Media’s Portrayal of Sexuality

Me
Professor ****
English 100
25 December 2012
Media’s Portrayal of Sexuality
Most media today portrays acts of sexuality especially in the Internet, and it is also know as pornography. Most youth 's today know how to use Internet, which advertisement that has pornographic features is inevitable. The effects of the media 's portrayal of sexuality to adolescents are vast. The staggering size of the pornography industry, influences upon the media and the acceleration of technology, which paired with accessibility, anonymity, and affordability of porn that give to its increasing impact upon the culture. Pornography shows young teenage girls being flirtatious and having sex, and it also shows young men as sexual predators or pressuring the girls. The media also represents young gays or lesbian 's sex is more tempting to homosexual viewers. For example, if both parents work at evening, and their child is left alone at home without a babysitter or a guardian. There would be a possibility that he or she might encounter unexpected pornographic advertisements, which is unavoidable, that would make him or her to explore the world of pornography due to the absence of parents. In other cases, pornography is also caused by too much exploration or knowledge in the Internet, unrestricted web browser, saved adult contents in the Internet history, and other causes. Minors who watch pornography can cause social and psychological problems such as becoming controlling, introverted, narcissistic, curious, depressed, dissociative, distractive, high anxiety, and low self-esteem. Supervision is needed because blocking websites and forbidding using computer—which children can also use their smartphone or tablet to go to porn Websites—are not sufficient to guide or teach their child. It is very helpful to understand its negative effects to avoid physical and mental problems in our life, as well as to avoid early pregnancy to young women and responsibility to young men.
The growth of children’s population in watching pornography is increasing, and their attitude and behavior change as well. There was a study in Taiwan about the increasing of teenagers who watch Internet pornography. As the matter of fact, it is also about the relationship between exposures to Internet pornography and the sexual attitudes and behavior of surveyed teens. As a result of the survey, there was 38% of the sample had exposed to Internet Pornography. Furthermore, this exposure was related with greater recognition of sexual laxity and the greater likelihood of engaging in sexually permissive behavior. Even more, this exposure showed sustained relationships with sexually permissive attitudes and behavior when it was examined simultaneously with exposure to traditional pornography, general media use, and demographics (Ven-hwei Lo and Ran Wei 221-237).
Expert testimony and public opinion tell that pornography harms without violence. In the article of New York Times (1992), Philip D. Harvey states that the pornography victims’ compensation bill should be defeated or in some way limited to violent material. Nonviolent pornography shows sexual activities involving inanimate objects, groups of people, adults portraying minors, incest, animals, urination or defecation, or degradation. On the other hand, Dr. Victor Cline, a University of California, Berkeley psychologist who has treated hundreds of sex offenders, stated that the lacking violence has the potential of having negative effects on many viewers because of their demonstrating unhealthy sex-role behavior or giving deception about human sexuality. An empirical research by Professor Dolf Zillman, a professor of Indiana University, signifies that prolonged consumption of nonviolent pornography can lead to callousness toward women, insensitivity to victims of sexual violence and trivialization of rape. Nevertheless, the Attorney General 's Commission on Pornography concluded that "substantial exposure" to nonviolent but degrading material "bears some causal relationship to the level of sexual violence." The indecent material in a specific case has a bearing on either or not a producer or distributor should have reasonably predicted that it would create unreasonable risk of harm, but the nonviolence of the material should not inevitably defend it from liability.
Watching pornography can also a cause of death. On December 18, 2010, a male tourist German was found dead, lying on his bed in his room in North Pattaya, Thailand. Police considered that he died from the excitement of watching a sex movie. Lieutenant Colonel Issaranuwat Jongapichaikul, a Banglamung Deputy Police Investigator, received a report that a male tourist had been found dead in the Rattanasuk Inn hotel, Pattaya-Naklua road, Moo. 5. Mr. Michael Schmauch, a fifty-seven years old German national, was found dead wearing just his underpants while the TV was turned on and displaying a sex movie on DVD. There was no sign of criminal action on the search of the room, and the police found a blood pressure measuring instrument, a few medical tablets, several pornographic DVD movies, and his personal belongings. The police estimated that he had been dead for about 6 hours. Mr. Rerngsan Topimai, the hotel security guard, informed the police that Mr. Schmauch had been staying in the hotel for over a month. Additionally, he enjoyed drinking liquors and smoking cigarettes, and he had been suffering from heart disease. The police speculated that Mr. Schmauch had health problems, and he may have been overwhelmed by the enthusiasm of watching the sex movie. However, Mr. Schmauch’s body was sent for autopsy, and the police informed the situation to the German Embassy (http://www.pattayadailynews.com).
