How Teenage Magazines Express the Post-feminism Culture

Studies show that the national average for an adolescent’s first sexual intercourse encounter is seventeen years old. Despite this number being very close to the average age in other industrialized countries, the United States holds a higher percentage of teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease (STD) contraction than those countries (Harper et al, 2010, p. 125). It’s becoming evident that while a majority of the nation’s youth is sexually active, they are not doing so with the appropriate knowledge to keep themselves and others healthy.

But they get the message that sex is risky.” They begin to see sex as a sensitive issue that should be taken very seriously because it involves life-changing consequences. Additionally, a study published in the Journal of Adolescent Health found that teaching about contraception and making them available to teenagers was not associated with increased risk of sexual activity as many abstinence-only supporters have insisted. Therefore, the availability of birth control along with education about it does not increase sexual activity but informs teenagers to practice good decision-making for their bodies and their future.

They see the overwhelming importance given to sexual attractiveness in the media-one study estimated that the average teenager ahs witnessed nearly 14,000 sexual encounters on television- yet they also hear their parents and religious advisers telling them that sex is wrong. As a result, many young people begin having sex without really intending to and without taking precautions against pregnancy.

Master of Professional Health Debra Hauser states that sexual education is an essential part of the development and growth of teenagers. In her article “Youth Health and Rights in Sex Education”, MPH Hauser provides a report of teenage pregnancies and STDs incidences, which points out that each year in the United States, about 750,000 teens become pregnant, with up to 82 percent of those pregnancies being unintended. Young people ages 15-24 account for 25 percent of all new HIV infections in the U.S (Hauser). According to Hauser, “sex education teaches young people the skills they need to protect themselves”, such as the ability to recognize patterns of a toxic relationships, learning to value and have control over their bodies, understanding

Drilling into teens’ heads that sex is inherently bad will do no justice in the long run. Notwithstanding, abstinence-only programs do nothing but this, for they hold the opinion that making teenagers fear the consequences of precarious sex will prevent them from engaging in it. Advocates of both abstinence-only and comprehensive programs are worried that premature sex, even when wholly safe, will psychologically damage teenagers, but “there are no scientific data suggesting that consensual sex between adolescents is harmful”, yet abstinence-only education by itself continues to mandate the teaching that sex out of wedlock will do harm (Santelli et al. “Abstinence and abstinence-only education” 74). Unlike abstinence-only education, comprehensive sex-education attempts to focus on developing healthy mentalities for the benefit of their students. Promotion of healthy relationships between oneself and others will help make teenagers find trust between themselves and their sexual partners before participating in the act, furthermore causing them to make sure their partner does not have any STIs and is using contraception. Conversely, abstinence-only programs’ persistence with enthusiastically promoting abstinence leaves teenagers with little clue about their mental health. “Even those few individuals who remain abstinent until marriage are left

More teens are learning sex from the media or from their friends instead of from their parents or a sexual education class taught in schools. “Nearly three fourths of television shows contains talk about sex or show sexual behavior,” (King and Regan 2). When we drive down the road we see several stores promoting sex such as Condoms to Go, Condom Sense, Sarahs Secret, and New Fine Arts. Children who have no clue to what these stores are, automatically want to know everything about it and why it

Parents, especially from minority groups who did not have the opportunity to pursue and education, often times do not have the proper resources or time to give advise to their children about sexual health. A research study in the form of a survey in six Boston high schools was conducted about what high school students think about teen pregnancy prevention. The sample of students consisted of half female and half male. The study concluded that 32% of students wanted more parental communication about sexual health to prevent unwanted pregnancies. This shows that if parents were more involved in their children’s lives, they would be influences positively to make the right choices when choosing to have sex at a young age (Hacker, 1999). It may seem impossible for some parents to talk to their teens about sex due to their schedules, education, or simply embarrassment, but having a thirty-minute conversation about sex is a lot better than having their children give birth to children.

According to a poll done in 2006 that recorded the “Adult and teen preferences for type of sex education needed,” 14% percent of the adults interviewed thought that teens should get more information about abstinence, 8% that they should get more information about birth control, 73% that they should get more information about both abstinence and birth control or protection, 4% didn’t know, and 1% refused to answer. For teens (12-19), 7% percent thought that they should learn more about abstinence, 9% that they should learn more about birth control, 56% that they should learn more about both abstinence and birth control or protection, 22% didn’t know, and 7% refused to answer (“Adult and teen preferences,” 2010).

