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 sexualcontent and parental mediation: Influences on adolescent
sexuality.Media Psychology,12(2), 121-147. doi: 10.1080/15213260902849901
Is everyone benefitting equally from the Information Age? Probably not. A common belief exists that younger people absorb and consume more media than their older peers and while the idea may be a stretch, maybe this difference is contributing to the bipartisan issues that we see as "liberal vs conservative and Generation X vs Generation Y. Maybe those spoiled and lazy millenials are just watching more TV. The consumption of media makes up such a large chunk of young people's lives now, with about 6 to 9 hours of each day devoted to some sort of mass media (Roberts, 2000). With such a disparity in media use, of course a divide will exist in the two groups' ideals. But maybe this disparity is causing more than just differing ideals. When I saw how ignorance about AIDS still existed among older people, I thought that maybe the sexual health campaigns should shift their focus to encompass a larger audience.
For example, in this video, the series "What Would You Do," sets up a scenario where an actor plays a teen that is HIV-positive and another actor publicly expresses disgust by complaining that he doesn't want to catch HIV from him and moves away. Most people ignore the commotion and simply observe the situation. However, in one instance, a man sitting next to the actor pretending to be disgusted agrees that there is some logic in moving away because if the HIV actor sneezed in his coffee he could catch it. On another occasion shown, some older men sitting down come to the support of the HIV actor, saying that unless you made out with him, then you should not be worried about it. While I was happy that they came to the support of the HIV actor, what they said actually was not true either because HIV transfer through salivia exchange is impossible.
As seen in Collins's study, media can be an effective way to spread knowledge about sexual health, but there needs to be more or more salient messages extending outside of trendy shows or trendy media programs on the internet. I think this is more important than ever right now because our media is very agenda-based. Fads like in fashion exist for the media, and right now it is not on AIDS. Ten years ago it was AIDS and now it is cancer. If somehow I were to be infected with HIV, I know for sure that there are people in my life that would be scared and wary of catching it from me.
Collins,R.L.,Elliott,M.N.,Berry,S.H.,Kanouse,D.E.,&Hunter,S.B. (2003).
Entertainmenttelevisionas a healthy sex educator: The impact of condom-efficacy
information inan episode of Friends. Pediatrics, 112(5), 1115-1121. doi:
10.1542/peds.112.5.1115
Roberts DF. Media and youth: access, exposure, and privatization. J
I think we talked about a really important topic a couple classes ago in regards to rape and rape victims. It’s important to be cautious when dealing with rape victims and being aware of their feelings and wants when it comes to reporting rape cases. This is something relevant to the recently exploded story in regards to Bill Cosby and his past rape allegations. Cosby has been accused of drugging and then rapping many different women. Several were aspiring actors and The stories didn’t make big news until a fellow male comedian, Hannibal Buress, mentioned the several rape allegations Cosby has against him. Before this blow-up some of the claims were mentioned, however, none of the claims received charges. Until now, these stories haven’t received much attention in the media. They were swept under the rug.
A lot of what Cosby did was shrugged off for reasons that are unknown. Was it because he was a major father-figure in America and a celebrity and someone that no one wanted to believe was a rapist? Why was it deemed almost acceptable for Cosby to rape these women with no repercussions?
This idea is transferrable to the topic of cads and dads in Taylor’s article. I think it’s pretty clear the Cosby is a dad figure. He was the root of many life lessons for families all over the country that tuned into the Cosby Show. So how can Cosby go from being a dad to a cad so dramatically in the media? Is it possible to be both in this case, being a public dad figure and a private cad figure?
Also, sexual health is discussed in Hust, Brown and L’Engle’s article. They discuss how the old theory of modeling from Albert Bandura is relevant to sexual behaviors as seen int he media. Because of this, can we understand Cosby’s sexual behaviors to be traced back to media content that showed violence? It’s something to look into for further research.
Focusing on the women, how did they become the targets for Cosby. Well, for one they were younger than him, which probably made them more attractive. Second they were inferior to Cosby (being a successful older male actor), making it easy for him to obtain them and take advantage of them. It’s sad this these stories were untold for so long, and no one should have to go through such physical and mental stress over years and years. Some people have argued over Jezebel and other social media sources claiming these women should have come clean sooner and almost blames them for not doing so. What do you guys think about this whole thing? How should it be handled in the future with these kinds of situations?
Hust, S., Brown, J., L’Engle, K. (2008). "Boys will Be Boys and Girls Better Be Prepared: An Analysis of the Rare Sexual Health Messages in Young Adolescents’ Media."
Taylor, L. D. (2008). "Cads, dads, and magazines: Women's sexual preferences and articles."
