Virginity is a social concept that varies with the individual. It is typically defined as the act of penile-vaginal intercourse and carries with it different importance based on ethnicity. Berger and Wenger’s study on the ideology of virginity emphasizes this societal view by stating that the participants considered full vaginal penetration as the loss of virginity (1973). In order to examine the contrasting views of virginity in America based on ethnicity, this research will focus on virginity and the importance of it based on Hispanic/Latinx and non-Hispanic culture. Given the impact of media and cultural norms, it is hypothesized that non-Hispanic cultures in America will have a more liberal view on virginity compared to Hispanic cultures, …show more content…
Media plays a big role in educating the youth of America and developing their idea of social norms. Popular films and shows such as American Pie and New Girl emphasize the new view of losing one’s virginity during college or before the age of 25 (Fortenbury, 2014). A study on media’s influence on virginity loss proves how influential media can be on virginity views by detailing the participants use of movies to describe or influence their own virginity loss (Carpenter, 2009). This outlook has resulted in the perception that virginity is not as important as it was in the past. New statistics show that “the average American loses his or her virginity at age 17” (Fortenbury, 2014). This has influenced American society to believe that virginity must be lost during teen years. An article by Megan Scudellari discusses a study by the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction in Indiana in which experience in sex is more appealing than virginity. Virgins in the …show more content…
It is a commit that is made both physically and mentally. It is more complex and difficult than a simple survey. The Sterk article made it aware how the topic should be viewed, how to find the sample, conduct the interview, and make connections between the different results gained. For instance, Sterk’s way of slowly gaining insight and information about the environment and people gave insight on how to approach the sample population. The topic of virginity can be a sensitive and controversial topic for certain individuals. When finding individuals to speak to, the sample will be taken from an area representative of that specific culture, much like Sterk searched within the New York City and Atlanta area in well-known public areas and known prostitution neighborhoods. This means getting involved in Hispanic events and approaching individuals that are comfortable enough to discuss the topic. Given the method Sterk used during the interviews, few structured questions will be employed in order to gain demographic information, in combination with open-ended questions that give insight and details about the views on virginity based on culture. The interview will be focused more on the conversation rather than the structured questions that are typical of surveys, in order to gain the most qualitative and representative view based on the
In the article “An Anthropological Look at Human Sexuality” the authors, Patrick Gray and Linda Wolfe speak about how societies look at human sexuality. The core concept of anthology is the idea of culture, the systems of attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors people acquire as a member of society. The authors give an in depth analysis on how human sexuality is looked at in all different situations.
...ers, Kim. Sexual Teens, Sexual Media: Investigating Media’s Influence on Adolescent Sexuality. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2002.
Modern America, in accordance to course materials and personal experiences, overtly sexualizes people, specifically among the youth, engendering new versions of gender expectations, roles, relationships, and how society views people based on appearance, sexual promiscuity or supposed promiscuity, and so on. Easy A (2011) represents an example clarifying how gender socialization impacts today’s youth via several concepts such as slut shaming, slut glorification, challenging masculinity, dating/hooking up, gender expectations and social acceptance. This film primarily focuses on a female’s promiscuity. Olive, the main character, is automatically labeled slut, after a rumor she unintentionally sparked by a bathroom conversation. Soon, the rumor spread and Olive became “school slut” in minutes.
In Erotic Journeys: Mexican Immigrants and their Sex Lives by Gloria Gonzalez-Lopez she expands on what the definition of the Mexican culture is. She compares the Mexican society to the society in LA. She discusses multiple things one of the things she discusses in her book is the meaning of virginity in the family and what sex represents. Gonzalez-Lopez interviews many individuals to talk about their culture and how they felt living in Mexico and how their points of views changed once they moved to LA. Religion and traditions are deeply integrated withing the Mexican culture. It’s drilled in the female’s mind to stay a virgin for her future husband and having sex with someone other than her future husband puts her family’s reputation on the line. In the Mexican culture, women are raised to be recessive to their husbands while the men are raised to be dominant in the household, sex, and work, which causes individuals that immigrate to LA to look at their culture differently; women are liberated and start being successful in their career, and not recessive to their husband; they don’t feel pressured into staying a virgin or worried of insulting their family’s reputation.
Planned Parenthood is a non-profit organization that aims to provide healthcare for women and educate people of all ages about sexual education. Their website (www.plannedparenthood.org) allows both women and men to learn about reproductive health, find a health center, and discover more about the “mission” of Planned Parenthood. “Virginity” (https://www.plannedparenthood.org/teens/sex/virginity) is the title of one of the articles in the Info For Teens section of the website. This article loosely defines virginity and addresses some of the common fears teens may have about the subject. Another article, “Am I Ready?” (https://www.plannedparenthood.org/teens/sex/am-i-ready), serves to give advice to those who are thinking about having sex for the first time, or just being physically intimate with another person for the first time. Both of these articles leave very little out in terms of different sexualities, genders, and other minority groups. They also both explore the ways power relationships (in this case, boyfriend and girlfriend) can affect sexual relationships. As a result, Planned Parenthood creates information that can be applied to almost any person, male or female,
Today’s young Americans face strong peer pressure to be sexually active and engage themselves in risky behaviors (Merino 100-109). Anyone deciding to have sex must first think about all the risks involved. Kekla Magoon, author of Sex Education in Schools, says that “half of all teens aged 15 to 19 years old in the United States have had sex” (Magoon 64-65). It is currently not required by federal law for schools to teach Sex education and those few schools that do teach Sex education have the decision to determine how much information is allowed. Advocates from both sides of the Sex education debate agree that teens need positive influences in order to make practical decisions (Magoon 88-89). Opponents of Abstinence-only education believe it fails because it does not prepare teens for all the risks of sex (Magoon 64-65).
