regard to the subject that I had broached. What few posts did critique my analysis were debated without hostility, though also without any sort of resolution. (At least once poster also questioned whether the topic fell within the thematic purview of the thread itself, though I believe that - as mentioned above - it was a logical extension of the thread's main idea.)
As the thread's activity wound down, however, I found that I had some additional thoughts on the topic that I wanted to express. Further, a re-examination of some of my original points showed a few areas that I thought could use further explanation, as well as a general restructuring of the points that I presented.
Given that the issue had been raised of how large the thread had already become, I have elected to instead post a revised and expanded version of my analysis here. It is my hope that this will both solve any issues of appropriateness regarding where this discussion happens, as well as allowing future readers to more easily locate this topic without having to search various discussion threads.
For those who, like Holkins, feel a strong compulsion to better understand - and thus better enjoy - their fictitious worlds, it is my hope that this treatise helps you do just that.
Critical Analysis[]
Disclaimer in the First[]
One of the more common critiques leveled at this analysis was that it was ultimately without purpose. After all, wondered the dectractors, given that this subject will almost certainly not be dealt with in the series itself - and any attempt to use this analysis to motivate the series' creators to do so will surely meet with failure - why bother with this?
Such questions, I feel, miss the point entirely. While the RWBY series certainly could validate or invalidate any particular aspect of this work, I maintain no expectation that it will do so. Likewise, I have no expectations that the show's creators will ever read what's here, let alone be motivated by it to the point of having the series address these issues.
Rather, the point of this writing is, as noted above, that such analysis is enjoyable unto itself. Rather than stating presumptions for what RWBY will address, or attempting to act as a vehicle to effect change, this writing (and any subsequent discussion) are an end unto themselves. Discussion and debate - with fellow fans over a shared topic of enjoyment - are their own rewards.
Disclaimer in the Second[]
Before engaging in the analysis proper, it must be restated that what's here is not meant to be a definitive statement of how things are with regards to student life at Beacon (or anything else, for that matter) within the context of RWBY. This cannot be overstated.
Instead, the points made below are the product of abductive reasoning; that is to say, these are (educated) guesses. Where possible, I have attempted to explain my reasoning, including linking to external materials that support my assertions (though I apologize in advance for those that are behind a paywall - there's little I can do about that). However, I make no guarantee that the conclusions reached are definitive, though I like to think that they may be considered probable.
Likelihood of Student Sexual Activity[]
Because this work focuses on a particular aspect of life for characters within a fictitious setting - and thus lacks any presumptions regarding contemporary Earth culture - we're best served by gathering data directly from the series itself; the usefulness of real-world data is thusly limited to issues that are independent of cultural consideration (or, at the very least, are shown to be largely consistent across areas of cultural influence).
As such, there's little that can be done to directly or indirectly approximate what percentage of the Beacon student body is sexually active. Instead, we can look at some wider points regarding biology and psychology so as to make some broad generalizations.
Ruby notwithstanding, the age of freshmen enrolling at Beacon is seventeen years old. Notwithstanding criticisms of causation versus correlation in regards to brain imaging, current studies indicate that while the late teens is when the hypothalamus and front lobe of the cerebral cortex (the areas responsible for self-control, risk analysis, and delayed gratification, among other things) finish most of their complex development, full development does not finish until around age twenty-five. Ergo, the students aren't going to have the same levels of maturity regarding sex that an adult will.
Further, the students at Beacon engage in life-or-death battles on at least a semi-routine basis, such as the initiation exam in the Forever Fall forest, an unexpected encounter with a creature of Grimm while collecting red sap in the aforementioned forest, and even facing a Grimm creature in the Grimm Studies class. This is notable, because fear is likely to cause misattribution of arousal, encouraging greater sexual tension between students. While habituation may cause this stimulus to fade after repeated exposure, that still requires repeated exposure that can have strong initial results, for an indeterminate length of time.
Given these, we can affirm that the student body at Beacon is likely to be strongly disposed towards engaging in sexual activity, even if we can't say to what degree.
Sex Education[]
We can also guess that students entering Beacon have had very little sex education prior to their enrollment. This is significant because sex education has has been found to reduce sexual intercourse in teenagers versus not having received such education.
The line of reasoning here is thus: we can presume that a school devoted to combat (such as Sanctum or Signal) would de-emphasize non-martial areas of education. This is because, even taking into account their use of aura powers and abilities, the graduates of combat schools have a remarkable degree of combat prowess (as demonstrated in the fifth through eighth episodes). A comparison to Olympic athletes is probably the most apt parallel, and Olympic athletes have heavy training regimens. Ergo, this leaves little time for formal education in other areas (while exercise does increase learning ability in people, this is little help if no further education is offered).
