What's on TV? Sex. What else? Nothing.

I really feel this way sometimes. The feeling is only more pronounced when I am watching TV with my parents or younger siblings - especially with my younger siblings. I wish that problem was restricted to stuff on cable that is free to be explicit, but even public television is plagued by an overuse of sexual references. For example, one night I'm chilling with my younger sister who is 8 years old. I think she is pretty mature. She goes to some elementary school for gifted children or something, and honestly, I think she is more able-minded than some of the people I have met at college. I'm browsing the channels, and I settle on ABC Family because I think the name of the channel will reflect its content. Apparently not, because it is sexy time on Pretty Little Liars and people are taking their clothes off. I steal a glance at my sister, who, like on cue, picks up the iPad and starts pushing buttons on it. I know her act of disinterest might not be genuine and maybe she just feels uncomfortable watching that kind of material with me, but I feel the same way. I switch to Disney Channel for the rest of the night. But there were a few times even on that channel that I felt my fingers inch towards the remote. I looked up ABC Family later, and apparently, they have shifted from pre-teen to older female teen audience now. They have shows like Gilmore Girls and Secret Life of the American Teenager on it now. At this point I feel like the only thing I can watch comfortably with my sister is PBS Kids, which really bothers me because some of those shows are for toddlers.

I feel this way with my parents too. It would be totally awesome to watch Game of Thrones or House of Cards with my parents but even when I am watching it myself, I am constantly questioning the use of nudity. Never before have I seen such gratuitous useless nudity. Well, that is what I thought until I watched Wolf of Wall Street, which is just ridiculous. So ridiculous that I thought it was crazy that people thought DiCaprio could win an Oscar for that meat showcase.

But what is important about this is am I supposed to feel this way? I know my sentiments are not unique, because of videos like the one I posted above. Awkwardness is actually seen as normal when watching sex scenes with family members. But is the alternative better? Should I really enjoy watching that with my parents? I know there are some people that do, but I have to cringe really hard in order to imagine me being in that position. The reading "Television, Sex, and Parental Meditation," discusses the how parental mediation through restriction seemed to lower the rate of sexual engagement through "reduced likelihood that a child had engaged in either oral or vaginal intercourse." Also, it seems parental mediation seems to negatively affect perceptions about sex, "leading to increased expectations that sexual intercourse would lead to negative health consequences." Personally, I think the reason this occurs is probably because parental supervision is negatively associated with sexual exploration. The media already portrays sex has something to be desired, so our parents play the alternate side, either limiting or warning us against it. I think in order for the alternative to be true, the parents would have to almost be promoting of sexual learning for their children. That way parental mediation might actually increase the rate of sexual engagement and make people think more positively about sex. But is that really the conclusion we want?



Fisher, D. A., Hill, D. L., Grube, J. W., Bersamin, M. M., Walker, S., & Gruber, E. L.
(2009). Televised sexual content and parental mediation: Influences on adolescent
sexuality. Media Psychology, 12(2), 121-147. doi: 10.1080/15213260902849901