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The Effect of Media On Our Society's Perception of Sex

By
Jasmine Ford
Mass Communications:Senior Capstone
Department of Mass Communications

April 2016

Table of Content
Page
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.

I.

Introduction........................................................................................3
Review of the Literature5
Methodology12
Results..13
Conclusion14
Works Cited.15

Introduction
The purpose of this study is to determine the relationship between sexual entertainment in

the media, and how it effects our societys attitude and behavior concerning sex.

From the beginning of time sex has been a taboo topic amongst the human race. It started
in the B.C. era and Old Testament bible stories of God showing his wrath towards people
indulging in sexual sin; to the epidemic of sexual content being shown through almost every
media outlet. The topic of sex leaves many questions in researchers heads such as; At what age
is sex appropriate? Are having multiple sexual partners appropriate for males and females? Is the
media damaging the sexual satisfaction in relationships? Sexual entertainment in the media
comes from many different sources such as television stations, adult films or pornography, and
through celebrities-social behavior. The question is, how have it effected societies attitudes and
behavior concerning sex?
In todays TV stations, sexual content and/or scenes are constantly showed for
entertainment purposes. Research shows that two out of every three shows on TV include sexual
content and one out of ten shows show sexual intercourse being depicted or strongly implied on
primetime television. These erotic sex scenes, whether PG-13 or Rated-R, implants an unrealistic
expectation of sex and romance in viewers minds. People of all ages, young and old have access
to these shows on a daily basis. They run into the sexual content without even looking for it.
Unlike the convenient entertainment that is shown on television, people search for sexual
entertainment through means of adult films. Pornography is the obvious multi-billion dollar way
of viewing sex through the media. Millions of people watch and participate in adult films on the
daily. Viewers can find any sexual fantasy or fetish to watch when searching for pornography;
including homosexual encounters, fantasies about an adult having intercourse with a teenager,
and as many as 5 men having intercourse with one woman at the same time. People idolize over
the adult film industry so much that people are now able to make amateur films and upload them
to sites for people to view. There are absolutely no limits when it comes to the business.

Not only do directed films such as television shows and pornography effect societies
perception of sex, but celebrities influence through the media have as well. Whether its through
social media, performances, song lyrics, or leaked nude photos and sex tapes, it has effected
society. People tend to idolize the celebrity; therefore they try to immolate the glamorized life
that the celebrity portrays through media.
Our goal is to investigate the way media depicts sex, and how it effects people in our
societys outlook towards it.

II.

Review of the Literature

1998 and 2005, the number of sexual scenes on TV nearly doubled. Trends obviously shows that
the sexual content in movies and TV shows have and continue to rapidly increase. There has

been a big difference from early days of television when a married couple lying in the bed
together was frowned upon, to present day male on male sex scenes. The rules of thumb used to
be that the man in the show always had to have at least one leg on the ground when in the bed
with his wife, and suggesting any sexual activity was definitely not an option. Today, shows such
as Scandal or Empire depicts people having intercourse who arent married, who are having
affairs, or who are homosexual. These were two of the most popular television shows last year,
yet they were the most sexually explicit shows on prime time television.
John Stieker stated, The problem with depictions of sex and sexual stereotypes on
television is that it has a negative effect on development of young people. It encourages images
of what people should imitate, and makes people feel inadequate and different if they do not
adhere to the stereotypes (2009).
Evidence to support his statement is experiments that were done and resulted in specific results.
For example, over 70% of popular music videos feature attractive women who seem to be
consumed with fawning over the male subjects and being the function of a sex slave. The impact
of women playing these roles in music videos shows those women in regular society is worth
less than men. If the female viewers continue to view the content their reality slowly becomes
what they see in the media. Young males are also impacted negatively by the sexual content and
begin to view women as sexual objects. Evidence to support this stance is an experimental study
that found ninth-grade adolescents who were exposed to less than an hour of MTV were more
likely to approve premarital sex than descents who werent exposed to MTV. (Greenson &
Williams 1996). On average, music videos contain 93 sexual situations per hour, including 11
hard-core scenes depicting behavior like intercourse and oral sex.