Returning to an old favorite of mine for my final blog post, the ever popular Gossip Girl. Although the show is no longer on air I want to bring it into discussion for a few reasons. #1 it is still on the Netflix most watched TV shows. #2 A young teenage girl (12) in my family asked her mom for the box set of DVDs for a holiday gift. The second it what inspired me to write the following post.
Gossip Girl originated as an American teen drama book series written by Cecily
von Ziegesar. The series includes twelve books, along with a prequel and a successful spin-off book. The first
novel, Gossip Girl, was released
in April 2002 and the series quickly climbed to the top of The New York Times Best-Seller list. The series
revolves around the lives of privileged young adults in New York City’s Upper East Side. Their lives consist of cruel scandals, underage
drinking, illegal drug use and explicit sex, which are
dished out daily by the anonymous Gossip Girl through text messages and Web
postings.
In 2007 this incredibly popular series was adapted
for television. The CW, which airs the
program, claims the show is targeted for an audience
between 18-34 Also, Gossip Girl is rated TV-14, which means that it is recommended to people 14 and older. Therefore,
it is reasonable to assume that thousands of young teenagers are watching the
show.The first
season of the show stayed reasonably true to the books expect for some casting decisions, which changed
the looks of some of the main characters. However, as the show continued it began to
stray further and further from the books and increased the scandalous behavior
to keep audiences’ attention.
The show is sensationalizing and glamorizing all aspects of
rebellious teenage behavior, which is having a profound effect particularly on
its young impressionable teenage viewers.
Problems
occur when teenagers begin seeing Serena van der Woodsen and Blair Waldorf, the two main
characters of Gossip Girl, as their
role models. Television shows often make their characters seem
like the ideal high school girls. Some real life teenagers begin emulating them
to the point that they want to be their exact likeness.
All
of the women cast members of Gossip Girl
fit in the high fashion genre of extra tall and ultra thin.As a result an increasing
number of young girls and even young boys are starving themselves in an effort
to gain a fashionable look. Conceptions of ideal
appearance depend strongly on images in the media.
Ed Richards said, “Many studies have concluded
that the media's exaltation of female
thinness, both through the use of
thin women to set the standard of beauty and through constant propaganda in
favor of losing weight, is responsible in part for
the current epidemic of eating disorders,
including anorexia and bulimia” (Richard, 2011).
This lead me to consider the results Aubrey and Taylor’s article concluded that men who saw a photo of a woman alone were more self conscious than those who didn’t (Aubrey 2009). Although our first response may be for the concern of young women watching, young men are also at risk. A show featuring successful, gorgeous young women replicate this effect causing men to feel inadequate.
Gossip Girl contains heavy doses of sexual content, ranging from touching, kissing, jokes, and innuendo to conversations about sexual
activity and portrayals of intercourse and even a threesome. The tenth episode of the third season caused significant controversy. Parent groups urged the CW
not to air the episode that contained a sexual threesome. However the network went on to air the episode despite the complaints. Sex on the show is often presented as a casual
activity without risk or consequences. Teens who watch a lot of television with
sexual content are more likely to initiate intercourse in the following year (Rand, 2004).
This made me think of Chia's study, “How Media Contribute to Misperceptions of Social Norms About Sex” which found that, “students tend to overestimate the sexual permissiveness of their peers students,” and that “students form erroneous impressions of peers partly according to their estimates of media influence on peers and their own attitudes (Chia 2006). With a show featuring high school to college age students it would be easy to see how Gossip Girl could be perpetuating the idea that sex is extremely pre levant, even more so than in reality.
The RAND Corporation did a
study that examined this issue. Analysts surveyed a
national sample of households containing an adolescent from 12 to 17 years old. A total of 1,762
adolescents were asked about their sexual experiences and also their television
viewing habits and, one year later, were surveyed again.
The researchers measured
levels of exposure to sexual content on television. The results showed that heavy exposure to sexual
content on television related strongly to teens’
initiation of intercourse. Teenagers who viewed the
greatest amounts of sexual content were two times more likely than those who
viewed the smallest amount to initiate sexual intercourse during the following
year or to progress to more-advanced levels of other
sexual activity (Rand, 2004).
It
is probable that this notorious television show is having a profound effect on
its younger and impressionable viewers.
The mildly rebellious books have morphed into a television series that
glorifies or justifies everything from murder to threesomes. The evidence clearly shows that what teenagers see on
television can have a measurable effect on how they act in real life. In the ever-increasing
thirst for higher ratings there has been an overpowering and intentional drive for
ever growing shock value in all aspects of teen life. As this show continues to
glamorize aberrant behavior, teenagers will continue to be at risk of this
negative influence that was not the original intention of the books.