Correlational studies have linked socio-demographic factors (gender, age, and ethnicity) to adolescents ' viewing preferences and to their understanding and interpretation of sexual material in the media. Findings indicate that adolescent girls choose network television programs with sexual content more often than adolescent boys and spend more time watching it, often in the company of parents. Older adolescent boys are more concerned to hardcore sexual content found in explicit music lyrics and X-rated films. They are also more drawn to new media choices like handheld devices, the Internet, and computer games. Adolescents of both genders who watch and listen to a lot of media are more likely to accept stereotypes of sex roles on television as realistic than are less frequent viewers (Gruber and Grube).
Other research indicates that ethnicity plays an important role in media viewing choices. Associated with white peers, African-Americans who spend more time watching television are more likely to choose fictional programming with African American characters, and they are more likely to perceive those characters as realistic. The study also says that African-American adolescents watch more R-rated movies than white peers, with less parental involvement or mediation. African-American and white youths also find different features of video portrayals salient and disagree on story elements (Gruber and Grube).
Age or stage of growth also influences understanding and interpretation of sexual content. In a study of sexual intimation on television, twelve-year-old youths were less likely to understand suggestive material than fourteen-years-old and sixteen-years-old. In the same way, in a study of adolescent girls aged of eleven to fifteen years old, who were at an earlier stage of physiologic progress, were less attentive in sex showed in the media while more mature young women were fascinated and more vigorously sought out sexual content in the media as a means of “learning the rules, rituals, and skills” of romance and relationships. The study also reported that the media provided models for attaining the “right look” to become popular and attract boys, portrayed teen characters with problems similar to their own, showed how they solved those problems, and gave examples of how to behave in sexual situations (Gruber and Grube).
Religion is a great nemesis of pornography. Pornography leads to idolatry. In the text of Holy Bible, Jesus said, " Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve" (KJV, Matthew 4.10). In the ancient near-Eastern history documents, the corruption of nations that worshiped the fertility gods used human sex organs as their symbols and prostitution as worship. In ancient time, people fell into these pagan practices, so the God punished them without mercy. Pornography represents symbols, rituals, stimulus, and the creeds for worshiping the human body and its sexual impulses rather than the eternal Spirit, Jehovah God. God despises all that is immoral, idolatrous, sexually perverted, and lustful. It is written in the Holy Bible, "Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind… shall inherit the kingdom of God… Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body" (KJV, I Corinthians 6.9-13). Additionally, the Holy Scripture also exhorts us, " But immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints" (KJV, Ephesians 5.3) and “have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them" (KJV, Ephesians 5:11).
Parent must never give up concerning the fight against pornography and its concubine. It is not always easy to recognize the warning signs that a child may be viewing pornography or involved in other compulsive sexual behaviors, so it is really necessary to supervise children and explain the situation. To guide adolescents who already experienced pornography, Parents should engage but do not overact. According to Dr. Richard Toft, a child psychologist in Palo Alto, California, overacting on the situation can have more of an effect than the exposure itself. He also stated that parents should consider porn the same way they consider any issue about their child’s sexuality. It is the kid’s decision to make either he or she shares his or her situation or not. Young adolescents watch porn to express their moral feelings about sex. A parent’s reaction can have a tremendous impact that can cause traumatic by ranting, raving and threatening reprisals. Another way is to block and supervise their child. Parent should set up blocking software or web filtering tool on their child’s computer. Blocking software filters or blocks any porn related site from popping-up while a web-filtering tool prevents a child from stumbling into porn sites. Web filtering is a great tool that has helped parent in placing restriction on the sites their children want to view. Finally, Parents need to educate their kids on the danger of pornography and computer sex offenders. Parent should take proper care to educate their children concerning the adverse effect of pornography exposure and the constant victimization of these computer-sex offenders. Moreover, parents should always advise their kids never to talk or chat with strangers online, not to download pictures or videos that are suspected to be pornography materials, and never to give out their personal identification or contacts to any body online.

