Sexual Deviance

Media has become a significant component within society. While media provides many pros, it supplies various cons as well. One very prominent fault that the significance of media has is its visual depiction of women. There is an abundance of media portraying women to have ideal bodies, and this undoubtedly has a negative effect on adolescent girls. Two of the many effects of media on females are depression and self esteem issues, as well as eating disorders. Unfortunately, body dissatisfaction caused by media is becoming more and more common.

If adolescents see an unrealistic thin or a muscle toned body alot, it can have a huge impact on their body image and dieting behavior. “Body image ideals in the media have increased teenagers’ and some adults the desire for plastic surgery” (Raising Children, 2015). Seeing media that is violent in some ways can often enough make it more likely that someone will behave in a violent way, it can also influence other unhealthy or risky behavior, like smoking, drinking alcohol and taking other drugs. Other more powerful influences include family and friends. “Teen are twice as likely to have sex or engage in sexual acts if they see similar sexual behavior in the media. Many objects in the media that involve sex target teens” (Ransohoff, 2013). Reality TV shows and teen dramas often portray the popular or cool kids as the ones who are having sex so seeing it on TV might make teenagers think it is ok. In the movie when Caroline throws a party at Jakes house after a dance, everyone got drunk, they were all under age because they were all in high school and then most of them drove home drunk, some teens may think its ok to do this when its not at all

Being a woman of twenty, I know how much this can affect young girls. Body image influences are everywhere, social media, television, magazine and unfortunately for us, the current presidential election. Kim, Kim and Moon describe body image as “a plastic, constantly changing concept, continually modified by bodily growth, trauma, or decline, and significantly influenced by the ever-changing interaction with the social environment” (Kim, Kim, Moon 2011). This is an extremely true statement for young girls in today’s society. With the shows on television today and social media such as Instagram and Facebook, everyone is forced to be at their peak physical fitness and look their best all the time. The only way someone can achieve a realistic body image is when their self perceived body weight is the same as their current body weight. An unrealistic body image is the result of their self perceived body weight being different than their current weight (Kim, Kim, Moon 2011). What some people fail to realize is how deeply body image can affect a persons emotional being. Having an unrealistic body image can cause people to contract eating disorders, emotional issues, anxiety, low self esteem and finally, depression (Kim, Kim, Moon 2011). These feelings can cause suicidal thoughts and behaviors especially in young adults. Multiple studies have presented evidence that adolescents who commit suicide are more likely to have different body attitudes than those who do not, though it is not always the case(Kim, Kim, Moon

On the other hand, the images of flawless skin, athletic thin bodies , and with the possibility of Photoshop, teenagers are finding it impossible to achieve this standard of beauty. With these images portrayed everywhere, it has led to more than just low-esteem, it has led to distorted body image, jealousy, eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia. The images of being thin portrayed by media can result in teenagers feeling depressed, anxious and incline in self-worth. These feelings can then lead to depression, low self-esteem and anxiety, causing teenagers to lose

Imagine waking up every morning, struggling to get out of bed and hating to look at yourself in the mirror. Girl’s will look into the mirror for hours and criticize every last inch of their body with the words “fat, ugly, worthless” echo in their head. They think their body isn’t good enough and want to look skinner like the other woman in magazines or people they see on TV. The media has a big part in self-image toward young woman. The message being sent to these women on the media is that they are not pretty enough or thin enough. Which results in people having an eating disorder.

In today’s society, many adolescent girls are dissatisfied with their body image due to comparing themselves to the media’s unrealistic ideal thin body. Since they grow up in a world filled with mass media such as television, films, magazines, movies, music, newspaper and the Internet, it is very easy to come across this ideal body image (Morris & Katzman, 2003). As teen girls associate with this ideal thinness they tend to be dissatisfied with their own body image, which can put them at risk for serious eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa (Kerr 2010). Depression also plays a part in the dissatisfied body image of adolescent girls as well.

Chronic dieting, low self-esteem, depression and, high levels of body dissatisfaction were among the major issues women face when addressing their body image (Gingras, Fitzpatrick, & McCargar, 2004). The severity of body image dissatisfaction have increased to such a dangerous state that it was added to the DSM-IV as a disorder now called body dysmorphic disorder (Suissa, 2008). One of the main reasons for the prevalence of these conditions in women was due to contemporary Western media, which serve as one of the major agent in enforcing an ultra-thin figure as the ideal for female beauty (Saraceni & Russell-Mayhew, 2007). These images and models presented by the media have become the epitome of beauty, pushing women who internalized these images to dangerous extent to attain these norms. According to evidence from previous studies, contemporary Western cultures have influenced women to an acquired normative state of discontent with their bodies, which have become the source of maladaptive eating practices, negative psychological outcomes, and, chronic health conditions associated with eating disorders (Snapp, Hensley-Choate, & Ryu, 2012). The seriousness of these body image conditions among youths and women have also led to congressional actions.

