Teen Sexuality | Introduction
Sex is a pervasive theme in American culture. Television commercials regularly show sexualized images of men’s and women’s bodies with the implication that these sexy and desirable people will fulfill the viewers’ fantasies. Plots involving sexual pursuit and gratification are staples on television and in the movies. Music videos of all types emphasize sexual situations often with explicit language and imagery. These pop culture representations portray sex as casual, guilt-free, and the ultimate goal of every date or relationship. Teens—and adults—who continually see these portrayals of sexual encounters may come to believe that engaging in promiscuous and premarital sex is normal and expected behavior. The National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy quotes one teen’s view of sex in its 1999 report on teen pregnancy:
I think the media can influence a lot of younger kids who don’t know [about sex]. They think that [how sex is depicted on TV and in the movies] is how it’s going to be: You come home after the first date, you have sex with someone, and it’s all glamorous, and that’s it. They think because they see their favorite movie stars doing it, . . . they can just follow them.
Teens who accept the media’s portrayal of sex as fun, glamorous, and a rite of passage to adulthood are often surprised when their own sexual experiences do not live up to their expectations. The Hollywood version of sex shows people meeting, having sex, falling in love, and living happily ever after. Rarely does the media show any of the negative consequences of sexual activity—pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, disillusionment, or broken hearts, for example. Maturity and life experiences can prepare some teens for some of the consequences of sexual activity and lessen the effect of others, yet many teens are unprepared for their feelings of regret or emptiness after sex. Shauna, who was eighteen years old when she first had sex with her boyfriend, explains how emotionally lost she felt after the experience:
Instead of feeling like I’d crossed some sacred threshold into true womanhood, I felt like I’d just slammed the door on ever being a little girl again. I was 18—an adult by legal standards—and yet there was still a little girl inside of me who wasn’t quite ready to let go of who she was. I felt as if I’d given away a part of me that I could never get back.
I think I assumed too much. I thought that since my partner loved me a great deal and we’d given the event so much forethought, I would be left with a rosy “afterglow” instead of the emptiness I felt.
According to Shauna, Hollywood’s portrayal of premarital sex is “The Big Lie.”
Many parents, teachers, and religious and political leaders agree with Shauna’s view that movies and television send teens the wrong message when it comes to sex. Many adults (and more and more teens) believe that sexual intercourse forms the most intimate bond between a man and woman and is therefore immoral outside of marriage. Parents worry that media portrayals of sex will override the moral and religious beliefs they have tried to instill in their children and influence them to have sex before they are emotionally ready. In response to many parents’ concerns, Congress decreed in its 1996 Welfare Reform Act that school-based sex education programs should teach that “a mutually faithful monogamous relationship in the context of marriage is the expected standard of human sexual activity” and that “sexual activity outside of marriage is likely to have harmful psychological and physical effects.”
But new studies show that teens may be paying more attention to their parents’ values than was previously thought. In 1998, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that the teen sex rate had dropped for the first time during the 1990s. Its 1997 survey of more than sixteen thousand teens found that 48 percent of them had had sexual intercourse, compared with 54 percent in 1991. De- fenders of traditional sex education programs point to these statistics and argue that Congress’s proposed changes to sex education are unnecessary. However, a second study by Michael Resnick of the University of Minnesota provides another explanation for the drop in teen sexual activity. According to Resnick, parents who spend time with their children and make their values clear are more likely to have children who forgo sex, drugs, alcohol, tobacco, and violence. “It’s more than the physical presence of parents, the number of hours a day they’re in the home,” Resnick contends. “It’s their emotional availability.” He asserts that teens take note of what is expected of them when their parents make themselves available to their children and express their feelings and values. “The power and the importance of parents continue to persist, even into late adolescence,” he maintains.
Parents and other adults have a difficult time fighting the images of free and easy sex that permeate popular culture. Parents want their children to abstain from sex, while teens continually receive the message that sex is fun and a rite of passage into adulthood. And adults’ efforts to deal with the problem of teen sex are often controversial. For example, some adults believe that if teens are going to have sex, then they should at least protect themselves and their partners by using contraception, especially a condom. Others believe that promoting contraception encourages teens to have sex. These conflicting views of teen sex are just some of the topics debated by authors in the following chapters: What Factors Influence Teen Attitudes Toward Sex? Should Society Be Concerned About Teen Sex? How Should Society Respond to Teen Sex? and What Should Teens Be Taught About Sex? The issue of teen sex is complex and holds critical consequences for both the teens involved and society.
