The Power Struggle

We are living in the day and age in which power is everything. It ranges from the fight for an egalitarian society to the struggle over who is going to forfeit power to the other person and text first. Power is a fickle entity, sometimes willingly conceded in BDSM sexual encounters where submission can be enjoyed, and at other times heavily grappled over, such as who has the most say in a relationship. We also know that these many mixed variations of the concept of power are passed onto society through media representations.

In the show Sex and the City, Season 1, Episode 5: “The Power of Female Sex,” Carrie explores the control she is discovering she and her female friends possess over men in their ability to consent to sex. She, Miranda, Charlotte, and Samantha are discussing their opinions on the matter. Samantha knows that a significant amount of the power she possesses in the cutthroat world of PR In New York City comes from her sexual attractiveness, thus her opinion, “Women have the right to use every means at their disposal to achieve power.” Needless to say, Charlotte and Miranda dispute this, arguing that sleeping to the top is exploitation. Samantha’s argument appears to be the strongest, however, and the rest of the episode shows how the women benefit from using their sexual prowess.

Ward found, “Tentative evidence is building that greater television exposure is linked directly to viewers’ sexual behavior” (Ward, 2003). This creates some worries regarding the messages this episode is sending to its malleable viewers. Sex is presented as a game of power, with female’s only power in this world coming from her ability to please her male counterparts by either withholding or pleasuring. Findings also “reveal strong and consistent associations between exposure levels and viewers’ perceptions. Greater exposure to sexually oriented genres (e.g., soaps, music videos) has been linked to viewers’ assumptions and expectations about the prevalence of sex and of certain sexual behaviors frequently depicted on TV” (Ward, 2003). So what does this mean if adolescents take the messages presented in this episode to be reality? It would create an environment where power in relationships is skewed and where women view their sexuality as an object.

References

Ward, L. M. (2003). Understanding the role of entertainment media in the sexual socialization of American youth: A review of empirical research. Developmental Review, 23(3), 347-388. doi: 10.1016/s0273-2297(03)00013-3