#LESELFIE

As we learned on Tuesday, selfies are a very important aspect of young people's lives - and if not important, still very prevalent. The extremely mediocre television show Rich Kids of Beverly Hills portrays this prevalence. The main ladies spend huge chunks of their days taking selfies, and even further, figuring out what filters to put on them and what social media site to post them on. Selfies are so important to these women in order for them to share their fabulous lives with their friends and - I guess if they have any - fans.

While in Paris, the ladies and their fabulous male friend struggled to find the perfect angle for a selfie with the Eiffel Tower. You can see it here. They discuss the lighting, angle, arm length, and even geometry of the perfect selfie.

This portrayal of the importance of selfies in their lives makes it seem like selfies are ultimately for narcissistic use - one utility that we discussed in class. And there is some truth to that. Their token guy friend remarks "I look great in that one." But there are other reasons for selfies. To remember special trips and events by, to share journeys with, and to stay in the ever-present conversations that are happening on social media these days.

If I wanted to take a picture with friends in front of the Eiffel Tower and had no one else to take it for me, I'd probably spend that much energy on taking a selfie as well. What really is the difference between a selfie and a picture of your face taken by a friend? They have the same utility, but selfies just cut out the middle man. I don't personally take very many selfies, but I support anyone who wants to in an effort to remember their loved ones and special memories - and even if they just look really good that day!

(I would have cited the research done by your student, but I'm not seeing those slides on the cTools page, sorry!)

Meek Mill Gets Real

It is very uncommon to hear positive sexual health messages within the rap and hip hop music genres, let alone all other forms entertainment. As Collins points out, "sex is largely portrayed ... as a casual activity, without health or other life consequences. The vast majority of scenes [or lyrics] with sexual content fail to depict the responsibilities concomitant with sexual activity" (Collins et al., 2003, pg. 1115). Collins et al. have found that placing pieces of information about sex and sexual health within pop culture is a way to get the information across to a wide audience and in a way that is unthreatening and likely more helpful than formal education.

This is why - while being forced to listen to rap music by my boyfriend - I got overly excited to hear an important message about sexual health from rapper Meek Mill in his song "B Boy". While most of the song is made up of misogynistic messages about women's bodies, drinking and drugs, there is one ray of hope.

"Yeah and she tryna fuck me raw, unprotect,
But if I don't have that rubber on it I feel under dressed."

THIS IS AMAZING. I am so excited that Meek Mill and his peers and producers all decided that this was a message worth putting into his song. Young men and women will hear these lyrics and will associate using condoms with being cool like Meek Mill. Setting precedents like this within media is such an important step in making information about sexual health not only available to people that may not otherwise come across it, but also something cool and that should be done. Collins et al. agree that  entertainment "can teach the risks and responsibilities that accompany sexual activity in a way  that books, pamphlets, and classroom instruction cannot" (Collins et al, 2003, pg. 1119). Meek Mill is reaching listeners who generally have less access to sexual health information - black adolescents - where they are, and is teaching them an important lesson about how they should be approaching their sexual activity.

How do adolescents learn that not using a condom is a) an option and b) a better feeling than using a condom? From lyrics in rap songs, from sex scenes in television in movies. Combatting that risky information with something worth while and educational for adolescents is amazing and I love Meek Mill now.

Collins, R., Elliott, M., Berry, S., Kanouse, D., & Hunter, S. (2003). Entertainment television as a healthy sex educator: The impact of condom-efficacy information in an episode of Friends. Pediatrics, 112(5), 1115-1121.

First Got Horny 2 U

SNL's leading ladies divulged some very personal information about their first parasocial relationships in a music video last week, First Got Horny 2 U. In the hilarious skit, the women tell viewers about their first celebrity crushes who first "ignited [their] flames, who opened [their] eyes, and who first taught [them] how to be truly horny." Watch it here.

Karniol (2001) discusses the importance of adolescent females forming parasocial relationships with  inaccessible celebrities. She points out that "finding a love-object toward whom one can safely direct newly-acquired cravings" is both very important and very safe if manifested in parasocial relationships (Karniol, 2001, pg. 62). Practicing relationships and feelings of longing seems to be a health aspect of adolescence.