Bibliography
Aubrey, J. S., & Taylor, L. D. (2009). The Role of Lad Magazines in Priming Men’s
Chia, S. C., & Gunther, A. C. (2006). How media contribute to misperceptions of social norms about sex. Mass Communication & Society, 9(3), 301-320.
Rand Health. "Does Watching Sex on
Television Influence Teens' Sexual Activity?"Www.rand.org. 29 Oct. 2004. Web.
Richard, Ed. "One Real Cause of Our
Trouble."
Www.themoorings.org. 13 July 2011.Web.
That time of the year is upon us, yes ladies and gentleman I
am talking about the annual Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show. This show has gained
immense popularity within the past few years as dozens of drop-dead gorgeous "Angels" float down the runway in their skivvies to show off the seasons’ hottest
lingerie trends.
This event isn’t just about promoting the sales of Victoria’s Secret lingerie, it has become a nation-wide phenomenon. Both males and females gather
to watch the show and gawk at the perfectly toned, tanned, oiled, bodies of
these women. The show has gotten so
popular that it even includes performances by major artists such as Rihanna in 2013, and Taylor
Swift, Arianna Grande, Ed Sheeran and Hozier who are all poised to play alongside
the magical Victoria’s Secret Angles in this year’s show.
While some may say that the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show
is an empowering exercise, one that celebrates the female form, I disagree.
The show sends the message that ultimante success for women is reaching the societal ideal of beauty, and that in order to do so one must objectify herself for the pleasure of men. Lingerie (what is being sold) is primarily purchased by women for the enjoyment of men, so the underlaying message of the show serves as a platform for women to learn how to and be as attractive as possible in order to appear desirable to the opposite gender. The immense
celebration of these messages, which can be seen in the media coverage surrounding the event, is detrimental to the promotion of women's rights and equality because it demotes women to a kind of "play object" for men.
It is not uncommon that this kind of objectification of women’s bodies
is seen in the media as researcher Kim et. al.’s states women are often portrayed as, “dressing provocatively, touching themselves
suggestively, using playful innuendo …” to get a man (2007). She also muses, “women objectify themselves (Frederickson &
Roberts, 1997) and exploit their bodies to attain power in romantic
relationships” (2007). Kim’s arguments hold fast as can be seen when considering the
way the show is covered in the media.
Media Coverage of the VS Fashion Show is primarily concerned
with the models and thier various looks
rather than the actual VS products that the show is meant to promote (in fact,
one can’t even buy the majority of the outfits in stores). If you type into Google, “VS Fashion Show
2014” a number of articles that discuss the models featured in the show, and each one’s
body, hair, skin, face-shape etc., pop up immediately. Cosmo and Harpers Bazaar
both have columns with tops hits on Google, one with the headline “Everythingyou need to know about the 2014 VSFS: See Who’s Heading to London” and the
other “The 2014 VSFS Lineup.” The next articles listed after these consist of
content that explains how these models are getting ready for the show i.e. their work-out, diet, and beauty regimes. Some of these articles also include
exercise or beauty tips that “you can try at home.”
Furthermore, post-coverage of past VSFS's have spotlighted on model’s looks as well. An example of this is when the famous model, Heidi Klum, walked the catwalk only 6 weeks after having a baby in 2009. Heidi
gained a huge amount of media attention around her post-baby body supporting
the notion that the VSFS is mostly centered on model’s appearance rather than
the actual outfits being shown.
That being said, does this show actually help VS’s sales if
the lingerie being shown isn’t gaining the majority of attention, or even sold
in most stores? I would argue yes, because the Angles represent the “ideal
women” in our society, which sells the product. Therefore, the Angles are
turned into “objects” themselves as VS isn’t selling its clothing but rather
its models and the value of beauty to average consumers.
All in all, the media coverage surrounding The VSFS sends
the message that women are only as good as their outer-appearance, and that to
be sexy women must stick to a tight beauty, work-out, and diet regimes so they can look as “sexy” as possible so that men will find them attractive.
References Kim, J. L., Sorsoli, C. L. Collins, K., Zylbergold, B. A., Schooler, D., & Tolman, D. L. (2007). From sex to sexuality: Exposing the heterosexual script on primetime network television. Journal of Sex Research, 44(2), 145-157.
