Let's Talk About Sex! Or maybe let's just talk about TV and Movies in general....

Hey Readers!

Let’s talk about sex! Ok maybe not just sex, but the cause and effects of what is shown on your TV and the big screens. Whether you are a parent, an educator, or even just a student, you have probably have come across that awkward part of a TV show that has that one uncomfortable scene, and you don’t know if you should continue to look at the screen or at the bowl of popcorn you, not so gently, begin to stuff your face with. Reader, I can relate! So let’s dive in to what we know about TV and Movies.

So what’s so bad about TV and movies? Children and adolescents are exposed to a great amount of content scrolling through channels or while watching Netflix shows under the “recommended for you” category. With no social policies that bring structure as to what is portrayed on television shows and increasing media consumption of children and adolescents, it is sad to say that children and adolescents are at risk to following social scripts that contain negative behaviors. The main negatives that have been concentrated on by researchers are the perceptions of body image, sex, intimate relationships, communication, and play.

Sex is shown on TV and in movies as much as sitcoms cue the laughing track. Because of this, sex has been normalized within our society and teens are creating social scripts that correspond with what they watch. This is unsettinging as researchers, like Ward (2006), claim that what is displayed on the screen portrays sexual and gender stereotypes. Ward classified three important stereotypes to pay attention to: sex as recreation, women treated as objects, and men are only sex driven. What is even more disturbing is the presence of alcohol occurs at the same time as sexual contact in some popular shows. A study by Bleakly (2017), where researchers surveyed adolescents about how often they view chosen programs and their general attitudes towards sex and alcohol, found that teens were associating sex with alcohol. Essentially, these teens came out thinking, after watching these shows, that you cannot have sex without alcohol present. Now that’s some scary stuff Readers! What is even more terrifying is how media demonstrates dysfunctional and unrealistic romantic relationships almost all the time. Holmes’s 2007 study analyzed just that and found that adolescents, who watch shows that contain these, may be influenced to mimic these beliefs into their own lives. Just think if you’re an adolescent who just watched Gossip Girl. Let’s hope that you don’t think the romantic life of Serena Vanderbilt is ideal for your future romantic relationships. Yikes! And Readers, don’t get me started on body image. Reality TV shows, like Botched and Keeping Up With The Kardashians, have been plastered all up in adolescents’ lives. With these TV shows comes the idea that plastic surgery is 100% acceptable for anyone, including adolescents, to have ans is an accurate representation of the “real world”. Thus, giving teens negative perceptions of their own body image. But what about how TV and Movies affect children and their play? Well, researcher have found that slower paced formated shows allow for positive changes in play, concentration, and social interaction. These type of shows, like good ole “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood”, allow for more imagination.

So how do we help the generation of tomorrow? Communication! For starters, adults need to start having conversations about what and while children and adolescents watch TV and Movie, also known as co-viewing. Reachers, Strouse, O’Doherty, and Troseth, in 2013 study found that co-viewing using dialogic questioning (creating discussions and asking questions), children retained more information of what they watched. So, my readers, I encourage you to talk with children and adolescents about what they are watching and even take time to watch a show or movie with them, even if it is having the “sex talk”. We can’t always control what adolescents and children watch, but we can start by making the small change of talking with them about what they are watching.

Logging off,

Skyler Gin