"You lit a spark inside of me, you set my teeny tiny boobies free. We never met, and we never will, but I thank you still. Cause I first got horny to you."

Karniol points out the importance of adolescent females' perpetuating their new desires into bedroom decor, that "posters of pop stars that are hung in one's bedroom," allowing them to "cope with newly developing feelings at the point of transition to sexuality" (Karniol, 2001, pg. 62, 74). SNL writers apparently remember these kinds of feelings from their own adolescence.

"I was in 7th grade watching TRL when I had a feeling I had never felt. It was Carson Daley in enormous jeans and the blackest nails I'd ever seen. I got up on the couch and I knocked my first one out."

Further, because young girls get to practice their sexual feelings through these parasocial relationships, it only makes sense that they would begin to learn new things about themselves and their sexuality. SNL points out a key factor in exploring sexuality through media figures - learning of sexual feelings, such as homosexuality, that may only be seen through media and not in the home or real life activities.

"1996, I first heard Mbop. Started getting sweaty in my thermal top. Taylor Hanson's lip and his long blonde hair, the most gorgeous woman anywhere. And that's how I could tell that I was gay as hell."

Idolization and parasocial relationship creation of adolescent girls can have many positive outcomes, of which can be hard to find in SNL's skit. Experimenting relationships with potential types of men or women that could bring this new sexual feeling is a physically and emotionally safe way to learn about oneself before joining the real and risky world of dating.

Karniol, R. (2001). Adolescent females' idolization of male media stars as a transition into sexuality. Sex Roles, 44(1/2), 61-77.

Sexting Gone Right

NBC's Parks and Recreation puts its characters in many crazy situation, not limited to the taboo and controversial act of sexting. In the season 4 premiere episode, "I'm Leslie Knope," an unknown sender emails every woman that works in city hall a picture of his penis.

*Unfortunately, I can't find a video of the related scene. On Netflix, the scene runs from 3:45 to 4:45.*

The scene is not much of a learning opportunity for young viewers about sexting because the characters mostly make the picture and the incident a joke, and because the picture was unwanted. It does show that unwanted sexting is wrong, however, when Chris (Rob Lowe) and Ben (Adam Scott) apologize to the women employees of the City for the gross misconduct.

A subsequent scene does give a relatively positive spin on the sexting incident. Ann (Rashida Jones) - a part-time nurse and part-time City Health employee - found an abnormality in the picture and was able to make the sender aware that he had mumps. Brown et al. tackles the topic of sexting within their article Sex, Sexuality Sexting, and SexEd. They play around with the idea that "sexual self-expression on the Internet [including sexting] can be functional for adolescents" in that they can find like-minded peers and experiment with sexuality in a low-risk way (Brown et al., 2009, pg. 13).( Of course there are risks for sexting in this day and age, such as having pictures of one's body distributed without consent.)

This incident within Parks and Recreation - likely without meaning to do this - shows that good can come out of sexting. Not the kind of good that Brown and colleagues are going for, but with similar importance, that of health - which they also touch on as being important in today's adolescent sexual discovery utilizing social media, the Internet, and texting. "I'm Leslie Knope" shows both the good and bad of sexting - with maybe a bit too much nonchalance mixed in.

Brown, J., Keller, S., & Stern, S. (2009). Sex, sexuality, sexting, and sexed: Adolescents and the media. The Prevention Researcher, 16(4), 12-16.

Love Yourself

An extremely popular and recent song, Love Myself by Hailee Steinfeld, is one of very few popular pieces of mainstream media that discusses the topic of masturbation. While I wouldn't classify it as an piece of "edu-tainment," I do believe that it adds value and breadth to a media landscape that - while "two thirds of all shows included sexual content" - has a very small scope of what they depict as sexual activity (Brown et al., 2004, pg. 420).

A very large majority of the sexual activity shown or insinuated in mainstream media is only intercourse. As Ward et al., point out, this could be problematic for adolescent women growing up and learning about sexual activity through media because they aren't learning about any other kinds of potentially safer sexual activity - "there needs to be an acknowledgement of diverse forms of sexual pleasure, including masturbation" (Ward et al., 2006, pg. 67).