Yesterday, Sunday, November 30th,
an Indian model/reality TV star named Gauhar Khan was slapped and verbally
attacked by a man because she was wearing "too" short of a dress. What makes this
even more interesting, is that she was slapped WHILE presenting at the finale
of Raw Star. You can see a snippet of
what happened here:
Why did the man do this? Well, he
claims it is because the woman is Muslim and Muslim women should not wear short
dresses (Jha, 2014). While this attacker is going to court today because of
criminal intimidation and causing hurt, this sort of violence and dominance
over women’s clothing and sexuality is commonplace in India. A female, Indian
writer for BuzzFeed explains this systematic oppression in her article here: http://www.buzzfeed.com/regajha/men-will-be-men
She writes about how:
Khan fell victim to a mindset that the rest of
us encounter privately in our living rooms and offices and on our daily
commutes: an ugly Venn diagram overlap of moral policing and body policing and
sexism, resulting in the constant lurking threat that if you do not fall into
the conventions of how a woman must dress, you could – at any point – drive a
man to violence (2014).
Jha notes that this mindset derives
from religion and “Indian Culture” and it reminds me of a few different
research articles we have discussed throughout the semester. Namely, it reminds
me of many articles like Janna Kim’s where she reveals heterosexual scripts on
primetime, American television. She found power inequalities between men and
women in regard to sexuality, where men are aggressive and actively pursuing
women, and women are judged for their sexual conduct (2007). This type of male
freedom in regard to sexuality is very evident in the Indian culture, whereas
women are to be passive, guarded, and male-pleasing.
On top of that, the incident also addresses
how the Indian culture “paints Indian men as primal, dictated by a carnal
pursuit of sex and violence, lacking the very basic tenets of respect and
self-control that any functioning society assumes of its members” (Jha, 2014). This
type of dominant relationship reminded me of Holz-Ivory’s findings about
gendered relationships on American television between both heterosexual and
homosexual couples. Holz-Ivory and colleagues found that masculinity is often
associated with dominance in a relationship whereas femininity is associated
with submissiveness. This type of gendered relationship was made very clear in
Gauhar Khan’s attack, where the man felt like he needed to dominantly attack
Khan for wearing a short dress. It seems like this gendered relationship
between men and women that we have discussed time and time again about American
television and sexuality is arguably exaggerated in India, where women are
frequently abused and “under constant scrutiny and policing” (Jha, 2014). On
top of that, it reminds me again of articles like Janna Kim’s, where men are
painted as needing sex and that this sex is a defining aspect of their
masculinity. Clearly, this is true in Indian culture, as well.
The incident lastly reminded me of a
consistently found moderating variable in a few studies we have come across:
religion. For example, Keren Eyal and Dale Kunkel found in their study about
the effects of sex in television on attitudes about premarital sex in young
adults, that “religiosity is an important factor in sexual socialization”
(2008). This has been consistent across many studies we have looked at in
regard to sexual socialization and is clearly very evident in Khan’s attack.
Men’s victim blaming and violent behavior in India, like Khan’s attacker, are
often dismissed because of religion. The attacker even said the reason he
slapped her was because Muslim women should not dress in short dresses. While
we have talked about religion briefly a few times, this article brought to
light how powerful religion can be in sexual socialization. Especially in countries
and regions where religion is even more tied to cultural values and morals,
like India.
The reason I chose to talk about this
incident for my last blog post, was because I think it addresses many different
aspects of sexuality that we have discussed in our course. On the first day of
class, I remember we all asked and wondered what sexuality even meant. Was it
referring to the act of sex? Was it referring to the way we dress? Was it
referring to our sexual orientation? And throughout this course, I have
realized, sexuality is an encompassing term that relates to many, many
different aspects of a persons’ sex, gender, relationships, orientation, clothing,
thoughts, behaviors, and health. So next time I see that a person was attacked
or victim blamed for what they were wearing or what they were doing, I hope I
will look at it with a critical eye and relate it back to the many different
aspects of sexuality, society, and media that all affect why the incident even took
place.
References:
Eyal, K., & Kunkel, D. (2008). The
effects of sex in television drama shows on emerging adults’ sexual attitudes
and moral judgments. Journal of
Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 52(2), 161-181.
Holz Ivory, A., Gibson, R. &
Ivory, J.D. (2009). Gendered relationships on television: Portrayals of
same-sex and heterosexual couples. Mass
Communications & Society, 12(2), 170-192.
Jha, R. (2014, December 1). A man slapped
Gauhar Khan for wearing a short dress and here's why you should care. Buzzfeed.
Kim, J. L., Sorsoli, C. L. Collins,
K., Zylbergold, B. A., Schooler, D., & Tolman, D. L. (2007). From sex to
sexuality: Exposing the heterosexual script on primetime network television. Journal of Sex Research, 44(2), 145-157.
