Class Presentation Sexuality and the Media

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Sexuality and the Media
Sexuality has been portrayed differently in various forms of media. It has become one of the most exciting issues for debate over the years, mainly because of its controversial nature. Media has increasingly becoming sexualized over the past decade, which leads to the encouragement of sexualization in adolescents and even young children. To gain popularity, the media has continued producing sexualized visuals and records; thus, leading to its negative impact on society for an extended period.
Generally, advertisers utilize “sex and sexuality” as the central theme because it sells to any age group. Advertisements on this theme can be seen in magazines, newspapers, social media platforms, and the television. Moreover, examples of these have been narrated in radio broadcasts and incorporated in popular music. Despite the tremendous benefits that it brings to the advertisers and advertising companies, it harms many people’s overall well-being, particularly the younger population. Collins et al. explain that the sexual risk behavior among adolescents in the United States poses a tremendous public health problem because many young women increasingly get pregnant annually, and most of these are unintentional pregnancies. Moreover, over 19 million teens to young adults are diagnosed with sexually transmitted infections (Collins et al. 5). Worldwide, statistics have shown that over half of the high school students have already engaged in sex. Among them, 72% are African Americans, 52% are Hispanics, and 42% are Whites. Nations with a more conservative culture tend to have lower incidences (Gruber and Grube).
The researchers found out that the mainstream media play a big part in encouraging the young population to engage in these risky sexual behaviors. Some theories support these behaviors. The gratification theory, under the media effects, ignites the significance of sexual content. This allows the media to advertise a concept by targeting the viewers’ needs or desires, and bodily desire is one. Research has shown that many teens and young adults watch television for around 11 hours daily. The problem here is that television shows often illustrate sexual contents, which accounts for over 70% of the television programs. Traditional media has increasingly exposed sexual risky sexual behaviors through television shows or movies. Many R-rated films have been launched on the televisions, and most of the time, the parents of the young teens do not know or understand the presence of these shows on their children’s favorite channels. Therefore, traditional media increases the opportunity to influence adolescents' and young adults' developing attitudes and behaviors (Collins et al. 5). Aside from the traditional media, teens and young adults can employ different forms of media, leading to more time spent on these. Portability and accessibility play a large role in reinforcing such behaviors (Collins et al. 8). An example of this is employing sexual images in magazines that target young girls. Magazines can increase the number of sexual articles that they publish too. On the other hand, men’s magazines often use a nude or almost-nude woman's imag...