Yes you can. It's complicated, but it all comes down to this: I have social phobia. I was working on it for a couple years and then my father died when I was 20. That "messed me up" [so to speak] for a long time...the grief overpowered everything else. I was going to college at the time, but I made almost no effort to socialize or "put myself out there" because I was so miserable and grieving. When you give off an air that you're unapproachable, people are going to steer clear, you know what I mean? I didn't live at school, or on my own, so I never went out on the weekends. The past year or so I have really been regretting a lot and it makes me sad that I didn't try to have any fun during those years. (I am almost 30 now). I do remember around that time, maybe 23-24, I was [actually] at a bar a few times and a guy wanted to buy me a drink. I was so embarrassed that I just kept saying "no thanks" and he eventually went on his way. You see what I mean? When you're obsessed with not wanting to attract attention, or you genuinely don't like yourself—it obscures the reality that someone actually likes you or just wants to be friendly.

If you spend your life avoiding people and if you don't love yourself, you cannot open yourself up to the possibility of loving someone else and them finding you attractive. I know I cannot have sex with someone I do not love and care about, so that's why I haven't yet. I personally have never been made fun of for being a virgin, but I hear a lot of people (in person, TV, movies "The 40 Year-old Virgin", etc.) who talk about it and think there's really something psychologically wrong with someone who still is one, and they're in their 20s, 30s, 40s and older. I remember telling one friend (within the past year) that I had never been with anyone, and she seemed very surprised. So that made my self esteem go up a little, haha.
It just frightens me that when I think about finally taking that step and begin dating someone, that they're going to think I'm a freak or defective, emotionally "stunted" so to speak. But it is what it is, I'm not going to lie about it.