Sexuality and the media

1. Sexuality and the media

2. American culture • Sexuality is less accepted than violence

3. Why? • Negative effects of sex • However, violence certainly has its negative effects • “Puritan” morality • More apparent than real • Belief in the innocence of children

4. “A TV network censored a sequence of John Steinbeck’s The Red Pony, which showed a mare giving birth, but broadcast the rather hideous sequence from The Godfather showing a beheaded horse.”

5. “We now arrive at what turns out to be—possibly through a kind of default—the most pervasive and consistent influence upon youth in the area of sexuality—the mass media.” • Internet campus

6. “Each year, a typical teen-ager views nearly 15,000 sexual references, innuendoes and jokes on television, of which fewer than 170 deal with abstinence, birth control, sexually transmitted diseases or pregnancy.” (CNN)

7. Television exposes children to adult behaviors, like sex. But it usually does not show the risks and results of early sexual activity. On TV, sexual activity is shown as normal, fun, exciting, and without any risks. Your child may copy what she sees on TV in order to feel more grown up. • (American Academy of Pediatrics)

8. Source: Alan Guttmacher Institute

9. Source: Alan Guttmacher Institute

11. Percentage of High School Students Who Ever Had Sexual Intercourse, by Sex* and Race/Ethnicity,** 2007 * M > F ** B > H > W National Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 2007

12. Percentage of High School Students Who Ever Had Intercourse, 1991-2007

13. Percentage of High School Students Who Were Currently Sexually Active,* by Sex and Race/Ethnicity,** 2007 * Had sexual intercourse with at least one person during the 3 months before the survey. ** B > H > W National Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 2007

14. Percentage of High School Students Who Were Currently Sexually Active,* 1991 – 2007 * Had sexual intercourse with at least one person during the 3 months before the survey. 1 Decreased 1991-2007, p < .05 National Youth Risk Behavior Surveys, 1991 – 2007

15. Percentage of High School Students Who Had Sexual Intercourse for the First Time Before Age 13 Years, by Sex* and Race/Ethnicity,** 2007 * M > F ** B > H > W National Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 2007

16. Percentage of High School Students Who Used a Condom During Last Sexual Intercourse,* by Sex** and Race/Ethnicity,*** 2007 * Among the 35.0% of students nationwide who had sexual intercourse with at least one person during the 3 months before the survey. ** M > F*** B > W National Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 2007

17. Source: Alan Guttmacher Institute

18. According to a survey commissioned by NBC News and People magazine, the vast majority of 13- to 16-year-olds, 87%, report that they have not had sexual intercourse, and 73% report having not been sexually intimate at all. Three quarters of them say they have not because they feel they are too young, and just as many say they have made a conscious decision not to.

19. The same survey found that, while only 27% of 13- to 16-year-olds had been involved in intimate or sexual activity, 8% had had a casual sexual relationship, which has been described by one journalist as a "profound shift in the culture of high school dating and sex."

20. In his book, Why Gender Matters, researcher Leonard Sax states that teenage sexual encounters are increasingly taking place outside the context of romantic relationships, in purely sexual "hookups."

21. American media are thought to be the most sexually suggestive in the Western Hemisphere. The average American adolescent will view nearly 14 000 sexual references per year, yet only 165 of these references deal with birth control, self-control, abstinence, or the risk of pregnancy or STDs.29,30

22. In a recent content analysis, 56% of all programs on American television were found to contain sexual content. The so-called “family hour” of prime-time television (8:00 to 9:00 pm) contains on average more than 8 sexual incidents, which is more than 4 times what it contained in 1976. Nearly one third of family-hour shows contain sexual references, and the incidence of vulgar language is also increasing.

23. Teen sources of sex information:(Time/CNN poll, 1998) • Friends 45% • TV 29% • Parents 7% • Sex Educ 3%

24. How often think about sex Source: Michael, Gagnon, Laumann, and Kolata

25. Percentage purchasing autoerotic materials in past 12 months

26. Media depictions of sexuality • Sexuality is common across all major media • The sexuality exhibits certain tendencies that do not reflect the physical world • The characteristics of sexual content often present potentially troubling moral and behavioral implications

29. Content analysis revealed that sexual content was frequent and diverse. Prime-time soap operas and sitcoms led the way with their scripted innuendo and sexual encounters. Viewers were exposed to visual depictions and verbal references to sexual content including partial nudity and pixilated nudity, adultery, oral sex, masturbation, pornography, anal sex, incest, and homosexuality. • There were 677 sexual scenes or spoken sexual references, or 3.76 per hour. • Since 2000-2001, the incidence of sexual content has increased by 22.1%.