Works Cited 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians 6:9 KJV. Online Parallel Bible, n.d. Web. 23 Nov. 2012. <http://kingjbible.com/1_corinthians/6-9.htm>. Ephesians. Ephesians 5 KJV. Online Parallel Bible, n.d. Web. 23 Nov. 2012. <http://kingjbible.com/ephesians/5-1.htm>. "German Man Dies In Bed Watching Porn." Pattaya Daily News. N.p., 19 Dec. 2010. Web. 23 Nov. 2012. <http://www.pattayadailynews.com/en/2010/12/19/german-man-dies-in-bed-watching-porn/>. Gruber, Enid, and Joel W. Grube. "Adolescent Sexuality and the Media." Western Journal of Medicine. US National Library of Medicine, Mar. 2000. Web. 23 Nov. 2012. <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1070813/> Lo, Ven-hwei, and Ran Wei. "Exposure To Internet Pornography And Taiwanese Adolescents ' Sexual Attitudes And Behavior." Journal Of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 49.2 (2005): 221-237. Academic Search Premier. Web. 20 Nov. 2012. Magid, Larry. "So Your Kid Is Looking at Porn. Now What?" SafeKids.com. N.p., 17 Dec. 2011. Web. 25 Nov. 2012. <http://www.safekids.com/2011/12/17/so-your-kid-is-looking-at-pornography-now-what/>. Matthew. Matthew 4:10 KJV. Online Parallel Bible, n.d. Web. 23 Nov. 2012. <http://kingjbible.com/matthew/4-10.htm>. "Pornography Harms Without Violence." New York Times 17 June 1992: 24. Academic Search Premier. Web. 20 N ov. 2012. Van Valin, Clyde E., Bishop. "Biblical Reasons to Fight Pornography." American Family Association. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Nov. 2012. <http://www.afa.net/detail.aspx?id=2147484807>.

Cited: 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians 6:9 KJV. Online Parallel Bible, n.d. Web. 23 Nov. 2012. &lt;http://kingjbible.com/1_corinthians/6-9.htm&gt;. Ephesians. Ephesians 5 KJV. Online Parallel Bible, n.d. Web. 23 Nov. 2012. &lt;http://kingjbible.com/ephesians/5-1.htm&gt;. "German Man Dies In Bed Watching Porn." Pattaya Daily News. N.p., 19 Dec. 2010. Web. 23 Nov. 2012. &lt;http://www.pattayadailynews.com/en/2010/12/19/german-man-dies-in-bed-watching-porn/&gt;. Gruber, Enid, and Joel W. Grube. "Adolescent Sexuality and the Media." Western Journal of Medicine. US National Library of Medicine, Mar. 2000. Web. 23 Nov. 2012. &lt;http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1070813/&gt; Lo, Ven-hwei, and Ran Wei. "Exposure To Internet Pornography And Taiwanese Adolescents ' Sexual Attitudes And Behavior." Journal Of Broadcasting &amp; Electronic Media 49.2 (2005): 221-237. Academic Search Premier. Web. 20 Nov. 2012. Magid, Larry. "So Your Kid Is Looking at Porn. Now What?" SafeKids.com. N.p., 17 Dec. 2011. Web. 25 Nov. 2012. &lt;http://www.safekids.com/2011/12/17/so-your-kid-is-looking-at-pornography-now-what/&gt;. Matthew. Matthew 4:10 KJV. Online Parallel Bible, n.d. Web. 23 Nov. 2012. &lt;http://kingjbible.com/matthew/4-10.htm&gt;. "Pornography Harms Without Violence." New York Times 17 June 1992: 24. Academic Search Premier. Web. 20 N ov. 2012. Van Valin, Clyde E., Bishop. "Biblical Reasons to Fight Pornography." American Family Association. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Nov. 2012. &lt;http://www.afa.net/detail.aspx?id=2147484807&gt;.