While anecdotal, the analogy is further notable in that the Olympic Village for the Games is a hotbed of sex.
Given that, how likely is it that Beacon will provide a sex education class for its students? Sadly, the results are not promising. While we don't know the curriculum at Beacon, we have seen several classes so far, those being a history class (taught by Professor Oobleck), a Grimm Studies class (taught by Professor Port), and a class about gathering red sap, in what seemed to be some sort of survival training (taught by Professor Peach, with assistance from Glinda Goodwitch). This is enough information to let us treat the question of a sex education class as a Fermi problem.
There are two classes here that focus on the practical aspects of combat/survival, and one class that focuses on dispensing information with a wider background of applicability. If we apply the Copernican principle to this, we can generalize this as being the ratio of such classes taught at Beacon; that is, that Beacon's curriculum is two-thirds combat/survival classes, and one-third classes that impart knowledge without a martial focus.
However, further analysis is required, as not all sex education classes are equal. Generally speaking, sex education can be divided into those that are comprehensive (teaching facts about sex, sexuality, contraception, STDs, and other sexual knowledge) and abstinence-only sex education, which exclude teaching sexual knowledge and focus only on impressing students to abstain from sex. It's worth noting that there's no evidence suggesting that trying to convince teenagers to remain abstinent voluntarily has been effective.
Given that we don't know anything about Vale's political or ideological status with regards to such questions, there's little we can do to approximate which of these two types of courses is more likely in a hypothetical sex education class offered at Beacon. Ergo, the best we can do is split the difference.
In other words, there's only a 33% chance that Beacon offers a sex education course, and if it does there's still only a 50/50 chance that it's comprehensive. That means there's only a one-in-six chance that the student body is receiving a sexual education that is likely to decrease the rate of unprotected sex. (I noted in my original writing on this topic that there was no way to know Beacon's policy regarding handing out condoms to students, something which was unhelpful on my part, as that lack of knowledge is only with regards to deductive reasoning, which is a higher bar than I've set for myself here. As such, for the sake of simplicity, I'm presuming here that Beacon wouldn't have such a policy unless it also offered a comprehensive sex education course.)
Sexually-Transmitted Consequences[]
Given that there's grounds to suggest that a not-insignificant number of the students at Beacon are having sex, but are not likely to be doing so safely, the consequences, in terms of sexually-transmitted diseases and unplanned pregnancies, are probably not overly rare.
Again, there's no way to approximate the rate at which these happen. While my original treatise in the thread linked to above did reference the rates of STDs in adolescents in the United States, I've elected not to repost that link here, as it has no real value in approximating the rates of sexually-transmitted infections or unplanned pregnancies among the Beacon student body. Whatever those rates are, however, they're likely higher than they are among the general population of Vale, for the aforementioned reasons.
Sexual Violence and Predation[]
A silver lining in this analysis is that instances of sexual violence (in terms of females being assaulted by males) are likely lower at Beacon than among the general population, thanks to the women all having intensive training in defending themselves. Even considering that the male population has similar combat training, this is likely to considerably lessen the number of sexual assaults - both attempted and successful - against Beacon's female students.
Of course, every silver lining has a cloud; in this case, it's that combat training offers little help against sexual coercion, as opposed to violent sexual assault (with a possible exception). In these cases, women are best able to protect themselves via a strong sense of assertiveness (which is likely to be helped by having highly-developed combat techniques - though this is a generalization, rather than a rule, e.g. Velvet Scarlatina) and a low degree of alcohol consumption. (We can presume a low-to-nonexistent degree of alcohol consumption due to having seen the students engaged in recreation several times, including once during a meal, without having seen any indications that alcohol was present, though there's no way to tell if this is a policy of Beacon's, if the students are considered underage, if alcohol is illegal in Vale, or some other reason.)
I must reiterate here that I am not trying to suggest that women who lack assertiveness, or become intoxicated, are at all to blame for being coerced into an unwanted sexual encounter. Rather, that the above research notes a high degree of correlation between assertiveness/intoxication and instances of sexual coercion.
In Summary[]
Overall, the above points paint a decidedly mixed picture with regards to the sexual culture among the students attending Beacon. There's likely a considerable, if not preponderant, amount of sexual activity between students. On the plus side, a high - possibly markedly high - amount of it will be mutually consensual; women being coerced into sex will be very uncommon, and forcible rape will be even rarer.
The flipside, however, is that most students won't be having sex safely. As such, sexually-transmitted diseases and unplanned pregnancies will not only not be unknown, but will happen with some degree of regularity.
In short, Beacon is a place that keeps its students safe from sexual assault, but doesn't protect them from making poor sexual decisions.