Some lyrics that really embody the message of the song - that a woman doesn't need a man to make her feel good, she can do it herself - are below.

"Gonna love myself, no, I don't need anybody else."
"Feeling good on my own without you, yeah... The beautiful, it comes without you."
"I'm gonna put my body first and love me so hard 'til it hurts"
"I know how to scream my own name."

Not only do these lyrics embody a sense of female empowerment to take sexual pleasure into their own hands, it also expresses that masturbation is a viable and pleasurable alternative to sexual intercourse. Young women "turn to the media as a relatively safe" place to learn about sexual activity and should therefore have several depictions of what sexual activity can look like in order to be able to make informed and safe decisions (Brown et al., 2004, pg. 421). If they never see or hear about masturbation, they may not even know it as an option for sexual activity.

It's very interesting that sexual intercourse - arguably the most intimate activity in the world - is so casual within media and society, while masturbation and other forms of sexual stimulation are so taboo. Pieces of media such as Hailee Steinfeld's song are moving media into a more responsible and realistic direction, and young women will become more informed because of this.

Brown, J., Halpern, C., & L'Engle, K. (2004). Mass media as a sexual super peer for early maturing girls. Journal of Adolescent Health, 36, 420-427.

Ward, L., Day, K., & Epstein, M. (2006). Uncommonly good: Exploring how mass media may be a positive influence on young women's sexual health and development. New Direction for Childre and Adolescent Development, 112, 57-70.

Sex and the City's Sexual Health Responsibility

In Ward, et al.'s (Ward, et al., 2006) Uncommonly Good, the idea that media can be a good source of information is presented. There are so many ways to think of media as creating a toxic environment for adolescents to learn about unhealthy sex practices, but Ward and colleagues focus on the ways in which entertainment media can offer the opposite - factual sexual information (my main focus here) and  several other positive contributions such as diverse sexual models and self-expression.

Sex and the City is time and again referred to as the defining piece of sexual entertainment media that broke all barriers that had previously - and in many cases, still do - existed in terms of portraying different models of sexuality. While there are many arguments for why Sex and the City may have negative impacts on its viewers - such as portraying women having casual sex with far more partners than the average woman has -, there are so many positives to openly portraying women as in charge of their own sexuality.

The most compelling and responsible scene of the entire series - in my opinion - is when Samantha goes home with a suitor, also known for having several sexual partners. Before the couple engages in any sexual activities, the man asks Samantha if she's been tested for HIV recently. She hasn't, and the couple goes no further with their sexual encounter for the night.

I have lots of personal feelings about this scene. I mean, WOW. This is the most responsible and amazing scene that has ever played on television. Reminding millions of viewers that HIV is still a thing and should be considered when engaging in sexual activity... it makes me almost speechless.

I digress. This scene in Sex and the City is a quintessential example of entertainment education (Ward, et al., 2006, pg. 4), and so are the scenes following it. The next day over brunch, Sam tells her girlfriends about what happened and they are shocked that she has never been tested for HIV and tell her that they all have and that she should too.

Samantha's post-test fear is something that all people waiting for test results - let alone HIV test results - can relate to and can learn from. Sex and the City, for all of its portrayal of crazy sexual antics, brought the thought of being tested for HIV - or any other STI - into the minds of its viewers, creating a more educated viewership and yet another important portrayal of all of the different aspects of sexuality and sexual health.

Ward, L., Day, K., & Epstein, M. (2006). Uncommonly good: Exploring how mass media may be a positive influence on young women's sexual health and development. New Direction for Child and Adolescent Development, 112, 57-70.

Superbad's Sexual Scripts

Entertainment media places a lot of emphasis on the losing of one’s virginity. They don’t place near as much emphasis – if any – on abstinence or waiting to have sex. Generally, a theme of waiting to have sex is not a theme at all – it just isn’t discussed in entertainment media unless it is being made fun of. Of course, there are always exceptions, but the popular entertainment media rakes in the bucks by producing story lines that have sex in them – it’s that simple.