Analyses of broadcast media content indicate that, on average, teenaged viewers see 143
incidents of sexual behavior on network television at prime time each week; with portrayals of
three or four times as many sexual activates occurring between unmarried partners as between
spouses. (Gruber & Grube 2000). They found that recent studies of African American girls ages
14 to 18 years found that teens with either multiple sex partners or a history of sexually
transmitted infections reported a higher rate of viewing television shows that showed women as
sexual objects or prizes.
Unlike the convenient entertainment that is shown on television, people search for sexual
entertainment through means of adult films. Pornography is the obvious multi-billion dollar way
of viewing sex through the media. Millions of people watch and participate in adult films on the
daily. Viewers can find any sexual fantasy or fetish to watch when searching for pornography;
including homosexual encounters, fantasies about an adult having intercourse with a teenager,
and as many as 5 men having intercourse with one woman at the same time. People idolize over
the adult film industry so much that people are now able to make amateur films and upload them
to sites for people to view. There are absolutely no limits when it comes to the business.
Many view the fantasy fulfilling films as glamorous and any mans dream, but they dont
understand what goes on behind the scenes. A documentary titled, Look into the Porn Industry &
Porn Addiction, was filmed and was one of World Star Hip Hops biggest hits in January of
2014. In the documentary three men who were pornography addicts had a chance to go behind
the scenes of creating an adult film. Throughout their journey, they were granted the opportunity
to see how fake the sex was between the partners starring in a film and how its strictly business
on set. Although it was shocking, it wasnt a deal breaker for them. Two out of three of the men
were appalled when they got to sit with the director for an adult film company, while he

interviewed females who wanted to pursue a career in the industry. After they spoke to a mother,
a medical student, and a girl who was 21 years-old with very little sexual experience, they then
watched the women get undressed and had sex with their hired partners, completely made them
change his heart towards the films and the people in it. They seen that the women needed money
for something and were real people and had real lives. Later they were on set with an amateur
adult show and there were multiple girls who had to perform sexual acts for hours. It was so
brutally invasive and uncomfortable one of the girls began to cry. Just when they thought it
couldnt get any worse they had a conversation with a former porn star who told them how no
one wants to be in a serious relationship with her because of her prior career. She talked about
how she caught different STDs dozens of times; due to the industry making the actors getting
tested only once a month and in-between that time people catch a lot of different diseases. By the
time their journey was done they didnt look at adult films the same again.
Since sexual entertainment in the media heavily effects society, many researchers have
asked the same questions that we hope to find the answers to in our experiment. One such
experiment was conducted by Richard Jackson Harris (2009) where he tried to search for the
impact of those influenced by sex in the media. In one study, 90% of Toronto adolescent boys
and 60% of girls (mean age=14) reported having seen at least one pornographic movie (Check &
Maxwell, 1992, in Russell, 1998). Also, 29% of boys rated pornography as their most significant
source of sex education, higher than schools, parents, books, peers, or magazines (Check, 1995).
Forbes Magazine reported that pornography is big-business-with $10 billion to $14 billion in
annual sales. A study was conducted where it showed the variety of sexual attitudes and values
after exposure to nonviolent sexually explicit materials. They had men watch slides and movies
of beautiful female nudes engaging in sexual activity. After watching the material the men rated

their own partners as being less physically attractive and loving their partners less. Results
showed that in the men minds the attractive models suddenly became the norm for all women,
leaving their partners not meeting the standard.
Another experiment was done by University of Tennessee psychologist, Dawn Szymanski
who conducted a study where she recruited 308 college heterosexual women, ages 18 to 29 years
old, to complete an online questionnaire about their current partner's porn use as well as their
relationship quality, sexual satisfaction and self-esteem. The results showed that women who
reported that their boyfriends or husbands looked at more pornography were less likely to be
happy in their relationships than women who said their partners didn't look at pornography very
often.
Not only do directed films such as television shows and pornography effect societies
perception of sex, but celebrities influence through the media have as well. Whether its through
social media, performances, song lyrics, or leaked nude photos and sex tapes, it has effected
society. People tend to idolize the celebrity; therefore they try to immolate the glamorized life
that the celebrity portrays through media.
As far as todays celebrities, talent isnt the only thing that gets and keeps them a career
in Hollywood. They must have the best body and a lot of sex appeal as well. Various artists have
set trends that makes over sexualizing and nudity acceptable amongst society. For example,
Rihanna has made many red carpet appearances, shot music videos, and posed on the cover of
magazines, topless, nude, or with a shear shirt. Miley Cyrus is known for having very raunchy
and overly sexualized concerts promoting masturbation and random hookups. Then there are
celebrities such as Kim Kardashian whose career began with her having one of the most popular

