How did texting go straight to sexting?

I’ll never forget the first time I encountered the word sexting and truly learned what this word meant from my 6^th grade best friend at the time. She had to explain to my other friends and myself that her cellphone had been taken away by her parents due to the fact that they had been checking her text messages and found that she was sexting her boyfriend. I quickly asked her what this term meant, as it was not a prevalent term used within my innocent life, and she explained that it was a term to describe when you send nudes to another individual. Although Angela’s parents thought that something was wrong with Angela for finding these pictures and wanted to send her to a private school, what Angela and her parents did not know is that in the nationally representative study of sexting that just was released, it was found that within the United States 19% of adolescents between the ages of 13-19 years old admit to having sent a nude or semi nude pictures to someone else.

When watching CBS news, a couple of weeks ago, an article immediately captured my attention as the article was labeled “Sexting is the new flirting, as teens turn to secretive apps.” As I chuckled and remembered my 6^th grade memory of Angela, I decided to read on and discover what this article truly had to say.  It was both shocking and alarming to watch these interviews of 6^th, 7^th and 8^th graders, as they touched upon how prevalent sexting has become in their worlds that they live in and how they search for new applications that allow them to hide these pictures from their parents. The news clip is attached below:

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/sexting-modern-day-america-photo-vault-apps/

This clip focuses on the overall idea that adolescents are more technological savvy then their parents and with no longer having the consequences or fear of their parents finding their pictures, these adolescents aren’t afraid to send scandalous pictures that they wouldn’t have sent before, this is a problem. This clip also shares the scary idea that these vaults that adolescents use to hide their pictures are not protected and could be leaked to the greater public. So although, I agree that sexting is a way for adolescents to grow up and consider themselves “independent actors” as Julia R. Lippman and Scott W. Campbell mention in their article “Damned if you do, Damned if you don’t…If you’re a girl: Relational and normative contexts of adolescents sexting in the United States” I do see this normative as a problem. As touched upon in the clip, adolescents are going through a stage in their lives when they don’t understand the harm that these sexting decisions can put them in and unlike Angela who was blessed to have her parents catch her mistake at an early stage, these adolescents will not have a parent to stop them. Instead, they will be stopped when their pictures are released through these applications and naked pictures are plastered all over the school walls and ruin their lives.

This is a large problem in society as Julia R. Lippman and Scott W. Campbell mention in their article that a wide group of adolescents strongly believe that sexting is not a big deal and everyone is participating in it. I think that CBS did a great job with showing parents of ways that they can help avoid these situations with their adolescents through receiving notifications on their phones of when their kids download apps and to pay attention to this terrible sexting epidemic.

                                        References

• Lippman, J. R. & Campbell. S. W. (2014) Damned if you do, damned if you don’t...if you’re a girl: Relational and normative contexts of adolescent sexting in the United States. Journal of Children and Media, 8:4, 371-386, doi: 10.1080/17482798.2014.923009 
  

More Than Just A Pretty Woman

Pretty Woman is one of the most well known romantic comedies of all time. For anyone who is unfamiliar with this movie, as I was until a couple of days ago when I watched it for the first time, I highly recommend it. The overall plot is based on a workaholic businessman that mistakenly falls in love with a prostitute and unintentionally changes her into being an elegant individual. Living in a world where sex is being portrayed left and right on television screens, this plot displays a unique twist to young adults in regards to positive lessons of sex. As Ward mentions in her article “Understanding the role of entertainment media in the sexual socialization of American youth: A review of empirical research,” “Given the lack of alternative sources of information coupled with the media’s accessibility, openness and appealing nature, it is only reasonable to expect that the media would play an important role in sexual socialization,” (349). It can be recognized that although Vivian Ward was a prostitute, Edward Lewis provides Vivian with a credit card to buy appropriate clothes, takes her on dates to fine restaurants and truly treats her with respect. For the first time in a long time, it can be argued that Edward isn’t even thinking about sex, as every other man on movie screens are often portrayed as doing. Instead, Edward displays to young adolescents that there are finer lessons to treating a woman with respect than just having sex with her. This is an imperative lesson to display because as Ward also mentions in her article “Television and other media represent one of the most important and underrecognized influences on children and adolescents’ health and behavior in the 1990s” (350). With this movie being produced in the early 1990’s it is a perfect example of influencing adolescents and hopefully changing this “friends with benefits” world that we live in, into being a “treat women with respect before sex” world. 