An average 6-11 year old watched 22 hours of TV a week and a combined average of 28 hours a week is spent on multiple media outlets. A tremendous climb of sexual content on TV has been occurring since the 1970’s; currently 70 percent of all TV programming includes sexual material increasing to 77 percent on prime time TV. Around 30 percent of the most watched child and teen programs contain sexual language, body attractiveness, and objectification of women’s bodies (Starr, 2012). The media outlets display popular culture that scream unhealthy messages to girls, burying healthy images instilled by parents that might be trying to break through. Girls are exposed to the messages so frequently that they cannot help but to absorb them and crave to become like the popular images. This leads to unhealthy values, attitudes, and thoughts held about oneself and

Research has greatly indicated and proven that media exposure has an impact on the normative perceptions of substance use and relationship behaviors among adolescents. Studies have shown that media content and patterns of usage are considerably related to adolescent perception of gender roles, romantic relationships, and sexual behavior. Repeated contact or subjection to sexualize subject matter on television or different forms of media has been related to individuals perceived normative gender roles (Herrett- Skjellum & Allen, 1996). Negative and socially impaired beliefs about relationships, for example such as ‘‘fate brings soul-mates together, disagreement is destructive to a relationship, partners should be able to sense each other’s thoughts and feelings’’ (Holmes, 2007). Also with persistent disclosure to sexually explicit content related with more positive attitudes or norms toward “uncommitted sexual exploration” as well (Brown and Bobkowski, 2011).

One of the serious problems that can happen mentally in a woman’s mind is developing low self esteem and ultimately depression. With the media showing pictures and videos of what they perceive as the

Today’s society is corrupted with misrepresentations of how an intimate relationship should appear. Media often portrays intercourse as something to be taken lightly and that negative consequences are a rare occurrence. What is the effect of the misrepresentation of sex in the media on teenage sexuality? Christina Grant (2003) provides a careful evaluation of this question in “Teens, Sex and the Media: Is there a Connection?” leaning slightly towards the argument that sex in the media has a negative impact on adolescents. In “Teenage Sex and the Media,” Victor Strasburger (2012) adopts an assertive approach to this question, explaining why he believes that media should change the way it presents sexuality. Although both authors are credible, Grant writes for a set audience of potential researchers whereas Strasburger’s audience consists of parents, educators and adolescents. The reader is made aware of the intended audience through the differing format and language used by the authors. While Strasburger targets a wider audience, he is closed-minded in comparison to Grant, who leaves room for interpretation of arguments.

Our sex saturated media is also generating conflict in young girls’ development. The portrayal of women as sexual objects is discussed in the article “The sexualization of Girls is Harmful” by Olivia Ferguson and Hayley Mitchell Haugen. The article cites statistics of “prime-time television shows popular among children” remarking that “12% of sexual comments involved sexual objectification toward women” and “23% of sexual behaviors involved leering, ogling or catcalling at female characters”.(par 6) The feature provides www.aboutkidshealth.ca/ as an “online resource for information about areas of children’s health and family life”. (Par 1) This web site states “depression, low self-esteem and eating disorders” as consequences for media sexualizing women. (Par 2) The research defines “the objectification theory as a psychological theory explaining the

There is a great debate on whether or not mass media has an influence on teenage pregnancy. A study done by the RAND Corporation shows that teens are twice as likely to have sex or engage in sexual acts if they see similar sexual behavior in the media. Many objects in the media that involve sex target teens. Reality TV shows and teen dramas often portray the "cool kids" as the ones who are having sex (Chandra).Today’s teens are highly influenced by what they see in the media and this can change their behavior and choices. Some will argue that the media doesn’t influence teenagers, but how can we be sure of that? Today, the media portray teen pregnancy in movies, television shows, magazines, music, news reports, and books. The problems

Moreover, the way media’s depicts sexual content and aspects of sex, one could say it is very unrealistic. Think about it, from our celebrities to the crazy cartoons, it seems to be all glamorized. When I think of the way media portrays sex, it seems to make our adolescents believe that sex is always casual and consequence-free. Of all problems with sexual content in the media, this is only one. Considering media covers everything from print magazines, to films and photography too. The large amounts of sexual content in the media effects our young ones greatly. In order to get a completely better understanding of sexual content in the media, one must understand what sexual content is defined as, also what media refer to as I’ve stated before. Typically, sexual content can refer to many things from making out, or other physical actions that may lead to sex.

Negative effects of Mass Media for teenagers,  The exposure of sex images and excessive portraits of violence in movies and dramas have instilled negative thoughts and taboos in the mind of these teenagers for they have been consistently getting increased exposure to things which are not suitable for their age.