Boys and virginity?

I recently had a conversation with my boyfriend about the start of our relationship; he was the first person with whom I had sex with. Although I never thought sex was a very big deal, he seemed to think that me, being a "virgin", was such a huge deal because he claimed that his last girlfriend and the girls that he knew "were all whores" for having multiple sexual partners and losing their virginities younger than myself. He also told a number of his friend that I was  a virgin, and he recounted how one of his friends "went into shock, and thought that it was crazy". Im only 19. The point that I'm tying to make is, has anyone dealt with somthing similar to this? Is virginity really that big a deal to men/boys?