Sexsells Essay, Research Paper

Sex Sells

Essay written by: aname09

As Americans we tend to have a conditioned view toward sexuality as a normal, healthy

part of life. However, it seems that one may underestimate the power that sex has on

culture, which is evident in the many areas. Most recently discussions on a sexual

nature received extreme national prominence with the public events surrounding the

Kenneth Starr investigation and report, which focuses on the sexual aspects of the

relationship between President Bill Clinton and a former intern, Monica Lewinsky. The

result was a war of beliefs, morals and differences of cultures mixed with political

manipulations. With the increase of sexual presence in our society, it is often wondered

how this increase has affected morals and values of those who live it. Sex is

everywhere–not just limited to the bedroom, but to the television, movies, billboards,

office buildings and almost every fragment of modern culture. Around the turn of the

twentieth century, open discussion and study of sex was well on its way.

Sexual/cultural pioneer, Sigmund Freud believed that sexuality was tightly woven in all

persons, present from birth. His breakthrough thinking affected social practices and was

instrumental in breaking the “moral fog that had enshrouded sexuality for most of the

nineteenth century did not begin to lift until after the First World War” (Janus 1993). By

analyzing modern culture, a person can accurately determine the effects of the sexual

revolution and how it has led to the alterations or evolution of personal, moral and

ethical principals.

Where do we get our morals and values? Character education was what took place in

school and society in the past. This drilling of acceptable social conventions seemed to

contain our culture for many years. In modern years society has shifted to the

“decision-making approach” (Kilpatrick 1993). This approach takes many forms,

sometimes as a course in itself, sometimes as a strategy in sex education classes,

sometimes as a unit in civics or social sciences–it has set the tone for modern moral

education in public and even private schools. “The shift from character education to

the decision-making model was begun with the best of intentions. The new approach

was meant to help students to think more independently and critically about values”

(Kilpatrick 1993). Followers of this approach claimed that a young person would be

more committed to self-discovered values than to ones that were simply handed down

by adults. That was the hope, but the actual effect of the shift has been quite

different. For students, it has meant confusion about moral values: learning to question

values they have scarcely acquired, unlearning values taught at home, and concluding

that questions of right and wrong are always changing with the influence of society.

We live in a sexual world, but Americans have been slow to fully acknowledge its

enormous impact. Among those interviewed in the Janus Report who were 18 to 26

years old, 21% of the men and 15% of the women had had sexual intercourse by age

14; a small percentage of them had had their first intercourse before age 10. “It ought

to be the oldest things that are taught to the youngest people.” (Noonan 1999) This

statement accurately portrays moral education today. “The Day America Told the

Truth,” a 1990 survey of American beliefs and values contains this scene from a

California high school. The setting, Friday afternoon and the students are leaving a

class in social living. The teacher’s parting words are, have a great weekend. Be

safe. Buckle up. Just say no. And if you can’t say ‘No,’ then use a condom! (Kilpatrick

1993) Although the teacher in this example gives a nod in the direction of abstinence,

his approach is basically of the “responsible sex” variety. Sex is an image that

Americans have grown accustomed too. Sex is everything. If you’re good looking, then

you’re having sex. If you’re sexy, then you’re having sex. If you’re having sex, you’re

popular, and people are more likely to buy stuff from your company if you show people

having sex. Sex sells. Sex sells cigarettes. Sex sells cars. Sex sells clothes, alcohol and

vacuum cleaners.

One way that a breakdown of sexual restraint hurts society is the educational sphere.

There is abundant evidence that the more sexually active students do poorly in school

and tend to drop out more frequently (Noonan 1999). For all of the teenage girls, who

drop out of school, half of them do so because of pregnancy. But that figure only

suggests one small aspect of the problem. The constant distraction caused by worries

about sex and about relationships takes a tool on schoolwork. Dieting has become an

unfortunate cultural phenomenon, especially for women and girls, whose self-image is

often closely linked with their body image. Eating disorders are more common in girls

because they believe it’s their role in society to be sexy. Numerous studies have been

conducted to determine the history of sexual abuse in eating disorders patients, and

the findings have been controversial. “The figures range from 7% to 74%, with most

studies showing that between 20-69% of anorexics and bulimics have been abused”

(Janus 1993). It is important to note, however that not everyone who has been

sexually abused develops anorexia and not all anorexics have been sexually abused. For

many survivors, anorexia can also serve as a way to make their bodies less desirable to

potential perpetrators. In one sense, mature adolescents deny their sexuality by

returning to a prepubescent state, developing amenorreah or loss of menstruation,

which is one of the criteria for diagnosing anorexia.

