How sex is incorporated into the media and how does it affect the viewers essay

The world is completely different these days than when you were growing up.

Children are exposed to things at much earlier ages than you possibly were. Sex is incorporated into almost all segment of society. Commercials, movies, magazines, and the media in general all use sex to advertise just about everything such as cars, trucks & motorcycles, clothing, diet aids, vacations, even acne medicine. According to numerous scientific studies, American parents and their adolescents tremendously have the same opinion that sexual issues should be taught at home. Nevertheless, over one- third of adolescents said they have never had a useful conversation about sex with their parents. The truth is, your child will learn about sex, either from you or from someone else.

Educating your child about the need for personal limits as well as the responsibilities and consequences of sexual activity will assist him/her make informed and healthy personal decisions. Talking about relationships, limitations and sexual issues will be easier when you initiate early and continue the communication as your child matures. Furthermore, sex is a huge part of the entertainment media.

Whether on TV and movies, music and videos, or magazines and books, sex will make you stop what you’re doing and look. And perhaps, if you stop and if you look for long enough you’ll want to buy something because sex sells. For that reason teens nowadays are more curious because they see and hear a lot about sex especially in the television and might be the reason for them to engage in sex at a young age. In addition, the average child watch 20 hours of television a week and nearly seven episodes per hour has sexual content.

In addition, sex is a word loaded with social taboos and cultural mystery. It is 100% essential for the continuation of the human race and yet it is treated as if it is unnatural, even down right dirty. It’s not however this stigma is what makes parents freak out when their teen announces he or she is ready to give it a try in a young age. Although this reaction is a natural one for parents to have, it is not without some merit.

Sex in the new millennium is filled with risks both emotional and physical. Lots of medium are used nowadays that persuade teens to engage in sex. Magazine in particular plays a big part in encouraging teens to have sex at an early age. It covers real stories that teens can relate with and give additional information about sex.

Teen sex is a major public health problem according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. The physical, emotional, and social consequences of teen sexual activity include high rates of teen pregnancy, and sexually transmitted diseases including AIDS. Every year 25% of sexually active teenagers contract a sexually transmitted disease (STD), and the younger a female is when she first has sex, the more possible it is that she will have involuntary or forced sex. Several health professionals think that mass media content depicting casual sex with no consequences has resulted in a host of negative behaviors amongst teens who might be influenced that teen sexual activity is both acceptable and wide spread. Even though parents and educators attempt to encourage abstinence or condom use, teens are progressively more exposed to media sexual content that does not give information about health risks and personal responsibility. Both negative and positive advertising messages have been revealed to persuade young people, according to a pediatric medical association that calls on the mass media to promote responsible sex, and healthy behaviors. To do it or not to do it..

. that is the question that plagues lots of teens. A mixture of hormones and social cues make the drive to become sexually active extremely strong. Lots of teens make the mistake of giving into their urges without thinking things through. Sex is more than just a pleasurable act; it is a physical risk and an emotional gamble.

You can just do it without knowing its consequences or just because you saw it in televisions. Media is very important medium especially to teens since it gives different information that can persuade ones decision. Parents should be alarmed on how shows these days appear in media and how their teens react to this scenario. Also current celebrities as well played an important role in teen’s life. They idolized them so much that everything that they saw in them makes it so normal and for that reason they try to depict or copy.

Popular personality like Britney Spears and Paris Hilton is some example of celebrities that greatly influence teen’s outlook particularly in sex. Lots of sex scandal of known celebrities appears in the internet giving teens idea in sex activities. In addition to modeling unhealthful sexual behaviors, entertainment might negatively persuade other aspects of teens’ physical and psychological well-being. Research suggests that media portrayals of idealistic body images negatively impact teens’ self-esteem.

Teens, particularly young females, become discontent with their bodies and might develop unhealthy eating behaviors in an effort to attain media-ideal body types. Even though family and social relationships as well have an influence, teens discover about society and sexual relationships from visual media images portraying body types, clothing, and other cultural norms. Early sexual activity is a important problem in the United States. A current survey suggested that most sexually experienced teens wish they had waited longer to have intercourse; additional data show that unplanned pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases are more common among those who begin sexual activity earlier. Popular music may well contribute to early sex. Music is an essential part of teens’ lives. The average youth listens to music 1. 5 to 2.

5 hours per day. Sexual themes are ordinary in much of this music and range from passionate and playful to degrading and aggressive. Even though a previous longitudinal study has linked music video consumption and sexual risk behavior, no previous study has tested longitudinal associations among the content of music lyrics and succeeding changes in sexual experience, such as intercourse initiation, nor have any study explored whether exposure to diverse kinds of portrayals of sex has different effects. In addition, listening to music with humiliating sexual lyrics is related to advances in a range of sexual activities among adolescents, while this does not seem to be true of other sexual lyrics. This result is constant with sexual-script theory and suggests that cultural messages about expected sexual behavior among males and females might motivate the effect.

