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Sexuality and the media. An unusual part of American culture. Sexuality is less accepted than violence. Why?. Negative effects of sex However, violence certainly has its negative effects “Puritan” morality More apparent than real Belief in the ‘innocence’ of children.
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An unusual part of American culture • Sexuality is less accepted than violence
Why? • Negative effects of sex • However, violence certainly has its negative effects • “Puritan” morality • More apparent than real • Belief in the ‘innocence’ of children
“A TV network censored a sequence of John Steinbeck’s The Red Pony, which showed a mare giving birth, but broadcast the rather hideous sequence from The Godfather showing a beheaded horse.”
“We now arrive at what turns out to be—possibly through a kind of default—the most pervasive and consistent influence upon youth in the area of sexuality—the mass media.” • Internet campus
“Each year, a typical teen-ager views nearly 15,000 sexual references, innuendoes and jokes on television, of which fewer than 170 deal with abstinence, birth control, sexually transmitted diseases or pregnancy.” (CNN)
Television exposes children to adult behaviors, like sex. But it usually does not show the risks and results of early sexual activity. On TV, sexual activity is shown as normal, fun, exciting, and without any risks. Your child may copy what she sees on TV in order to feel more grown up. • (American Academy of Pediatrics)
Source: Alan Guttmacher Institute
Teen sources of sex information:(Time/CNN poll, 1998) • Friends 45% • TV 29% • Parents 7% • Sex Educ 3%
How often think about sex Source: Michael, Gagnon, Laumann, and Kolata
Percentage purchasing autoerotic materials in past 12 months
The nature of sex on TV • Not explicit • Innuendos are rampant • Often occurs in humorous context
Who’s doing it? • References to premarital and extramarital sexual encounters outnumbered references to sex between spouses by at least 6:1 (Greenberg & Hofshire, 2000) • In soap operas, as high as 24:1 for unmarried v. married partners (Lowry & Towles, 1989) • 32:1 in R-rated movies with teens (Greenberg et al., 1993) • Nudity occurred in all R-rated films in sample, with female nudity outnumbering male nudity 4:1
Trends • 35% increase in sexual content in soap operas between 1985 & 1994 • (Greenberg & D’Alessio, 1985; Greenberg & Busselle, 1996) • Also, more themes of negative consequences of sex, rejection of sexual advances, and portrayals of rape
Arousal • Men are typically more aroused than women are, especially in response to sexually violent or dehumanizing materials • (Harris and Scott, 2002) • Sexual violence may be especially arousing to sex offenders and other violence-prone men and even to “normal” men if the victim is portrayed as being aroused by the assault
Men and women differ in their response to sexual film • Men and women usually differ in the intensity of their self-reported sexual arousal to sexual film clips, with women reporting lower levels. Also, men and women commonly report different emotional reactions to the presentation of sexual stimuli: Men report more positive and women more negative feelings.
Men and women were presented with 20 short film clips depicting heterosexual interactions. Half of the clips were previously selected by women; the other half by men.