The public debate about adolescent sexuality has habitually fixated on which sexual practices are appropriate, and disregarded the complex dimensions of sexuality (Greenberg, Bruess, Oswalt, 2012). The goal of this paper is to compare a scholarly written article, to an article available through a popular media source, on the topic of Teenage Sexuality and New Media.

Teenage sexual activity has sparked an outcry within the nation. With such activity comes a high price. Studies have shown that there has been a significant rise in the number of children with sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), emotional and psychological problems, and out-of-wedlock childbearing. Sex has always been discussed publically by the media, television shows, music and occasionally by parents and teachers in educational context. Teens hear them, and as the saying goes, “monkey see, monkey do”, they are tempted to experiment with it. Therefore, it is important for every teenager to be aware of the outcome associated with premature-sex. If students are educated about the impact of

The audience for the magazine titled, I Surveyed More Than 1,000 People to Find Out How Having a Working Mom Really Affects Kids, written by Pamela Lenehan (2016), is both scholarly and general. Lenehan shows she did research by providing statistics, which is scholarly. In addition, the magazine is also for a general audience because the amount of complex vocabulary is limited so that everyone is able to understand it. The information provided is primary in nature. In other words, Lenehan describes her own research and findings. She also gives general background information on this specific topic. Additionally, the page gives three links to other magazine articles related to this topic: 1) Gayle King: How to Let Go of Working Mom Guilt by Gayle

Magazines play a very crucial role as powerful managers of socialisation in favouring and normalising particular types of hegemonic discourses about gender, sexuality and race (Sanger, 2009:138). Women’s bodies are mostly regulated and policed by the media in what is believed to be normal and represents beauty. They are objectified according to their body parts and for heterosexual male satisfactions. However, my interest is to draw attention to the ways that magazines have a tendency to help normalise whiteness and the ideas of white femininities as the ideal representation of beauty. By using Sanger’s article (2009), my discussion discloses that the privileging of white heterofemininity as normative and ultimate, at once creates racist colonial

Analysis of the Representation of Women in Magazines In this essay, I am going to analyse how girls and women are represented in a range of magazines. Depending on the target audience, the contents of the magazine differs. This essay will look and describe the differences between the magazines and why they are there. The age groups and magazines I will be examining are; teenage with the magazine ‘Sneak,’ twenty something's with the magazine ‘Glamour,’ and middle aged with the magazine ‘Women’s Own.’

Many young teens engage in risky behaviors that can affect their health and leave negative outcomes on their bodies. There was a survey conducted by The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 2015 and researchers found that “30% of high school teens had had sexual intercourse during the previous 3 months and of these, 43% did not use a condom the last time they had sex. 14% did not use any method to prevent pregnancy and 21% had drunk alcohol or used drugs before their last sexual encounter (CDC, 2015).” The statistic previously read only covers 30 percent of people who agreed to participate in the study. There are still teens who either did not want to participate or who are not having any form of sexual activity. From the statistic we can confer that education about sexual health is something that is not being administered in schools and thus will cause a larger problem in the future.

When asked if environmental factors had an influence on major decisions teenage girls made pertaining to their body 40%(ten out of twenty-five) of the teenage girls stated that environment factors have influenced their decision on their body. Thirty six percent (nine out of twenty-five) of the young ladies surveyed responded that they have people they can talk to in their home or neighborhood when making decisions. Sadly, only 20% of the young ladies recorded being aware of the correct usage of contraceptives before their first sexual experience. Seventy two percent (eighteen out of twenty five) of the young ladies stated they understood what it took to make a baby. Forty eight percent of the young ladies surveyed stated they lived in a financially stable home. What constituted a financially stable home in this research was a parent or parents who have been working a job consistently for 6 months or more. Forty four percent (eleven out of twenty five) of the young ladies agreed that promiscuous behavior led to unwanted pregnancies. The young ladies who did not agree often bought up friends and family members around them who were very promiscuous and did not get pregnant like they did. Forty percent (ten out of twenty five) stated they understood how the spread of HIV and STIs are transmitted. A common pattern the teenage girls stated is that you can tell when somebody has a sexually transmitted disease or