Reducing the amount of degrading sexual content in well-liked music or reducing young people’s exposure to music with this type of content might help delay the onset of sexual behavior. Furthermore, we can see how powerful celebrities are just by looking at teenagers’ lives nowadays. Pregnancy, drug use, acquired immunodeficiency syndrome and other sexually transmitted diseases, injuries, homicide, and suicide have all become part of the landscape of daily life for countless of American teens. Not merely are these things controversial in a teen’s life, but as well several of these are being mentioned in music. Music has a harmful effect on teenagers for the reason that they come in contact with it daily. What they are hearing is the same thing they are doing since they think it is right.

This is an essential subject of vital interest and concern for parents. Several parents don’t like the change that music is having on teens. The way teenager’s dress and how they imitate there idols is an example. Moreover, best example of known celebrities that had shown shameful act is when Justin Timberlake ripped off part of Janet Jackson’s outfit and exposed her bare breast to millions who were watching the Super Bowl. During the halftime show, Janet and Justin seductively danced and sang together until Justin tore off her costume and showed us her private part. Several people believe it was a awful thing to do, particularly because children and teenagers were watching the game. Parents were mad at the head of CBS network for letting it happen. What they did doesn’t appear so bad when you think about the sexy talk and action that happens all day and night on TV.

Sure, there aren’t lots of bare nipples on your TV screen, however turn on a soap opera when you get home from school, and there’s a good chance that you will see two people passionately kissing, or even in bed together. Surf to MTV and you’ll probably see a beautiful, sexy woman dancing in her underwear. Between 8 pm and 9 pm is the “ family hour” on television. Shows are supposed to be suitable for kids to watch with their parents. During that hour, you and your parents can tune in to Friends – a show about six sexy singles looking for love, or Survivor — a reality show featuring people in bathing suits talking trash about each other.

These shows can greatly influence teens about se. It portrays sex as natural and common. Shows such as “ Friends” and “ Sex in the City” were among the shows influence young viewers to engage in sex. With one out of every seven shows featuring sexual intercourse either “ depicted or strongly implied” and two-thirds of shows containing various sort of sexual reference this is a vital topic for the media. Critics of the study have countered that adolescents who have a curiosity in sex would obviously be drawn toward these types of shows. Furthermore, whether it’s hip-hop, rap, pop or rock, much of admired music aimed at teens contains sexual overtones.

Its influence on their behavior appears to depend on how the sex is portrayed. Songs depicting men as “ sex-driven studs,” women as sex objects and with open references to sex acts are more possible to prompt early sexual behavior than those where sexual references are more indirect and relationships appear more dedicated. Teens who said they listened to lots of music with degrading sexual messages were roughly twice as likely to start having intercourse or other sexual activities within the following two years as were teens who listened to little or no sexually degrading music. Furthermore, open and honest conversations concerning sex are very important to helping your teens save sex for marriage. Conversations need to go beyond physical consequences to include emotional consequences as well as reasons to wait. Kids whose parents are enthusiastic to talk to them about sex are less probable to engage in premarital sex.

Parents are still the most influential factor in teens’ decisions about sex. Teens need to know what you think about sex before marriage, and need to feel your confidence that they can wait. However other parents might think their kids already know what they think about sex, nevertheless studies show that parents’ messages might not be getting through. Parents need to be extremely clear that they believe youth can endure the pressure to engage in sexual activity, and are completely expected to do so.

Parents as well need to be there during the critical teen years with lots of love and support together with the recurring message that they can and should wait. Maturity is the ability to know the consequences of our actions, and to show a pattern of making wise choices. Saving sex for marriage shows understanding in keeping one’s self away from compromising situations away from the fire knowing that there will come a perfect time and place for entirely experiencing the intimate passion of the act of marriage. Keeping one’s self from sexual carelessness is not merely an indicator of self discipline and maturity, but as well helps keep a right focus in life. Getting caught up in boyfriends/girlfriends is fleeting in nature, and can conceal the enduring value of educating minds, and developing talents and skills. The media–whether television, movies, music videos, video games, print, or the Internet-are persistent in today’s world and sexual talk and behavior are common and ever more open. More than one-half of the programming on television has sexual content.

Important proportions of music videos and Hollywood movies as well show sexuality or eroticism. Among young people, 10-17 years of age, who frequently use the Internet, one-quarter had encountered unwanted pornography in the past year, and one-fifth had been exposed to unwanted sexual solicitations or approaches through the Internet. Media programming not often depict sexual behavior in the context of a long-term relationship, use of contraceptives, or the potentially negative cost of sexual behavior. The media do, nevertheless, have the potential for providing sexuality information and education to the public.

For instance, more than one-half of the high school boys and girls in a national survey said they had learn about birth control, contraception, or preventing pregnancy from television; roughly two-thirds of the girls and 40 percent of the boys said they had learned about these topics from magazines. References: Cari Rutledge, Comprehensive Sex Ed. Programs vs. Abstinence Only Programs, Retrieved on February 26, 2007 at http://tiger.

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