leaked sex tapes about a decade ago, and now she continues to take nude photos for magazines
and Instagram. Kardashian and many other entertainers are known to get different surgeries and
enhancers to make their body appear more voluptuous, giving people an unrealistic idea of a
womans body. Society has become so obsessed with the concept of sexual entertainment that
women such as, Miracle Watts and Lira Galore have become Instagram famous with the
criteria being their plastic surgery made bodies and pictures they post on social media that leaves
no room for imagination.
Its obvious that teens are mimicking the behavior of celebrities on social media, which is
causing them to make poor decisions. Researchers are trying to determine if there is a difference
in the content creation that involves portraying oneself in a sexual manner may have different
effects on subsequent sexual activity than exposure to sexual content as an audience member.
Psychologists say, We can speculate based on psychological theory that creating sexual
content may more directly influence self-perception or may influence how others perceive and
interact with the content creator (resulting in treatment as a sexual object or agent). Because
sexual postings and messages may result from perceived peer or other social pressures, or are
intended to be funny, the materials that teens post and the messages that they receive may be
inconsistent with prior sexual experience and sexual intentions. That is, a sexually inexperienced
teen may post a sexual message to appear mature or to make a joke. Once he or she observes his
or her own actions, and particularly if other people's reactions reinforce the teen's sexualized
behavior, the teen may shift to see him or herself as sexually mature or as a sexual object.
Ultimately, this could accelerate sexual activity or lead to more casual or risky activity than
might otherwise take place.s attitude concerning sex, depending on the media platform that sex
is exposed.

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Studies show that the more sexual content kids watch and listen to, the earlier they're
likely to have sex themselves. In fact, teens report that their main source of information about
sex, dating and sexual health comes from what they see and hear in the media. Public health
experts say that the media can be an effective sex educator when it includes specific information
on birth control methods and sexually transmitted diseases. But in 2005, out of 68% of TV shows
that showed steamy sexual content, only 15% discussed risk and responsibility. And it's not just
movies and TV: Music, video games, and the Internet are also filled with sexually explicit, oftendegrading messages that can shape kids' attitudes about sex.
How risky is teen sex? Approximately 50% of 15 to 19-year-olds are having sexual
intercourse. We also know that only 29.8% of those who are sexually active use any kind of
contraception including condoms. In Canada, 45,000 teenage girls become pregnant each year.
According to Health Canada, the rate of teen pregnancy has risen over the past 10 years. While
Canada has a much lower teen pregnancy rate than that of the United States, our rate is still
higher than many other industrialized countries such as Finland, Sweden, Switzerland and
Japan . Sexually transmitted infections represent another major cause of morbidity associated
with teen sexual activity. In Canada, teenage girls have the highest chlamydia and gonorrhea
rates compared with any other age group . Further, according to a Joint United Nations
Programmer on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) report, one-half of all new human immunodeficiency
virus infections worldwide are occurring among youth.
Facts show that 72% of teens think watching TV with a lot of sexual content influences
their peers behavior somewhat or a lot, watching a lot of sexual content on TV and listening to
sexually explicit music lyrics increase the chances that a teen will have sex at an earlier age, and
the biggest users of online pornography are 12-to 17-year-old boys.

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III.

Methodology
To support previous research that has been conducted I created my own study to uncover

how sexual content in the media affects society. To start I created a list of questions asking what
people watch, how often, what celebrities they idolize, their personal views on sex, etc. I then
posted those questions on SurveyMonkey, so people could anonymously answer the questions.
After I created my online survey, I got a list of students on campus and through random selection
I chose 10 percent of the schools population and e-mailed them the questionnaire I created.