With adolescents continuously acquiring new knowledge in regards to sexual health as a whole, the media is extremely influential in shaping these views of individuals and have even proven to make a difference in young people’s sexual lives (Brown, El-Toukhy and Ortiz, 91). Therefore, this particular scene stood out to me within the movie, as yet again Edward proves to be Vivian’s hero and unlike the “typical” man who is more often than not portrayed as only being out for sex. In this scene, Phillip, Edward’s business partner, is furious that he loss so much money and is seeking revenge on Edward. However, instead of getting payback on Edward, Phillip is found being in the same room as Vivian and tries to grope her and eventually rape her. Luckily, Edward arrives in time to step in and protect Vivian from such a terrible man. This is an imperative message to be portrayed on media as it will hopefully influence individuals, especially young men, into seeing groping and using men’s weight and strength against women as being unfair and unruly as a whole. It also portrays the importance of consent and the negative consequences that come without consent. We can only hope that more movies will eventually portray more positive sex lessons as Pretty Woman did.

References

• Brown, J. D., El-Toukhy, S. & Ortiz, R. (2014). Growing up sexually in a digital world:
  The risks and benefits of youths’ sexual media use. In A. B. Jordan & D. Romer (Eds.), Media and the well-being of children and adolescents (pp. 90-108). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  
  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 
  
  

Since when did posing naked relate to sports?

Sports Illustrated magazine is arguably one of the most well known American sports magazine that is frequently delivered to many male households. Although men enjoy reading about the latest updates on sports, this magazine subscription also grants them access to their favorite issue of the year, the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue which features hundreds of pictures of sexy models. For anyone unfamiliar with this issue, female models are pictured wearing very little to no clothing posed in exotic locations.  However, this year Sports Illustrated took it too far as the models photographed were shown pulling down their bikini bottoms and thrusting their pelvis in a way that draws attention to their vaginas, therefore inviting men to picture these women as their own personal sex objects and objectifying them.

It is well known and a laughing matter that many fathers try their hardest to hide their subscription of Sports Illustrated from their younger kids. However, with one simple google search, adolescent boys are able to gain access to all of the past Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issues that have ever been published. This at first may not seem like an issue, as we are all familiar with the sexual urge for younger men to look up pictures of hot girls and fixate their fascination with boobs, but as Peter and Valkenburg mention in their article “Processes Underlying the Effects of Adolescents’ Use of Sexually Explicit Internet Material: The role of Perceived Realism” this could be a serious problem. This problem stems from the idea that more frequent use of sexually explicit internet material increases both the perceived social realism and it also affects the utility of sexually explicit internet material. With many boys first gaining their exposure to women and their bodies through this magazine, it is scary to think that these adolescents may not recognize the unrealistic characteristics of such material and may in fact think that every women should look like these models. It also raises the issue of treating these women as sex objects and having men believe that women are infact sex objects to men as Peter and Valkenburg mention in their article “Adolescents’ Exposure to Sexually Explicit Internet Material and Sexual Satisfaction: A Longitudinal Study.”

I’m not arguing in this post that Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue needs to be put to an end, but I am arguing that I think it is important for fathers to stop hiding these issues under their beds and instead allow their sons and younger adolescents to read these issues with them so they can explain the unrealistic portrayal of women. As it was found in the article “Of Sexual Content on the Sexual Knowledge, Attitudes and Behaviors of Adolescents in the US” by Guo and Nathanson, parents who were found to be open in talking about sex related topics with their adolescents, resulted in adolescents having positive learning outcomes. I also believe that Sports Illustrated editors need to understand that they are relevant stakeholders that are feeding younger men with images that cross the line in some sense, as they did in the most recent issue with portraying models almost completely naked and drawing attention to their vaginas.

