In “Girls will be Girls”, the first chapter of the book “Dirty Little Secrets”, Kerry Cohen brings up a problem that is unnoticed by most people: American teenage girls, living in an appearance culture, are developing promiscuity as self-destructive behaviors. Cohen wants to inform her readers that this problem is very real, it is happening and should not be underestimated since it does not stop at just being a teenage girls’ thing during their puberty, as it often follows the girls to their adulthood. She starts off the first chapter by sharing real stories from other girls that experience the same problem, such as Faith who went through unusual feelings during her trip to the swimming pool when she was eleven years old, all because she suddenly …show more content…
realized that boys do exist, and they do matter. Or Lana, who had to struggle between expectations and contradictions from her parents, she did not know what to do when her parents had always expected her to be pretty and loved by many, but then was suddenly told she needed to stop and focus on schoolwork. Cohen states that these girls are drowning in the pressure they receive from the American culture’s expectations. It forces abstinence upon the girls while letting the media promote sexualization messages everywhere, “Magazines, billboards, commercials, Internet ads - these are just the tip of the iceberg. Take a quick glance at some of the top teen girls’ magazines and you see these headlines: “How to Get a Guy’s Attention,” “383 Ways to Look Hot,” “Look Pretty,” “How to Get Perfect Skin,” “Get Pretty Now,” and “Be Irresistible.” Girls see more than four hundred advertisements per day telling them how they should look.” It does not stop at just magazines, but also television shows and children movies, such as “The Little Mermaid”, where the main character is willing to give away her entire identity as a mermaid and also her voice just to get the prince’s love. She points out that the media is the messenger, the promoter, and the partner in crime with American it-is-only-about-your-looks culture in causing promiscuity and sexualization in teenage girls. Cohen succeeds in proving that promiscuity and sexualization among teenage girls is a problem that deserves more attention, her argument is strong and by sharing the stories from real girls, she proves that she is not alone in this matter and there are many girls out there who feel the same way with her.
Even though she mainly focuses on the media as the main cause of promiscuity, she is also clearly aware of other causes such as puberty. By providing statistics including other studies, such as, “Although the average age of puberty onset is 10.5, with most girls entering puberty between the age of 8 and 13, there is evidence that this age is dropping. In 1997, a landmark study of approximately seventeen thousand girls found that 15 percent of Caucasian girls and 50 percent of black girls already started to show signs of puberty by age 8. More recent research suggests an even further drop to age 7.”, Cohen shows her readers that as this test for hormones is happening earlier and earlier nowadays, teenagers, or the girls specifically, tend to explore their sexuality sooner when they lack the skills to handle it. She proves that puberty could also be a cause to sexualization, however she also claims that even though these changes in hormones cause sexual curiosity, girls are mostly affected by their environmental surroundings, which is media in this case. Nobody can deny that Cohen’s argument is strong since it is supported by many relevant evidences, it still has many limits …show more content…
such as her bias, which the readers can easily pick up through pages. She is too often co-opted by her own past, her writing is strongly filled with emotions which clouds her fairness when she victimizes the women too much and blaming it on the boys, the culture and the media. Because the method Cohen chooses is case studies and she only interviews approximately seventy five girls, she is unable to apply her conclusion regarding the promiscuity issue on a larger population, thus she cannot establish a concept stating that promiscuity in girls is caused by media’s sexualizing messages. Even with those limits, Cohen’s study still suggests that media has a strong impact on American teenage girls’ sexualization, she brings up an underestimated problem that is not discussed by many people, she also succeeds in providing a place for a specific group of people to speak up, in this case are the “loose girls”, and develops questions for further research. When Kerry Cohen’s “Girls will be Girls” focuses mainly on the media’s harms, the authors of “Adolescent and Parent Perceptions of Media Influence on Adolescent Sexuality” share a more positive view toward the media’s influence on adolescent sexual behaviors.
