Sex In Media

Jared Wolfe

Media Essay

Advanced Composition

October 10, 2006

No Means No

"I don't believe in rape. No means no. Wait, if no meant no, all men would die a virgin. No means work on the neck, the nipples and come back in five minutes. I'm not saying a father should give this version of the birds and bees to his son. Listen she's gonna block your hands four or five times at least. I didn't raise you to be a quitter out there now did I. She wouldn't dress like that if she didn't want to get fingered." Comedian, Daniel Tosh expressed this quote meaning for it to be harmful. But, is it really harmful? Is this what society really thinks? Are women supposed to be easy? Do men need to take control and get what they want? A simple joke can be seen as what our society really thinks subconsciously. I believe our society has changed greatly from the past. Skirts are getting shorter, bikinis smaller. People are getting all kinds of plastic surgery to try and make there outer appearance to look even greater. Society has impacted us in a way that most people do not even think about what is happening.

Our appearance on the outside has shaped the way society thinks in the present day. Jean Kilbourne in her article, Two Ways A Woman Can Get Hurt, explains how media has impacted on what we see people to be today. She explains this better for girls but it can be applied to all genders in the situation she explains if people are ugly, fat, disfigured, or handicap they are seen as being the outcast of what normal is.

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But what is normal? According to Random House Unabridged Dictionary, normal in terms of biology and medicine is only of natural occurrence. In order to be normal there can't be any physical or mental alterations done to make yourself appear normal. Anyone that does not change the way they look and act is therefore normal. Obviously after reading the definition I was able to tell that normal was not the true word of our society.

I came to realize that there is a better word to describe what other people can perceive us as and not what two-thirds of this country believe we are, normal. A marionette is what I see our culture to be today. Media has us by strings and makes all the moves for us. If they want us to wear shorter skirts, we follow because there is no escaping from it. The media has provided an alternative message to the public other than just advertising there latest product.

Media impacts our lives everyday. The average 14-to-28 year-old will be exposed to about 3,000 ads every day. Ben Franklin once said that nothing is certain is this life except death and taxes. I believe it is now safe to assume we can add advertisements to that list now. We are literally bombarded with them. After seeing all the advertisements I am led to believe that they are the most carefully constructed of all human communication, being it the most expensive too. In 2004, according to www.answers.com, advertisement was in excess of $450 billion in the United States alone. It is not our fault though that these advertisements display messages that we cannot perceive. When we see an ad, our conscious mind will filter out the things it cannot deal with and make an acceptable idea or image that is made conscious. This is

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why many different people perceive an ad diversely. What I see and interpret it as can be completely different from what you think. Subliminal message are some of the most controversial ads but almost always the most powerful too.

Subliminal messages are used to display a message through the subconscious so the reader or viewer never thinks about it. In recent studies, Subliminal Movie Company projected the words Coca-Cola and Popcorn during a movie every 5 seconds for 1/3000th of a second. Production sales during the two weeks it was shown had risen almost 150%. I do not believe this is coincidence and think that subliminally showing a message is harmful also. Many lawsuits have been filed against Disney claiming they have displayed sexual content in there movie. In 1994, Roger Rabbit was produced, apparently in the story; Jessica Rabbit spins around, briefly revealing the she's not wearing any underwear under her skirt. Aladdin is another victim of this lawsuit insisting that a message is played saying, "good teenagers, take off your clothes."

Although Disney does not promote sex in any way in the public, they might control one of the major porn producing companies and this is to help increase business. Disney has a share in almost everything so it isn't hard to believe that they would also be in the porn business secretly too. If Disney does promote porn to teens, what is in the minds of today's young males?

Subliminal messages and other forms of that nature have no important impact on today's lives based on the fact that they are rarely used and are illegal in most forms of media; but as it is seen in these examples, when it is used, it can be very

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strong on projecting its message to culture. Examples given can show what is really going on in today's culture of young teens.

What really goes through the head of a typical teenage boy? In my opinion most time is spent on sex, more sex, and sports. Obviously, this is not all we think about because then all men would not get anything done and every conversation would be about there latest "catch" or who they are getting lucky with tonight. All young adults are always taught to wait for marriage to have sex through our school and various organizations. All boys have always pondered the question "Why?" and it normally is answered with someone saying, "Because it says so in the Bible." We are given the message of, "don't question it, accept it." For the brave, some of asked then, "But why does he say that?" and are normally answered with something fairly vague. Just maybe among these answers you could have been correctly told that it has something to do with the fact that while sex certainly is a highly enjoyable physical thing, there is much more to it than just two bodies having a good time. We have also been told that sex is also something of the heart, something spiritual,