Portrayal of Sexual Activity in Numerous Forms

¶ … portrayal of sexual activity in numerous forms is quite common on television, movies, in advertising, magazines, video games, novels, and billboards. Sex sells in modern society, and often not only condone promiscuity, but also glorify it. Indeed, this is fine for adults who have the cognitive ability to separate reality from fantasy, to understand that media shows images, not always consequences, and to understand that unlike television, sexual activity is not all there is to relationships.

Children and youth, however, are also subjected to daily viewing of sexual behavior -- often whether they like it or not. In addition, certainly, as puberty begins, adolescents are in a questioning mode about their own sexuality, which is most definitely influenced by outside images. For instance, in the majority of the media, one rarely sees condom use or even discussions about safe sex; similarly, birth control, abstinence, and alternative lifestyles are more common as themes, but rarely explore the depth and seriousness of the issue. In many ways, this preponderance of sexual activity and imagery requires a rethinking of the paradigm of sex education for youth. Educating young people in a professional and truthful manner will likely improve their ability to make choices, not as some say increase their own sexual experimentation -- that will happen as it has for millennia. In fact, as the articles in this review will confirm, not talking about sexuality will not make it less real, will not prevent pregnancy or disease, and will not cause youth to have less sex. America must join the world, particularly Europe, and appreciate that sexuality is part of being human, and arming youth with more information provides a support mechanism to decrease STDs and pregnancy.

In Teaching Human Sexuality in Junior High School: An Interdisciplinary Approach, the authors posit that young men and women are sexual beings by the time they reach Middle School. For millennia, individuals who were 12-16 were married, raised families, fought in wars, and were considered adults. It was not until after World War II, increased educational requirements and more urbanization that changed the standard of marriage and sexual activity to something only allowed when one is over 18. The overall research focused on using a more robust pilot education program that would eventually affect and reduce adolescent pregnancy and other sexually related problems often faced by youth. The students were tests prior to, during and after the course, finding that there was a strong increase in knowledge and ability to make decisions. Weekly journal evaluations confirmed that the topic was of major interest to the students, and that they appreciated a venue in which they could express their concerns and feelings in a more open environment (Kapp, 1980).

The study was robust in nature, and points to the fact that in the 21st century, it is barbaric and shortsighted not to discuss safe-sex options. There are a number of STDs and the threat of HIV, regardless of one's sexuality, that may have lifelong effects, and if society is to ensure that the youth of today are prepared for the realities of modern life, it is important that the Public School inform and develop standards to reflect the realities of contemporary life. That is not to say that abstinence or alternatives to intercourse should not be discussed, but the message from the research is that adolescents are curious and in need of information. Is it not better to prepare them via a curriculum than have misinformation floating about or sex education by trial and error? The study could have been a bit more longitudinal in scope, and if updated would likely include more about same gender relationships, bisexuality or ambisexuality. Nevertheless, it is an important and relevant topic when, as many of the participants said, "Sex is all around us, 24/7" (Hurst, 2008).

Clearly teens are curious about sex and have the opportunity to see it everywhere. Most professionals (medical and child development) believe that early sexual initiation is a critical health issue. Recent surveys show that most sexually experienced teens actually wish they had waited longer to have intercourse and believe that the combination of a lack of education and being bombarded by media (2/3 of media programs contain sexual content) pressured them into experimentation early. Research was done on 1792 adolescents, 12-17 years of age in the form of baseline and 1-year follow up interviews. The data included television viewing habits, sexual experience, and details of more than a dozen factors that have already been proven to be associated with early sexual initiation practices. A schematic design was overlayed with television data, sexual content and specific issues regarding sexuality. The results showed that teens who viewed content that was more sexual at the baseline were far more likely to initiate intercourse and progress to more experimentation during the coming year. Interestingly, African-American youth that watched depictions that are more sexual were less likely to initiate intercourse than Caucasian youth, removing the racial stereotype that minorities are more likely to have teen sex.

The data set is large enough to be able to appropriately extrapolate results. Since the experiemental set was done both longitudinally and included a decent population sample, the implications are clear: improving outcomes for teens from a sexuality perspective is based on two major paradigms, 1) reducing the amount of sexual talk and behavior on television -- or, reducing exposure to television sex, and 2) increasing an educational program whether from parents, community, or school that discusses ethics and belief systems surrounding sexual activity. The research is certainly not totally comprehensive, largely because it focuses on only limited issues surrounding sexuality and the media, but it does make the point that since sexuality is prevalent in the media, it is up to the support mechanism to educate youth in a more appropriate manner.

Tying these ideas together, Escobar-Chavez, et al. (2005) found that adolescents in the United States are having sex at an earlier age than ever before and with multiple partners. For decades, scholars have been trying to answer questions on whether media violence and sexual behavior has a negative effect on viewers. More recently, with the rise of Internet gaming, the subject has become even more important considering that over the last five decades, interest and participation in video-games, many of which have strong sexual elements (as well as violence), has increased. On one hand, there are numerous parents and social commentators who remain positive and enthusiastic on the effect television has on opportunities -- learning about the world and viewing unique cultural situations. On the other hand, sexual behavior on television and video games have the very real tendency to simulate adult behaviors, particularly in adolescent players. Children and teens, in particular, have not cognitively developed enough (the brain's frontal lobes) to judge reality from fantasy at times, and tend to imitate behaviors rather than evaluate what is appropriate and what is not.