They all agree that media has certain impacts on adolescent attitudes and behaviors, however, they express more concerns about how much adolescents are actually aware of this. In order to prove this, they asked a group of people coming from the urban and rural communities of Southwest Michigan to participate in interviews and discussion about adolescent sexual behaviors. These participants were divided in groups with young girls, boys, their mothers and fathers, “The average age was 15 for girls and 16 for boys. Parents’ ages ranged from 41 to 51 with the average age being 46 for mothers and 48 for fathers.” They were asked to rank and discuss the influential factors such as parents, peers and media. The purpose of this experiment is to identify the extent of how adolescents and their parents think about media’s influence without being prompted. The results from groups were compared and surprisingly, the adolescents did not seem to think that media has such huge impact on their sexual behaviors, which was opposite to what their parents believed as they showed significant concerns about how media influences their children. However, most of the girls in the focus group tried to minimize the media’s influence, “several
stated that they did not believe that sexual content in movies influenced sexual behavior, mocking the idea that they would ‘go home and have sex’ after seeing a movie that included sexual content”. This raises a question that goes against almost all common beliefs: is it true that adolescent sexual behaviors are heavily influenced by what the media promotes, or they are actually aware of it and take in the information more responsibly than the adults think? Although there are many research trying to explain the relationship between media’s influence and young girls’ sexual behaviors, the authors claim that there could be a misunderstanding that leads to believing girls often take in sexual information negatively. They bring up the Steel (1999) examination concerning the relationship between teenagers and media which found that “gender differences might be present in the selection of media to be viewed or listened”. It also showed that young girls actually take in the information from media and magazines responsibly, “Girls uses these magazines as discussion starters and to supplement sex education classes whereas boys have reported that they consider the seeking and sharing of advice unmasculine behavior”. The authors of “Adolescents and Parents Perceptions of Media Influence on Adolescent Sexuality” try to contrast the difference between adolescents’, parents’ perceptions and the common ideas about the media’s influence. Unlike “Girls will be Girls” by Kerry Cohen, they do not focus too much on the media’s harms but more on the positive effects it brings regarding sex education, they also do not share personal stories from other participants, this helps reduce their bias and keeps them in a fair position throughout the study. Their interviews with the group of adolescent girls, whom discussed media and sexuality, show that the participants actually believed that recent campaigns promoting awareness of HIV/AIDS and safe sex with humor are “the most effective”, the authors also received positive feedback from the groups of parents.
Throughout her book Mary Pipher, a clinical psychologist, describes the behaviors and relationships of adolescent teen girls. She explores the issues that most of her patients have in common: parents and divorce, depression, weight, drugs, alcohol, violence, and sex. Pipher provides examples of girls who had suffered from each category, and ends with a generalization that connects each situation to a deeper meaning. Although parents and daughters are somewhat to blame in each occasion, Pipher holds the corrupt modern culture of western society accountable. She believes that the idealized image of girls that the media puts out is the root of most adolescent insecurities. In Reviving Ophelia, Pipher draws attention to the increasing need for female teen awareness and incorporates the methods she suggests to the struggling families.
In this book therapist Mary Pipher writes about her experiences at work with adolescent girls. It is intended to make the reader aware of the perils of being a teenager in today's sexualized and media-saturated culture. She talks about how this new and more hostile environment affects adolescent girls' emotional growth and development, and how hard it is to stay true to yourself while trying to fit in with peers. For the most part this book is Dr. Pipher's attempt to reach out to adolescents, as well as their parents and teachers, and tell them that this "problem without a name" is not a death sentence but rather a journey to adulthood, and tells adults how to help these impressionable young girls through what might be the most trying period of their lives.
The short story “Lust” by Susan Minot details the life of a high school girl who has succumbed to the pressure of her surroundings. The pressure of sex by her peers and all of the boys she came across led to the multiple sexual encounters that make up this story. This realistic view on the teenagers of the early 1970’s shows the ups and downs of sexual movement of the 1960’s. In “Lust”, Susan Minot shows the reality of a teenage girl’s life throughout her high school years and the problems her actions give her as she gets older. Janet M. Ellerby analyzes “Lust” in her essay titled, “Lust”.
Author Amy Schalet ultimately brings up a delicate and sensitive topic about teens having sex, comparing the different mindsets of families in the Netherlands and in America. By Schalet carrying the interviews, she found out that teens in America are a lot more secretive with their personal lives, and would not discuss it with their parents, unlike teens from the Netherlands that eventually told their parents. While some people might say that it’s a matter of common sense, some other people might argue it has to do with culture. Catholics, for example, believe in celibacy until you have decided on the person you will marry. You are taught from young age to protect your body and mind from carnal desires and focus on other things that will benefit you on the long run. Obviously, times have changed, and not many people practice this anymore. We can see an example on shows on television about teen pregnancy, while these shows aren’t necessarily telling to go ahead and have children at young age, it might have negative impact on younger girls, almost like a unintentional role model. On the other hand, writer Jamaica Kincaid, demonstrates the In The Girl we see the other side of the coin, a mother that is so demanding and is always right, no matter the outcome, she is right, and things have to be done a certain way. I think a figure like this would not benefit
...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.
