Teens and adolescents are the most susceptible to the sexual messages depicted by the media. With the media’s depiction of sex as glamorized, frequent, and without consequences, teens get the perception that “everyone’s doing it” (Huffman, 2008). The media also provides teens with role models on attractive older adolescents or adults who engage in risky behavior, which further pressure them to have sex at an early age. Teens feel that they should imitate the sexual stereotypes depicted by the media and that their failure to do so makes them inadequate (Sieker, n.d.). They tend to believe that what they see on TV is what society expects of them, which would be in line with the proposition of the priming theory, which states that exposure to stereotypes from the mass media gives rise to similar ideas, which may later “activate other semantically related concepts and make them more accessible” (Escobar-Chaves et al., 2005, p. 304).
However, with these teens’ teachers and parents being reluctant to discuss the topic, the perceptions of these teens are left uncorrected (Huffman, 2008). The media becomes their source for sex education. As shown by a recent survey, 53% of teens indicated that they used the movies and TV to obtain information about sex and birth control (Smith, Moyer-Guse & Donnerstein, n.d.). This is supported by the findings of Geenberg, Linsangan and Soderman (1993, as cited in Smith, Moyer-Guse & Donnerstein, n.d. ), which showed that the study’s ninth- and tenth grade participants learned about sex from watching TV. As well, a study conducted by Greeson and Williams (1986, as cited in Smith, Moyer-Guse & Donnerstein, n.d. ) showed that the seventh and tenth graders who were asked to watch a series of music videos with sexual content were more likely to approve of premarital sex (Smith, Moyer-Guse & Donnerstein, n.d.), which is consistent with the proposition of the disinhibition theory, which states that continued exposure to television disinhibts viewers and make them more accepting of a behavior (Escobar-Chaves et al., 2005). In the same regard, a longitudinal study conducted by Brown and Newcomer (1991, as cited in Smith, Moyer-Guse & Donnerstein, n.d.) showed that non-virgins watched more sexy television than did virgins (Smith, Moyer-Guse & Donnerstein, n.d.)
The same effects can be seen in adults, although perhaps to a lesser degree. For example, in a study conducted by Aubrey (2006), the results showed that exposure to sexually objectifying television resulted in an increase in the self-objectifying trait among men and women, although this led to an increase in body surveillance only among men (Aubrey, 2006). Moreover, while the self-objectifying trait led to the avoidance of sexually objectifying television for both men and women, sexually objectifying magazine exposure led to an increase in exposure to these magazines for men and to an increase in body surveillance among men (Aubrey, 2006).
Conclusion
This paper discussed the increasing pervasiveness of sexual content in mass media, such as in television, the movies, printed publications and others. With people, especially teens and adolescents, making heavy use of such media avenues for obtaining information and for entertainment purposes, it is intuitive to think that such content would have effects on the beliefs, behaviors, and attitudes of people about sex. Although some researchers contend that the mass media provides a lot of benefits, too, or that sexual content in mass media won’t necessarily have negative effects on the audience, particularly on the teens and adolescents (e.g. Lund & Blaedon, 2003; Gruber & Grube, 2000), this paper erred on the side of media’s sexual content having negative effects on the beliefs, behaviors and attitudes of people about sex. The paper discussed several studies that supported this claim.
Although further research needs to be conducted on this topic, the current findings call for action on the part of parents, schools, and policy makers to put some control mechanism on the type of content that is made available to children and teens. Although the adults’ perceptions are also affected by sexual media content, it is the adolescents and teens who are most vulnerable to such. In this regard, measures should be put in place in order to prevent this problem from further exacerbating.
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