Unfortunately, teachers have been reluctant to discuss sex in absolute moral terms,

leaving students with the impression that it’s purely as subjective matter. It turns out

that when adults confront teens over sexual misbehaviors, a frequent response is

simply, “I didn’t know it was wrong.” Everyone is a product of his or her culture. We

tend to conform to cultural expectations, even if not perfectly. Our present culture

sends out confused and misleading messages about sex-messages that, in the long run,

may cause more harm than good. A former secretary of education observed,”I have

never had a parent tell me that he or she would be offended boy a teacher telling a

class that it is better to postpone sex. Or that marriage is the best setting for sex, and

in which to have and raise children. On the contrary, my impression is that the

overwhelming majority of parents would gratefully welcome help in transmitting such

values.” (Kilpatrick 1993) The long history of sexually transmitted diseases has made

caution in sex one of the facts of life. In the late 1980s, the AIDS epidemic made

caution in sex a fact of life or death. It was no longer a moral issue. When AIDS

surfaced as a national problem, the sexually active momentarily panicked. The

enormous tensions generated by these devastating STD s made practice of casual sex

pause. “The new social and sexual changes in lifestyles have been adopted by many

other participants. Divorced or separated men and women, newly single, are dating

again and searching for sex partners and new love. Parents in their 40’s and 50’s and

60’s are enjoying a new sexual style at the same time their teenage or young adult

children are also experimenting with sex, and seeking loving relationships. There are few

guidelines now, except for cautions about sexually transmitted diseases. The old rules

governing sex no longer apply, and many individuals and couples now create their own

moral and lifestyle decisions, or make them within the morality of their own small, peer

reference groups” (Janus 1993).

In the Janus report, 45% of women and 19% of men claimed to have been sexually

harassed on their jobs. In the interviews, the men attributed the harassment they

experienced to both heterosexual and homosexual individuals; the women ascribed their

harassment almost entirely to men. In an age of liberation, it is interesting that an issue

so broad gained national attention so accidentally. Why all the sudden there an

underlying awareness of widespread sexual harassment on the part of women? The

intensity and speed of reaction to the charges readily support this assumption. Sexual

Harassment has become a household topic across America. Today, men and women are

more free than ever to explore their sexual beings in or out of marriage. Their

transformed sex roles, feminism movement and the sexual revolution cause increased

communication outside the home. Today, medicine, psychology and sociology advise

that people should keep on having sex as long as they wish. Sexuality becomes

adapted to the context of the sexual experience, at all ages. While early adolescence

are experimenting with full sexual activities of diverse varieties and young couples are

seeking sex for reproduction, older couples are enjoying the comfort and excitement of

sex in a new appreciated form. “A new, vital, and active sexuality has been identified

among mature, and post mature Americans. While society frets about preteens’

frolicking and college students’ antics on Spring break in Florida, the graying segment of

Americans may be leading the way in superior sexual experience” (Janus 1993).

Other issues relating to sexuality have also made headlines over the past two decades.

Divorce rates leaped in the 1970’s, absent or self-involved parents and child-rearing

practices were blamed for creating misbehaving, out-of-control kids; the family was

believed to be in big trouble. Very young adults are living together without the benefit

of marriage. Meanwhile, kids are experimenting with their own sexuality at earlier and

earlier ages. Barely out of their own childhood, teenagers are producing babies at

ever-growing rates. By the 1980’s, nearly a million mothers under 18 were giving birth

every year. (Janus 1993) Of these young women, 70% were unmarried, up from 30%

only a decade earlier. Some estimates indicate that as many as 10,000 extremely

young women age 12 or younger, become pregnant every year. (Janus 1993) The

younger these children are when they have their first child, the more likely they are to

have at least one more child before their teen years end. These children who have

children are particularly at risk of dropping out of school and becoming social

throwaways who face a bleak future and are wanted only on the streets. Later, unable

to get and hold jobs, they will drop out of the labor market as well, creating cycles of

deep, depressing, poverty as their children and grandchildren in turn become teenage,

single, unemployable parents. This idea represents the attitude of our culture to

criticize teen parents and to make an example of those kids.look what can happen to

you.etc. However, this is not always the case, many teen mothers are extremely

successful in personal and professional careers. Many times the father will support the

baby who shares his genes, even if they do not act as a family unit.

By analyzing many factors where sex is apparent on modern culture, it is obvious how

this increased presence has significantly affected values and morals on related topics.

There has been a dramatic shift in attitude in just a small period of time and it will be

interesting to see how these changes will continue to evolve and adapt to new

introductions of culture and it s influence.

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