30. 114 of 208 episodes contained sexual content, or 54.8%. • CW had the least sexual content with 1.51 instances per hour. • ABC had the most sexual content with 5.97 instances per hour. • 24 (Fox) and Standoff (Fox) were the cleanest scripted series, with no sexual content. • The War at Home (Fox) had the most sexual content with 33 instances per hour. • Scripted television had 5.13 instances of sexual content per hour, game shows had 0.23, and unscripted shows had 1.48 per hour.

34. The nature of sex on TV • Rarely explicit • Innuendos are rampant • Often occurs in humorous context

35. Who’s doing it? • References to premarital and extramarital sexual encounters outnumbered references to sex between married couples by at least 6:1 (Greenberg & Hofshire, 2000) • In soap operas, as high as 24:1 for unmarried v. married partners (Lowry & Towles, 1989) • 32:1 in R-rated movies with teens (Greenberg et al., 1993) • Nudity occurred in all R-rated films in sample, with female nudity outnumbering male nudity 4:1

36. Additional concerns • Does the portrayal respect the characters? • One of the most common portrayals in forensic shows, pornography shows sexual violence perpetrated against the woman • Sitcoms are heavily laced with lewd comments about women’s bodies, treatment of women as sexual targets or men as inadequate • Degrading treatment of women (and occasionally men)

37. The effects of sexual content Source: Rand

38. Arousal • Men are typically more aroused than women are, especially in response to sexually violent or dehumanizing materials • (Harris and Scott, 2002) • Sexual violence may be especially arousing to sex offenders and other violence-prone men and even to “normal” men if the victim is portrayed as being aroused by the assault

39. Men and women differ in their response to sexual film • Men and women usually differ in the intensity of their self-reported sexual arousal to sexual film clips, with women reporting lower levels. Also, men and women commonly report different emotional reactions to the presentation of sexual stimuli: Men report more positive and women more negative feelings.

40. Men and women were presented with 20 short film clips depicting heterosexual interactions. Half of the clips were previously selected by women; the other half by men.

41. Findings: • Although overall, men and women differed in sexual arousal to the sexual films, this difference was most pronounced for the male-selected film clips. Gender differences in arousal were small to absent for the clips selected by women. Also, men and women experienced higher levels of sexual arousal to clips selected for individuals of their own gender.

42. Arousal • The degree of arousal is not highly correlated to the degree of explicitness of the media • Sometimes cutting away and allowing the individual to fill in the details with his/her own ideas is more arousing than witnessing explicit portrayals

43. Effects of exposure to weekly pornographic films • Less satisfaction with the affection, physical appearance, sexual curiosity, and sexual performance of their real-life partners. • Saw sex without emotional involvement as being relatively more important than did the control group. They also showed greater acceptance of premarital and extramarital sex and placed lesser value on marriage and monogamy. • Less desire to have children and greater acceptance of male dominance and female submission. • Zillman & Bryant, 1988

44. Male attitudes toward sexual violence • Between 25 and 57% of college men reported that they might rape if they were sure they would not get caught. • (Check, 1985; Malamuth, Haber & Feshbach, 1980) • Consumption of violent pornography, but not nonviolent pornography, predicted self-rated likelihood to rape (Demare et al., 1988).

45. Availability of pornography and sexual violence • Research results are inconsistent • High rates of availability of pornography and sexual depictions in Netherlands, Japan even though sexual violence levels there are very low • Predicted pattern shows up elsewhere

46. Context • Cultural context affects response to identical portrayals • National Geographic and bare breasts • Expectations in addressing the text • Conditions of exposure • With your friends, children, spouse

47. Portrayal of victims of sexual assault • Malamuth (1984) found that men who viewed scenes of violent pornography showed a more callous attitude toward rape and women in general, especially if the women victims in the film were portrayed as coming to orgasm as the result. • Men, though not women, were more aroused by a rape scene than a consenting sex scene, but only if the victim was shown as enjoying the rape and coming to orgasm. The men were not aroused if the woman was shown to be terrorized.

48. Exposure to pornography • Exposure to pornography (especially violent pornography) tends to lead to acceptance of rape myths • (Allen, Emmers, Gebhardt, and Giery, 1995) • Participants with repeated exposure to sexually explicit media recommended shorter prison terms for rapists (Zillman & Bryant, 1984)

49. Slasher films • College men shown one slasher film per day for a week • Filled out questionnaires evaluating the day’s film and some personality measures • Over the week the men became less depressed, less annoyed, and less anxious in response to the films. The films were gradually rated as more enjoyable, humorous, and socially meaningful. They were seen as progressively less violent, offensive, and degrading to women. The violent episodes in general and rape scenes in particular were rated as less frequent.

50. Follow-up • The participants in the slasher movie experiment later observed a rape trial. They rated the victim as less physically and emotionally injured than did a control group. (Linz et al., 1984)