References

Guo, W.& Nathanson, A. I. (2011). The effects of parental mediation of sexual content on the sexual knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of adolescents in the US. Journal of  Children and Media, 5(4), 358-378. doi: 10.1080/17482798.2011.587141

Peter, J., & Valkenburg, P.M.(2010). Processes underlying the effects of adolescents'  use of sexually explicit Internet material: The role of perceived realism. Communication Research, 37(3), 375-399. doi: 10.1177/0093650210362464

Peter, J., & Valkenburg, P.M. (2009). Adolescents' exposure to sexually explicit Internet material and sexual satisfaction: A longitudinal study. Human Communication Research,  35(2), 171-194. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-2958.2009.01343.x

A Disturbing Look on Love

Anxious adolescent and adult girls waited in line on Valentine’s Day for what they thought was going to be the romantic video of the year, Fifty Shades of Grey. Many of them had read the book beforehand and were expecting the variety of erotic practices that were to come. However, no one expected the scenes to be so disturbing to watch and far from anything that could be considered romantic. For the few individuals that are unaware of this movie, it is primarily based around a college graduate Anastatia Steele, whom falls hopelessly head over heels for the well known and admired Christian Grey, a man whom finds pleasure in hurting women in bizarre ways. Although some may classify these bizarre actions as simply being a representation of BDSM I classify actions such as shoving a marble up Anastatia’s vagina as being a form of sexual abuse that would not be tolerated in the real world and would send a man to jail.  

I strongly agree with the media consumers that were surveyed and interviewed within the article “Mainstreaming Kink: The Politics of BDSM Representation in U.S. Popular Media” whom stated that increased exposure to representations of BDSM has not at all resulted in acceptance of BDSM or even the feelings of understanding. In fact, my increased exposure of BDSM has led me to feel disgust towards these sorts of practices. I’ll never forget hearing my friends come back from seeing this movie and talking in disgust about how terrible and hard it was to watch the overall movie because of the abuse that it represented. They also talked about how sad it is that younger individuals where in the movie theater and could find this behavior as being a representation of love, when in fact it is one hundred percent not. With “Understanding the role of entertainment media in sexual socialization of American Youth: A review of empirical research” stating that the media serves as one of the most critical educator about sexual relationships for youth, this is a deeply concerning issue when movies like Fifty Shades of Grey are being produced.

Therefore, when an email was sent out to my entire sorority labeled “An open letter to young people about Fifty Shades of Grey” I was captivated into reading what a psychiatrist had to say about this number one movie. Within the first paragraphs readers are made aware of the large problem that is faced within society and that is the issue that individuals believe that everything they see on television is real and glamorous. This is the most puzzling statement because as I stated earlier glamorizing and displaying to individuals a harmful relationship is not okay and could easily result in more sexually abusive relationships, a problem that our society already faces as a whole. Also, if individuals are trying to normalize BDSM in the real world then showing Christian Grey constantly supplying Anastasia with alcohol throughout the movie so that she is impaired to make her own judgments is the wrong way to go about this.

http://www.miriamgrossmanmd.com/an-open-letter-to-young-people-about-fifty-shades-of-grey/

Overall, I argue that Fifty Shades of Grey definitely could be considered a disgusting movie as it lacks the ability to distinguish between what is considered a healthy and unhealthy relationship and what the overall benefits of partaking in BDSM are.

                                                                        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

Weiss, M. (2006). Mainstreaming kink: The politics of BDSM representation in U.S. popular media. Journal of Homosexuality, 50(2/3), 103-132. doi: 10.1300/J082v50n02_06