First Exposure to 'Sex'

The past couple of readings for class have had to do with the media being an important role in young people learning about sex. I started to think about the first time I really heard about sex on TV and I remembered a pretty vivid moment from when I was about 7 years-old. My brother, who is 5 years older than me, loved to watch Nickelodeon, so I was exposed to a lot of those shows and grew to like them. One day, I was watching TV in the family room while my mom was making dinner. I was watching the TV show ‘Doug’. I honestly don’t really remember anything about the show besides the fact that it was a cartoon. I was watching it and I remember hearing the word ‘sex’ for the first time. I then remember my mom looking over at the TV and kind of questioning what I was watching, considering I was only 7. Because I don’t remember it very clearly, it probably just went right over my head. 

I researched this episode a little to try and figure out what actually transpired in the scene. It starts off with Doug’s mom being pregnant and his dad wants to tell him where babies come from since he’s going to be a big brother. His dad takes him to the basement and pulls out a book called “How It’s Done: The Birds and Bees Story.” He then begins to read off a script to Doug from the book. “It’s important now that you’re going to be an older that you know where babies come from…” Doug then cuts him off by saying “so you want to talk to me about sex? I learned about all that stuff in school already.” They show the dad blush at his son’s knowledge on the matter, and then they fade the scene while Doug explains what he already knows about sex (without explicitly saying it). After Doug finishes sharing what he already knows about sex, his dad then says “Thanks son, that was really informative, I guess they left a few things out when I was a kid.” 

Doug: "The Talk" Clip 

I thought this was an interesting way to go about “talking” about sex in the media. First off, they don’t really talk about sex at all, they just kinda elude to the idea, so I’m confused why they just decided to throw in this mention of it. Also, this kind of mention of sex in the media can be problematic in some circumstances. If a viewer is watching this program and using it as the “super-peer,” as Brown, Halpern and Engle describe in their work with early maturing girls, then they’re not getting any real information about sex other than they will learn about it in school and that it’s okay to talk to your parents about it. I think this episode does the opposite of what ‘Friends’ accomplished in their episode educating their viewers on condoms. If they went maybe into some more detail without being too explicit (for a cartoon show), it may have had more of an effect on their viewers.

But how about parenting-wise? For instance, my mom was watching this with me, so do you think this sends the message to parents that they don’t have to worry about giving the sex talk to their kids and that they can assume they will learn all about it in school? I know I didn’t learn everything I know now about sex in school. Even when talking about this with one of my friends, she told me she had zero lessons in school about safe sex. So this episode could be potentially damaging in trying to both, teach youth about sex, and give parents a way of going about talking about sex to their children. 

Brown, J., Halpern, C., Engle, K. (2004). Mass media as a sexual super peer for early maturing girls. Journal of Adolescent Health. 

Collins, R., Elliott, M., Berry, S., Kanouse, D., Hunter, S. (2003). Entertainment Television as a Healthy Sex Educator: The Impact of Condom- Efficacy Information in an Episode of Friends.