Media Intentions

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEBpLVnVRN4

In 1999 the movie Cruel Intentions came out starring Ryan Philippe, Reese Witherspoon and Sarah Michelle Gellar.  The movie was instantly controversial, as it depicted New York Upper East Side teens dealing with sexuality.   The plot focuses on Sebastian Belmont (Philippe), the school playboy, and his conquest to get with the new Headmaster’s virgin daughter Annette (Witherspoon) before the school year starts.  He makes a bet with his conniving stepsister Catherine (Gellar) that if he succeeds in sleeping with Annette and ruining her reputation, he gets to have his stepsister who he has always wanted, but if he loses she gets to have his Jaguar.  

In this particular scene I have chosen we see Sebastian coming up to Annette as she sits reading in the park.  He out of nowhere starts kissing her very aggressively and after she pushes him away he barely apologizes.  He then proceeds to go on a rant that he has no reason to be sorry because he knows she has feelings for him and they should be together because “she has no husband unless she is married to Jesus.”  This particular line caught my eye as it connected directly to the Maura Kelly reading “Virginity loss narratives in “Teen Drama” Television Programs.” In this reading we learned about the three different scripts of virginity loss. In particular the abstinence script that states that there are 3 themes that characterize the script however two stick out the most in this scene; “virginity is a gift” and “the physical, mental, and social dangers of sex and the negative consequences of premarital sex.” 

Annette clearly believes that “virginity is a gift” and she should wait until marriage. Sebastian is trying to insult Annette’s beliefs when he says the line “unless you are married to Jesus” because he thinks her idea of abstinence is absurd considering they both have feelings for one another.  The other theme of the abstinence script dealing with the dangers of physical and mental sex is brought to light when Annette tells Sebastian they cannot be together because she doesn’t trust herself with him.  Annette fears that if she agrees to be with Sebastian there will be consequences to her mental, physical and social being. 

While this is one of my favorite movies, and I clearly want Sebastian and Annette to be together, Kelly makes a point at the end of her reading that these teen dramas are sending contradictory messages to teenagers.  SPOILER ALERT if you have not seen the movie, Annette and Sebastian go on and do have sex and the movie ends with them being in love, sort of, but I won’t spoil that part.  Annette and Sebastian fall directly into Janna L. Kim’s idea of the heterosexual script in the reading “From Sex to Sexuality: Exposing the Heterosexual Script on Primetime Network Television.” Sebastian represents “Sex as masculinity”, as Sebastian is the one pushing to have sex, and Annette represents “Good girls”, as she is the one who partakes in sexual activities for her male partner.  

Annette went against all her morals of wanting to stay a virgin until marriage because one boy told her she was being crazy.  When teen dramas always show the happy ending how are teens ever supposed to learn what happens when things do not work out?  Kelly’s goal of her research is to make people aware that teens need to be conscious of the media messages they are engaging in, when learning about sexuality. 

References

Maura Kelly (2010) Virginity Loss Narratives in “Teen Drama” Television Programs, The Journal of Sex Research, 47:5, 479-489,

Janna L. Kim (2007) From Sex to Sexuality: Exposing the Heterosexual Script on Primetime Network Television, Journal of Sex Research, Vol, 44, No, 2, 145-157