As we were watching Jean Kilbourne’s Killing Us Softly, I thought it was very interesting to hear what she had to say about sex in the media. She said that advertisements use sex to sell products. We have become a nation that has grown accustomed to viewing men and women in very intimate situations, and we don’t even think about the consequences. We see these images every day, but how much do they really affect us? Do we ever pay attention to the emotions and problems that arise with these “casual encounters?”
I know that in my grandparents’ days they were not exposed to very many sexual ads. My poor grandparents can’t believe what they see in the media today. Today, every magazine ad, television show, and song we hear has something about sex in it. The media never mentions the harmful effects that unsafe sex with multiple partners can have on a woman.
In the January/ February issue of Women’s Health, an entire article was done on the rising amount of STD’s in women. It said that the rates of Chlamydia (which causes infertility) and gonorrhea have shot through the roof. Three times more women than men have Chlamydia. 25 million women also have HPV, which causes cervical cancer. Females also make up a fourth of the AIDS population, which is a deadly disease that causes the immune system to be severely suppressed (Women’s Health Magazine). I was shocked by these horrifying statistics.
These sexually transmitted diseases are killing women daily. It is terrible that the media makes unsafe sex such a casual ordeal. When women and young girls see sex in the media, they think it is an okay thing to do without thinking about protection or abstinence. Our society will put the lives of millions of women at risk just to sell a pair of jeans. How far will the media go before they realize how much damage they are doing to young women and even men? Yep! They’re “killing us softly,” alright!
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I agree with your post Darby, and I really enjoyed reading it. I especially like your last paragraph, and if you think about it, this is the root of many of our problems - people don't think about the consequences of their actions for themselves or anyone else. Companies will do whatever they need to sell clothing/cosmetics etc and because we're so submersed in it - we fall for it. This is particularly harmful when it comes to think that aren't good for us - such as promiscuous tendencies. I don't think that men and women today are fully realistic to the possible consequences. Many have the mindset "it won't happen to me" or "if it does - I can get treated". Just recently they began administering the HPV Vaccine for females ages 11-26. This is a step in the right direction, but we sstill have a lot of ground to cover.
ReplyDeleteHi Darby, I really enjoyed reading this and I couldn't agree more...Jean Kilbourne makes very good points of view throughout her video, one of which is sex. I feel more and more sex is being advertised throughout magazines, commercials and music. I occasionaly listen to the radio and the majority of songs, r&b, rap, pop all relate sex into their songs somehow. I think it is getting worse and worse because not only is sex mentioned but I think it's getting more and more explicit the way it is put into the lyrics. Most of the "sex" songs are based on women though you hear them be about men once in a while. I'm a little scared for the next generation...to see how far sex will go...just like our grandparents are today about our generation.
ReplyDeleteI think you're absolutely right. The media is all about the glamorized version of sex, but they don't focus on the potentially negative aspects if protection isn't used. The rare times on television STDs are talked about, they're put in a humorous context, with no serious consequences. I can remember an episode of Grey's Anatomy when one of the characters gets contracts an STD. All he and the other doctors do is joke about how he got it and who he got it from, but they didn't say anything about the health risks that came with it -- and they were doctors! I think that until the media stops putting so much emphasis on casual sex, this problem is just going to keep getting worse and worse. And truthfully, I can't see that happening anytime soon, because as we all know, sex sells.
ReplyDeleteWhen we watched "Killing Us Softly" in class, I thought the same exact thing. These advertisements are making it seem like casual sex what you are "supposed" to do, no longer is it a personal, special thing. Even if this sounds outdated, I think that ads have definitely taken the intimacy out of sex and made it into something we have to do. I have friends who said that they came to college as virgins and felt so out of place that the had sex with the first person they started dating. I think this is due to our society today which is greatly influenced by the media. So, getting back to your point about safety and STD's, if people are having sex with random people who they do not fully trust because they feel pressured by the media, then the media without a question plays a role in the rise of STD's among our youth.
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