Sexual Pressures Essay, Research Paper

The media is just one of the factors responsible for the increase in teen

sexuality. Throughout a humans adolescents years they are subject to a

number of sexual pressures. Through research I have found that peers are

among the most influential. An adolescent is not limited to peer pressure

though. They face pressures from the media as well. I believe that media

pressure is just a influential as peer pressure. There is also other pressure,

from people such as older friends, parents, and just adults in general.

Peers is a term that can be defined as friends. I have found that

many teens have friends that are athletes. In high schools, boy athletes

outscore all of the other boys with the girls(Elias 1). On the other hand ,

girls on sports teams are much less sexually active than other females who

do not play sports(Elias 1). This shows that male athletes are far more

pressuring each other on the issue of sexuality. So for males who are

into sports they are subjected to a host of pressures and can as a result do

things they would not normally do. On the contrary, I found that females

who do sports are far less pressured and influenced about sex. In fact they

are far less likely to be sexually active than teen females who do not

participate in sports.

I believe that all teens in general should know the results of being

a sexually active teen. There are many consequences of being sexually

active, one of the major one being sexually transmitted diseases. A sexually

transmitted disease might not sound so bad but, some can cause sterility

and even worse , death. Even when condoms are used, a STD can still be transmitted.

Depending on the type of std they can or can not be cured. A few

diseases that can not be cured include herpes, HPV, And HIV, which later

turns into the virus AIDS. “The disease HPV can cause cervical cancer and

HIV results in a long, painful death. Almost a third of sexually active teens

contracted a new STD within a mere six months, reported one study, even

among condom users”(Terilliger 2).

Once a teen has become sexually active he or she must assume new

roles. Males must think about the issue of perhaps becoming a father by

accident of intentionally. Moreover, females must think about all the

consequences of having sex. No sex happens to be the safest form of sexual

activity. It is not hard for a condom to break of for birth control pills to be

forgotten once or twice during a cycle to cause a pregnancy. In addition,

once a female becomes pregnant there are few options she can explore.

In a like manner, adults are an impact on a teens sexuality. Most

teens look up to an adult and admire them. Likewise, they want to try to be

like there idol. This is why an adult can have a profound impact on a teen

trying to cope with the pressures of sexuality. That is why all adults in all

classes of society should watch what they do or say in relation to teens. For

example, The President of the United States was adulterous and lied about

it. We as society say “so what?” when the accusations surfaced at

first(Kavanagh 13).

In the same fashion, the media plays a huge part of sexual pressures

exerted on a teen. One way being television. Television at the present time

is full of vulgarness and sex. As far as prime time television is concerned is

safer to watch old re runs of the Lucy Show” and the “Cosby Show”. “they

ere from an era where sex was not such a prime time staple”(Riley 186).

This show how much society has changed concerning sex. In the old times

sex was not a way to get better ratings like it is today. Similarly, music has

an impact on an adolescents sexuality. Rap lyrics at the current time are

full of obscenities and words concerning sex. In the rapper Eminem’s song

Role Model , he says, “Im going to rape her and leave her, once I get near

her”(mathers 1). When the media says these kind of things teens are lead

to believe that this type of behavior is normal and should not be digressed.

Every teen listens to some kind of music with obscenities and vulgarness, so

all are subjected to these kind of musical lyrics. Many teens even idolize

musical artists, so they would intern try to be like what they think the artist

actually does. Even though most lyrics are just lyrics and are not intentionally

made to mislead teens or anyone.

In conclusion, I have found that the media is one of the factors

concerning teen sexuality. Furthermore, peers are another huge impact on

a teens sexuality. In addition, there where also pressures from adults.

through this “I” search paper I have found out a lot of interesting concepts

concerning what a teen is pressured by sexually, during the growing years.

It was one of the most informative researches I ever did.