Female beauty ideals are an overwhelming force in teen media. Approximately 37% of articles in leading magazines for teen girls emphasize a focus on physical appearance. This is none to surprising considering two of the top contenders in this media genre are Seventeen and Teen Vogue. CosmoGIRL and Elle Girl were among the ranks of popular teen magazines, but in recent years have become exclusively online publications. Add in a dash of publications Tiger Beat and Bop, and it becomes glaringly obvious that girls are charged with the prime directive of looking good to get the guy. The story becomes more disturbing when the actual audience, which includes girls at least as young as eleven years old, is considered. In a stage when girls are trying for the first time to establish their identities, top selling publications are telling them that their exteriors should be their primary concern of focus. Of course, this trend doesn’t stop with magazines. A study conducted in 1996 found a direct correlation between the “amount of time an adolescent watches soaps, movies and music videos” a...
Strasburger, V., & Donnerstein, E. (1999). Children, Adolescents, and the Media: Issues and Solutions. Pediatrics, 103(1), 129-139.
Nowadays, more people tend to care about and work on social justice. Women’s rights, as one of the topics, draws people’s attention. The society and female-selves have rethought the meaning of being women in the 21st century. Therefore, nowadays twenty-something girls start to behave differently from early generation. One of the behaviors becomes ambiguous, which is female sexuality. In “Selections from Hard to Get: Twenty-Something Women and the Paradox of Sexual Freedom”, Leslie Bell argues that neither contradictory directing nor expectation from others is the main reason that causes female sexuality. She sets up this claim, because the identity a woman established by herself impacts more on a woman’s sexuality. Establishing an identity is more important because it’s more independently authentic, also it represents what the woman wants, who she truly wants to be. Another reason is that, sexuality is one of the changed-behaviors that women use to prove their established identity. Therefore, female sexuality is driven by identity rather than social expectation or confused directing from others because, first, the identity is established by a women herself independently; second, the identity is the way how a women defines who she is, which matters more than any other outside effects; third, women decide to have a certain kind of sexuality in order to prove their defined identities.
The innocence of children is losing its grip to premature adolescence. Bruce Friend, an employee at Nickelodeon, simply puts it, instead of caring about what children should be concerned with, “they are very concerned with their ‘look’” (183). When children begin to feel they are ‘too old’ for Barbie dolls or action figures, the begin to search for something to fill their time such as working with their appearances. Once how they put their visage becomes a priority, it spawns an entirely thought process within them and they begin the downward spiral of losing their innocence. Even at school, peer pressure pushes children of young age groups to commence actions they never thought of committing. However, it’s not just girls being pushed into certain pressures, most “boys felt pressurized into being interested and [sic] girls and sex before they were ready” (Rosemary, 2). Children of young ages look up to this generation advice for flirtatious ideas and clothing, and kids are receiving the ‘okay’ to sex and other explicit desires
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.
Most teenagers do not plan to get pregnant, but many do. Teen pregnancies carry extra health risks to both the mother and the baby. One reason teens end up pregnant at such a young age is because they never had “the talk.” When parents do not begin to stress the consequences of not using a condom to their child they increase the risk of that child being reckless. Another influence of teen pregnancy is the impact of exposure to sexual content on the behaviors of adolescents. Albert Bandura’s social learning theory incorporates the dominance of media in relation to its impact on societal behaviors. Bandura’s social learning theory emphasizes the environmental impact television images have on both the mental and behavioral processes of viewers. It is not a secret that sex sells and for some reason, young sex sells even more. Teens respond to media content and in today’s world it is uncommon for a show to not have sexual content. How that content is received depends entirely on the viewer, but how the content is presented depends on what will sell. The media influences teen pregnancy by glamourizing sex, showing the pros and cons of pregnancy and by making young mothers into celebrities.
“The media may be especially important for young people as they are developing their own sexual beliefs and patterns of behavior and as parents and schools remain reluctant to discuss sexual topics (p.26)”.
Media technologies are becoming an important aspect of today’s society. Each and every day, people interact with media of many different forms. Media is commonly defined as being a channel of communication. Radio, newspapers, and television are all examples of media. It is impossible to assume that media is made up of completely unbiased information and that the media companies do not impose their own control upon the information being supplied to media users. Since many people use media very frequently, it is obvious to assume that it has affects on people. According to the text book Media Now, "media effects are changes in knowledge, attitude, or behavior that result from exposure to the mass media," (386). This leaves us with many unanswered questions about media and its influences. This paper will look at how the effects of media are determined and explore the main affects on today’s society - violence, prejudice, and sexual behavior.
Sexual activity in the mass media is another negative influence on teenagers. The first example is early sexual intercourse. According to Stockwell, a research shows that teenagers who are exposed to a lot of sexual content on television are more to likely to have sex by 16 years of age than those with limited exposure.