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Along with that, I posted the survey link on my social media accounts such as Instagram and
Facebook, in order to allow people to contribute to my study.
The survey consisted of a mixture between multiple choice questions and questions
where the survey taker used the rating system. These were the easiest two methods because I was
easily able to calculate the results, and find trends. For example, a multiple question in the
survey was, How often do you view adult films/pornography? Which was followed with a
question asking, On a scale of 1-10 how sexually satisfied are you when with a partner?
Questions coupled like the examples given were asked to discover if there is a correlation
between the two.
Once the data was collected, I looked at the stats to compare and contrast the findings in
order to determine if my hypothesis was correct. I was able to take the results and draw
conclusions that either supported or opposed the research and studies that were conducted by
professionals mentioned in the Review of the Literature portion.

IV.

Results
After I received all of the results from an anonymous pool of about 150 people and the

results showed that the people who watch adult films more often aren't as sexually satisfied with
their partners as people who watch pornography less often. It was broken down into two groups.
60% of people who answered never or on occasions, to the question How often do you view
adult films/pornography? Where 40% answered somewhat or often. Then when asked On a

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scale from 1-10 how sexually satisfied are you with your partner(s)? About 70% gave a rating of
6 or higher and about 30% gave a rating below 6. With this information I can conclude that
people who watch less pornography are more sexually satisfied in their personal lives. This
supports the research that was done by University of Tennessee psychologist, Dawn Szymanski.
When asked How often to you watch television shows with sexual content? About 15%
answered never/on occasions and about 85% answered somewhat/often. Followed by
discovering that about 75% of the focus group was sexually active and about 25% wasn't. From
these results we can assume that it is more likely that people who view television shows with
sexual content more often were more likely to engage in sexual activity. But, a lot more detailed
research would need to be done.
Others results from the survey were that about 50% was currently in a committed
relationship, about 60% have had a one-night stand, of that 60% about 70% regrets it, 80% don't
think celebrities effect their attitude or behavior concerning sex, about 55% don't think television
effects their perception of sex, and about 25% don't think pornography effects their perception of
sex.

V.

Conclusion

This study was chosen to further the idea that sexual content in the media affects societys
way of thinking and behaving concerning sexual activity. We wanted to design surveys and an
experiment that will help us learn how the media is impacting societys social and sexual
behavior. We hoped to discover the avenues of media that effects our society the most concerning

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sexual content. Does a the medium only affect peoples attitudes about sex, or do it cross over
into their behavior too?
What we did discover was that there is a relationship between the amount of pornography
people watch and their satisfaction with their sexual partner. We also discovered that people are
aware how they can be effected by sex in the media, and that some avenues of media may effect
societys perception more than others. Our most important discovery is that the majority of
people (80%) aren't actively process how what they are consuming may be effecting them
emotionally and psychologically.

Works Cited
Abdul,C. ( 2014, January 14). Raw Look into the Porn Industry & Porn Addiction.
Retrieved from http://m.worldstarhiphop.com/apple/video.php
?v=wshhiYo3341fa2iXbJ60

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Ackman, D. (2001, May 25). How Big is Porn? Forbes. Retrieved from
http://www.forbes.com/2001/05/25/0524porn.html

Bryant, J. & Oliver, M.B. (2009). Media Effects. Advances in Theory and
Research. Erlbaum/ Psychology Press.(3rd ed).

Caine, A. (2013, August). What is Miley Cyrus Promoting to Your Teens.

Collins, R., Martino, S., & Shaw, R. (2014, April 15). Influence of New Media on
Adolescent Sexual Health: Evidence & Opportunities. US Department of
Health and Human Services. Retrieved from https://aspe.hhs.gov/basicreport/influence-new-media-adolescent-sexual-health-evidence-andopportunities

Great Schools Staff. (2015). Sexual behavior: what teens learn from media.
Common Sense Media. Retreived from http://www.greatschools.org/
gk/articles/sexual-behavior-teens-learn-from-media/

Gruber, E. & Grube, J. (2000). Adolescent Sexuality and the Media.Western

Pappas, S. (2012, May 31). Men's Porn Use Linked to Unhappy Relationships.
Live Science. Retrieved from http://www.livescience.com/20684-porn-

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relationships.html

Tucker, C. (2009, Nov. 9). Sex in the Media: A Subtle Perpetrator.

(2014, July 14). Celebrity Culture A Threat to Today's Youth. YouGovUK.