I choose the statement “At the same time that we allow our children to be sexualized, we refuse to educate them about sex. The United States is the only developed nation in the world that doesnʼt teach sex education in the schools. And our children pay a very high price – we have the highest rates of teen pregnancy and the highest rates of sexually transmitted illnesses by far in the developed world.” I strongly agree with this statement. A teenagers reality is a reflection of media and all media is selling is sex. Schools scarcely educate teens about sex. We continue to argue whether we should have sex education in our schools and how much of it we teach. But we never argue about how ads and media have publicized on sex. We use sex to advertise everything. Being young beautiful and "sexy" is what really matters. That is what kids see in all ads. Sexuality is taught to be a liberating experience. Ads teach teens one way of being sexy but there is no emphases on sex education, pregnancy and stds, hence the height of teen pregnancy.
I think the best thing we have so far is the show teen mom on MTV (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEjiM0sESus )It's stories about moms that are product of our toxic culture, who were sexualized but uneducated about the consequences of sex. I think that media sharing these stories and making it a reality show girls can follow season after season gives girls an exact image of how their lives might change and the sacrifices and stress they could go through. I think it is a big step but its far from enough.
1 comment:
Helen,
This is a really good point: "Sexuality is taught to be a liberating experience." I think it's a controversial one, too, and that some might balk at the point, but I believe there's truly a large degree of truth to this. That said, sex CAN be "liberating", even empowering, for women within a context and situation that fits her ethical, moral, emotional, and psychological standards. I don't think most teens are truly equipped to make decisions that fit these standards -- some don't yet know what those standards are to begin with.
You write, "It's stories about moms that are product of our toxic culture, who were sexualized but uneducated about the consequences of sex." Very well put, overall (aside from subject/verb disagreement: :))
I dont' necessarily agree, but then, I think the show is a double-edged sword. On one hand, these girls' situations usually look grim --undesirable, really stressful, definitely unglamorous, even entrapping. That said, there's a sort of celebrity attached to the girls on the show, and they're making money on the show. A number of them have gotten implants and other things they would never be able to afford without the paycheck. In this sense, I think the show does/will attract some young women hoping to be on the show -- it's popular; it's likely that at least several more seasons might run. As such, there's always a chance of getting on the show . . . and, of course, some of them will identify with the celebrity status and materialistic acquisitions to which the newly famous teen moms have access.
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