Sexual Messages on Television

If you happen to watch T.V from time to time, especially if you have access to cable or watch T.V at night, I'm sure you noticed how much sex is included in story lines and advertisements. Let's face it- when some of us were kids, we portrayed behaviors we felt characters on our favorite show portrayed. Sometimes that wasn't a bad idea-I would say it depends on what behaviors one is trying to emulate. We all remember adolescence as a time of discovery and trying to figure out who we were and where we fit into the world. 

So far, research has proven time and time again that T.V. influences behaviors on adolescent teens.

  In this blog I will explore an article written in 1999 in the Journal of Sex Research by authors Kunkel, Cope and Biely. This study compared the pattern of findings across three studies as an opportunity to identify clear patterns in the portrayal of sexual messages on television.

(Kunkel, et al.,1999)

The three studies examined were the Family hour study(Kunkel,Cope & Colvin,1996) which evaluated programs which aired the first hour pf prime time; the Teen Study(Cope,1998) which assessed three episodes each of the 15 most popular TV series viewed by adolescents aged 12-17; and the V-chip Study(Kunkel et al.,1998), which compared the V-chip rating assigned to TV programs with the actual levels of violence,sex and adult language found in each show.

With regards to talk about sex, the most predominant type of exchange portrayed on television was talk about people’s prospective interest in sex. Conversations may address specific targets of sexual interest,either for the self or others,or may involve general statements or views on sexual topics. The study found that 74% and 72%) of all talk about sex in the two V-chip Study samples, but found comments weren’t as frequent in the Family Hour Study(59%) and Teen Study(62%) data.

Here’s a clip from "The Secret Life of the American Teenager" expressing such conversations.

The next aspect of sexual content addressed was sexual behavior. The researchers noted that this data was more complicated to interpret because of the V-chip Study measured  sexual behavior in contrast of the Family Hour Study and Teen Study.  The latter reported all sexual behavior while the V-chip Study only measured behaviors when they were the primary emphasis.

 The study revealed that majority of the behaviors (86-97%) displayed were “precursory” in nature. They involve physical flirting, passionate kissing, and intimate touch meant to arouse sexual interest. The study also noted that sexual  intercourse only represented a modest amount of all sexual behavior on TV, the mere presence of intercourse was still substantial. Scenes across all studies concluded that sexual intercourse that is strong implied represents the most common approach(83-89%) for TV Story lines.

Finally, the depiction of sexual risk concerns in television content was examined in the Family Hour Study and Teen Study. The researchers measure the presence of three types of risk or responsibility themes which are:

• ·         Sexual Patience-waiting until a relationship matures or until both parties are equally ready to engage in sex

• ·         Sexual Precaution-pursuing efforts to prevent AIDS, STDs and/or  unwanted pregnancy when sexually active

• ·         Depiction of risks and/or negative consequences of unplanned or irresponsible sexual behavior.

The study revealed that only 8% in the Family Hour Study and 14% for the Teen Study included any reference at all to these issues. It was notated in the study that the treatment of risk topics were more common in scenes that contained only talk about sex.

This information is alarming but not shocking, at least to me, because I feel as a culture we've normalized sexual content on television; however I feel more certain that parental controls must be in place.