Chant, S., & Craske, N. (2002). Gender and Sexuality. In Gender in Latin America (pp. 128-160). Retrieved December 9, 2013
Arielle Massiah SW 7300 Sunday, March 29, 2015 Article Critique Teenage Sexuality and Media Practice: Factoring in the Influences of Family, Friends, and School Jeanne Rogge Steele Literature Review and Theoretical/ Conceptual Framework The social problem that the research addresses is the outrageously high rate of unprotected teenage sexual engagement and encounters. The problem was made apparent due to a survey that disclosed that not only had “three quarters of the 2,439 participants engage in sexual intercourse by their senior year, half of the participants reported that they did not use condoms and one third of the population failed to allocate the use of birth control at all; drastically increasing their exposure to HIV, sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy”. Steele, 1999, p. 339.
Today I will be talking about the way the authors and creators of a television commercial and newspaper article influence us to their opinion by writing the way they do. The topic that I am studying is Teenage Pregnancy. This topic is always going to be in the media for different reasons, and occasionally you hear about a story of a young girl getting pregnant due to un-safe sex. There will always be issues with this subject within society because so many people have different opinions and views of this topic and weather or not it right or wrong.
I can recall a time when the media was influencing my life and actions. The week after I graduated high school, my girlfriends and I took a trip to Cancun, Mexico, where the MTV beach house was located that summer. As I look back on the week of drunken partying and sexy guys, I can only wonder how I made it home alive. How could any young woman find this behavior acceptable? Every young woman there was flaunting their bodies to the young men around them. They were proud to be sexual objects. Where did they learn such debauchery? This is the kind of woman that is portrayed throughout MTV and various other aspects of the media. They have even coined the term “midriff”—the highly sexual character pitched at teenage girls that increasingly populates today’s television shows—in order to hook the teen customer. Teenage women increasingly look to the media to provide them with a ready-made identity predicated on today’s version of what’s “cool.” The media is always telling us that we are not thin enough, we’re not pretty enough, we don’t have the right friends, or we have the wrong friends… we’re losers unless we’re cool. We must follow their example and show as much skin as possible. The type of imagery depicted by MTV-- as well as people like Howard Stern, the famous “Girls Gone Wild” videos, and various Hip Hop songs—glorifies sex and the provocative woman.
Sexuality has become one of the key determining factors in one’s gender. While many want to initially say that gender is solely based on sexual orientation fail to take in to account many cultural practices, which not only influence gender, but create certain gender roles. The initial creation of Mexican gender roles, as Gloria Gonzalez-Lopez suggests, is the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church “over the course of almost five hundred years,” created beliefs that virgins are desirable and that a non-virgin is of a lower moral class (38). From this Mexican women began maintaining their virginity, not because of the moral implications, but because of social mobility. Virginity has been created to be something beautif...
Peter, Jochen, and Patti Valkenburg. "Adolescents’ Exposure To A Sexualized Media Environment And Their Notions Of Women As Sex Objects." Sex Roles 56.5/6 (2007): 381-395. Academic Search Premier. Web. 20 Nov. 2013.Vaes, Jeroen, Paola Paladino, and Elisa Puvia.
“Sex sells.” This is a common phrase used very often in social media and entertainment industries. Today, the youth generation is highly exposed to social media and products of entertainment industries from music to movies on the big screen. Most of the products produced by these industries are sexually explicit, and they tend to send the wrong messages about sexual behavior. Adolescents almost spend the same amount of time watching television and engaging with social media as they do in an educational environment. Therefore, the best way to tackle the misconceptions of sex among adolescents is to provide sex education in school. Sex education should be taught in school in order to provide a mutual learning experience for adolescents among
“In 2012, there were 29.4 births for every 1,000 adolescent females ages 15-19, or 305,420 babies born to females in this age group” (Hamilton). Teenage pregnancies were once regarded as normal. Women were once expected to be married and have a family at a young age to ensure lifelong stability. In modern times, teenage pregnancy is considered a taboo subject. MTV began a reality television show in 2009 that popularized pregnancy amongst adolescent females. There are many factors that add to the risk of becoming pregnant during adolescent years, but glamorizing the subject has shown to be the top reason.
Rates of sexually transmitted disease and teen pregnancy are higher in the United States than in any other domesticated country. Not surprising since American culture has brought sex to the forefront over the last few decades. The need for comprehensive sex education in schools can teach children that the romanticized relationships and sexual interactions in the media aren’t showing the whole story. For children with ...