Within these images there are societal norms displayed, these norms include gender roles. The gender roles assume the girls to be feminized and the boys to be masculine, even at such a young age. Gender roles begin to be assumed even as early as in the womb, considering the pink vs. blue arrangements per gender. The specific gender roles assume in these images are merely an additional reminder to how young boys and girls ought to be. These images portray a perception of personal aspects that genders should abide to, including personal characteristics, behaviors and relationships.
The environments in which these characters are displayed are unrealistic. The environments are idealized ways of life and as a teenager, there are many pressures encouraging conformance. The characters on popular teenage television shows introduce many teens to boundary pushing elements. More specifically, teens are being introduced to how they should act individually, but also within relationships. As teens grow, their hormones and curious minds heighten. The TV industry creates hyper-masculine and feminine roles to show to these vulnerable teens.
While watching these television programs, teens are likely to idolize at least one of the characters. That is, wishing to be like one of the characters or aspiring their lifestyle. In these images, it is likely a teen will wish for the perfect body, wealth and popularity or promiscuity. Examples of gender roles from our images include for females; seductress, dependent, passive, powerless and nymphomaniac. For males, they are in control, professional, sex crazed and aggressive. Many of these characteristics are meant to be shown in adult roles but instead they’re being taken on by teenage characters.
Sexual Scripts:
Our images not only display examples of society inspired gender roles, but also sexual scripts. Sexual scripts are a concept explained by Gail Markle in the “Can women have sex like a man? Sexual Scripts in Sex & The City” article. The concept of sexual scripts challenges the ideas of sexual desires and behaviors of men and women. Markle explains these scripts as how individuals learned sexuality from messages from our cultures that define sex and sex behaviors and how to recognize sexual situations. The teens are using these sexual scripts to identify how to act sexually and learn what arouses them. From sexual scripts is also derived the sexual script theory. Markle compares this theory to the symbolic interactionist perspective as well as to Freud’s ideas of symbolic material within the psyche.
Within the sexual script theory there are several assumptions. Sexual patterns are introduced and expressed by assuming gender roles in the media. Also, depending on the culture, the meaning of sex differs. People can acquire these definitions and patterns of sexual conduct through life by biological instincts as well as media influence. People can also make adaptations to sexual scripts in order for them to meet their individual needs.
More importantly than theory are the three levels of sexual scripts. The three levels are 1) cultural scenarios 2)interpersonal scripts 3) intrapsychic scripts. Cultural scenarios can be explained as societal norms and narratives that are used as guidelines for sexual conduct. Second, interpersonal scripts can be explained as how cultural scenarios turn into scripts for certain circumstances. Third, intrapsychic scripts are sexual fantasies, objects and behaviors that create sexual arousal. Cultural scenarios are most definitely portrayed in our images but also are interpersonal scripts. These scripts tend to vary per person based on individual experiences and preferences.
Popular teenage media reinforces societal norms/ expectations:
Janna Kim, in her “From sex to sexuality: Exposing the Script on Primetime Network” says that television provides teens with info guiding girls and boys how to act, feel, think, and behave in romantic relationships. In these specific television series, Lauren and I looked at the specifics of exactly how these shows were telling teens to act.
Teen Girl: What do I look like and who do I sleep with?
o I want to be beautiful to western societal constructed views.
o I want to look older than I am.
o I want to dress as though I am affluent.
o I wear clothing that shows off my womanly figures so that I am easy to objectify so that men want me.
o The more I appear to want sex, the more the boys will pay attention to me.
Teen Boy: What do I look like and who do I sleep with?
o Janna Kim talks about how male characters most often play heterosexual script by being active and aggressive in pursuing sex.
o The male is either a jock or has other talents or is in the level of power in some way such as teacher or some other power position.
o Wear either my letterman’s jacket or classy clothing showing that I have money and can take care of you.
o I sleep with girls who are willing to please my sexual needs and that show that they want and crave sex.
o A girl who fits the western stereotypical beauty (thin and appear to have money)
We looked at how these artifacts portray sexual content and what counts as sex in these shows and what do they show losing your virginity to look like? “A Genealogy of the Genital Kiss: Oral Sex in the Twentieth Century” by Hunt and Curtis discuss the idea that the sexual behavior of youth causes anxiety for many and most people, and these individuals in these shows are supposed to be teens. But if you take a look at all of these shows that we have selected as our artifacts, and most all of the programs on television in general, these individuals who are supposed to be teens and in high school seem much too old to be in high school, normalizing the sexual behavior that goes on in a sense, and making it okay and appropriate.
Although these artifacts are all high school aged teens, the writing by Dempsey and Reichert describes in their “portrayal of married sex in the movies,” that the most common passionate behavior between couples in television and film is passionate kissing. This is shown in every single one of these artifacts, even in the still photos. By doing this, the producers are able to imply that sexual content is about to happen, and when the scene fades out, we can be certain that it did.
Conclusion:
When we began our research for this topic we found examples of unrealistic sex portrayals in popular shows such as 90210 from the 90s. Meaning that if these ideals of sexual content were being shown to teens then and when we were in high school, as well as today then they are only going to become more explicit.
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