Emotional Consequences Of Sexual Activity example essay topic

Even with the knowledge that teens are the primary audiences for movies in theaters and for in-home movies on cable or videocassette, little research has been done in analyzing the amount sexual content in the movies. However we do know that a large amount (2/3) of movies are R-rated due to sexual content. Laws over movies legal age limit have become slackened over recent times. Although the required age to see an R-rated movie is 16 without an adult, the average person has most likely seen one already.

Compared to the other formats, feature films seemed almost priggish, with an overall average of only seven scenes involving sex per hour, a mere two of which involved hard-core material. This reflects the marketing of different films to demographically targeted audiences. This confines highly sexual material to a smaller nook than those carved out by MTV music videos, which are aimed at teenagers, or even television series, many of which compete for a relatively youthful audience. However, the most sexually oriented films could compete with any other format in both the amount and explicitness of the material. The most sex scenes (53) appeared in the teenage gross out movie "Something About Mary", which also contained 15 scenes with hard-core references. "Mary" was followed closely by "Stella Got Her Groove Back", which totalled 53 sex scenes overall and the highest number of hard-core scenes (22) among the year's most popular films.

Close behind was "The Wedding Singer" with 45 sex scenes and 19 instances of hard-core material. Unlike "Mary" and "Stella", which were both rated R, "Wedding Singer" carried a PG-13 rating, as did four of the movies that made the top ten list. Most prominent among the remaining members of this group was "Six Days Seven Nights", whose PG-13 rating was belied by 32 sex scenes, eight of them hard-core. Public concern over sexual themes and images in popular entertainment extends beyond the sheer volume of such material to the context in which it is presented. After all, popular entertainment from Shakespeare's plays to "Shakespeare in Love" has dealt with sexual material in ways that are emotionally complex and aesthetically satisfying.

To get some indication as to whether such material is integral to a larger narrative rather than serving a mainly libidinal interest, we analyzed the dramatic context within which each instance of sexual behavior occurred. Specifically, we determined whether such behavior had any lasting physical or emotional consequences, whether the script contained any overt judgment of the activity, and whether characters engaging in sexual activity were presented in a mainly positive or negative light. This part of the study was limited to images of sexual activity; it excluded dialogue that was not linked to actual behavior. One of the most striking things about the portrayal of sex in movies is how rarely it has any consequences for either the participants or any other characters.

Out of 3228 scenes showing sexual activity, including 135 scenes of simulated on-screen sexual intercourse, only eight pregnancies and not a single case of sexually transmitted disease resulted. Overall, 98% of these instances had no physical consequences of any sort. Emotional consequences of sexual activity were not quite so rare, but they were the exception rather than the rule. In 85% of all scenes, sex was associated with neither positive nor negative emotions beyond immediate sensation. Those that did have some emotional effect were divided about evenly between positive impacts (eight percent) such as happiness or sexual fulfillment, and negative impacts (seven percent) such as regret or guilt by the participants and shock or anger from other characters.

The absence of emotional and physical consequences was in keeping with the non-judgmental attitude toward sex that was usually exhibited by scripts and plot lines. Fully 96% of all instances of sexual activity elicited no clear moral or even prudential judgment. Two percent of all instances were specifically judged to be appropriate or acceptable behavior; another two percent were deemed unacceptable or inappropriate. But the overwhelming verdict of popular entertainment was that sex is neither right nor wrong; it just happens. In the absence of overt judgments, an indirect indicator of acceptability comes from the portrayal of characters who engage in sexual acts. We analyzed the overall portrayal of each character within the context of the plot, differentiating "good guys" who acted heroically, altruistically, etc. from "bad guys" who were greedy, foolish, malevolent, etc., along with characters who combined positive and negative traits, and those (mainly minor characters) who were portrayed in a neutral light.

Overall, sexual activity was associated mainly with positive portrayals. A majority (52%) of sexually active characters were good guys, compared to only seven percent who were bad guys. Another 18% exhibited a mixture of positive and negative traits, while 23% were neutral. Thus, positive characters outnumbered negative ones by a margin greater than seven to one.

In summary, it is hardly news that sex is a staple of popular entertainment. What is surprising is how pervasive sexual material is today, how graphic its portrayal has become, and how openly it appeals to what was once called prurient interest. Sex scenes now occur every few minutes on prime time television, where even hard-core references are becoming routine. "Free TV" still mainly talks about sex, while premium cable and movie theaters show it in the flesh. Finally, the Hollywood version of sex is usually free of consequences and moral judgments. Whether this profusion of sexual fantasies is also free of consequences for American society is something we will soon find out.

Laws over movies legal age limit have become slackened over recent times the movie.