This commonality of sexuality in entertainment media is why I find the movie Superbad to be so interesting. Superbad is a quintessential funny movie aimed at guys, with crude jokes and hot girls. The entire plot of the movie is essentially that a group of guys wants to get drunk and lose their virginities before they go off to college – completely fulfilling Kelly’s (2010) urgency script. That they place so much emphasis on losing their virginities before they step in to the real world is not shocking and fits well with the ideology that entertainment media is pushing out to its consumers. This theme is in very stark contrast with what happens near the end of the movie.

In this clip (and subsequent scenes that I’m unable to find), it’s clear that Michael Cera’s character is very reluctant to have sex with the girl that is throwing herself at him. You find out that he feels extremely uncomfortable having sex with her because she is so drunk. This really flips his character from originally pursing the urgency script to pursuing more of a management script, in which he puts an unexpected “emphasis on ‘appropriate’ virginity loss” (Kelly, 2010, pg. 482). While Kelly’s (2010) article focuses on girls’ virginity scripts, I think it’s interesting to place guys within them and see how they fit. Superbad portrays a first sexual encounter for a guy as less exciting and more inhibited by alcohol – which goes against the entertainment media norm – and for a girl as far more reckless and enabled by alcohol… until she throws up on him, of course.

I think it’s really healthy for viewers of content such as Superbad that tend to place a lot of emphasis on an urgency script and that “males constantly desire sex” (Kelly, 2010, pg. 485). From this analysis, it is clear that “there are multiple and often contradictory sexual scripts” that could potentially confuse viewers regarding sexual health and encounters, but that can also open their minds to several potential ways to approach sexuality (Kelly, 2010, pg. 488).

Kelly, M. (2010). Virginity Loss Narratives in "Teen Drama" Television Programs. In The Journal of Sex Research.

Lesbian Relationships within Friends

Friends (1994-2004) tackles many interesting and difficult topics throughout its ten seasons. One of the most interesting topics is lesbianism – and even more interesting is how the television show approaches lesbian relationship and interactions.

I will draw from two separate lesbian encounters through this post. The first is the most consistent lesbian relationship in the show – Carol and Susan. Carol is Ross’s (one of the main six characters) ex wife who left him because she was a lesbian and had fallen in love with Susan. Carol and Susan are in a committed, long-term relationship. The second lesbian encounter on the show that I draw from only occurs in one episode. During this episode, Rachel tries to convince Phoebe that she made out with one of her sorority sisters during college.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RELUKTye-1A

Holz Ivory discusses that real life lesbian relationships “are more likely than heterosexual couples to negotiate a balance involving fair distribution of household labor” and thus have less rigid sex roles than common stereotypes would suggest (Holz Ivory, et al., 2009, pg. 172). She finds, however, that the sex role stereotypes are being upheld in entertainment media and that “lesbians are portrayed as either butch or femme” (Holz Ivory, et al., 2009, pg.175). Friends starkly contrasts the common entertainment media lesbian relationship stereotype by portraying Carol and Susan as equal partners with no outstanding gender roles. They are merely two women – neither butch nor femme – in a relationship. Friends was far ahead of its time in depicting this lesbian relationship so realistically.

In the second instance of a lesbian encounter, Friends maintains its realistic portrayal of lesbian relationships. Rachel and her sorority sister are both feminine and thus do not adhere to the media stereotype that one partner must be the “man” and the other the “woman.” While this isn’t a consistent lesbian relationship, it adds to the overall bank of lesbian portrayals in the media and helps combat the stereotypical nature of homosexual relationships.

As Holz Ivory (2009) discusses, this more realistic depiction of lesbian relationships helps to create a more inclusive idea of homosexuality. Gay men or lesbian women watching this media can hopefully find a broad range of depictions to draw their own identities from rather than only seeing that they and their partners should fit in to the gendered stereotype.

On the flip side, one could argue that Friends only shows one type of lesbian relationship and doesn't tackle any butch lesbian topics. I think that while this argument is very valid, it's important to create a more inclusive entertainment media and portraying a type of lesbian relationship that strays from the normal entertainment media portrayals is helping the cause, nonetheless.

Holz, A., & Gibson, R. (2005). Gendered relationships on television: Comparing portrayals of heterosexual and same-sex couples.