Puriteen is a portmanteau of puritan and teenager used to describe a teenager or young adult whose views on sexuality are seen as sex-negative or moralistic. While the term's original creation is unknown, it began seeing use on Twitter in March 2021. It is frequently used, as noted by Rolling Stone, in reference to individuals who are "well-versed in the language of identity and sexual politics", but are highly critical of those who do not meet their personal standards, particularly in regard to their opposition to sexual content. This has resulted in two separate discussions of what the term represents, with one topic focusing on the idea of "moral purity" against perceived inappropriate relationships in both real life and fictional representations, and the other topic being on the claimed lower amount of sexual activity and sexual relationships among those in Generation Z.
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