Sex, Violence and Transgression in the News - Essay Example

? Unit: ID: Sex, Violence and Transgression Introduction Gender and sex focuses on how women and men construct themselves as gendered and sexual being and how sexuality shapes every aspect of our daily lives. Gender is the cultural or psychological characteristic that is typically associated with a certain sex. Different communities have different roles that can only be performed by a specific gender (Connell, 2002). Our lives and how to interact with other members of the society is directly influenced by the concept of gender. Sexuality is how people experience and express themselves as sexual beings. In some instances, violence occurs in relation to sex. This is mostly in instances of rape and any other sexual harassment (Fausto-Sterling, 2000). This essay will look at sex, violence and transgression with representation of violence from news media and analyze them. The modern culture is obsessed with sex and sexuality while there are still too many social pressures around sex. Some of these pressures are how to wear and what fashion trends to follow, how to raise and school your children and whom to befriend. These pressures affect people since everyone wants to accepted and fit in the society as a unique person. The study of sexuality encompasses an array of social activities, an abundance of behaviors, series and societal topics. Biologically sexuality involves sexual intercourse and contact. It also involves the psychological aspects in relation to medical related concerns. Being the main force conditioning human relationship, sex is essentially political. The construction of a sexual universe is fundamentally linked to the structures of power in any social context. Construction of sexual meaning is a means through which social institutions manage and shape relationships among human beings. Body Today s’ sexual behaviors have increased regardless of age or gender. Our cultures no longer respects sex as a power capable of producing human life instead to many, sex is not taken seriously and is used for the purpose of entertainment. Trivializing sex leads to loss of value in marriage, this degrades women and their families. Use of contraceptives has destroyed the family and society as well. Once divorced from the aspect of reproduction, any type of sexual union can practice marriages legal perquisites. Many girls are giving themselves away to gain things a child craves, and it will be years before they know what they have done to themselves. Once these girls are married for the purpose of having children they came to understand that life is a sacrifice, fulfillment was not part of their vocabulary. Sexual activity among youths and under children can bring serious consequences. Unfortunately, the recently long term trend in sexual activity among youth has not been promising (Monro, 2005). The rates of sexual activity have increased. About twenty percent of more males and females are having sex today by 18 than the earlier 1970s. Research shows that most of people who engage in sex are between ages 12 -10. About half of both boys between ages 12 -19 have not had sex. The increase of sexual activities among teenagers has led to an increase in teen birth rate, school drop –out rate and high level of poverty in the society. Adolescents who initiate themselves in these health risk behaviors’ of sexual intercourse and substance abuse such as contraceptives at an early age have poor health in their adult life. These adolescents achieve low in education and do not contribute adequately to society. There is also a big gap of age difference between young girls and their first sex partners. The younger a girl is during her first sexual intercourse the higher the average age difference between her and sexual partner. This is also related to the number of sex partners she will have in her teenage life. This leads to teenage pregnancy due to lack of proper sex education (Connell, 2002). Non- voluntary and unwanted sex is particularly commonly among very young girls. This becomes a trouble to the society since the greater the number of sexual partners the greater risk of acquiring sexually transmitted disease. Peer pressures have greatly affected our sexual behaviors’. Despite continuing education and efforts in schools, churches, social gathering and seminars to inform adolescents of the health risks and outcomes of sexual activity, a lot of sexually active teenagers do not realize the risk for Sexually transmitted Diseases and pregnancy. Teens living in rural and whose parents receive welfare have higher chances to have sexual intercourse. Lack of communication between parents and children has increased teen sexual intercourse. Parents who forbid their children’s not to have sex have never had sexual intercourse compared to students who said their parents do not care whether they had sex or not. Sexual activity is also an indicator of a larger lifestyle pattern on unhealthy risk behaviors’, including using tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drugs and being involved in violence. Peoples who use these substances on a regular basis are more likely to have sex (Mitchell & Finkelhor, 2007). Media has also played a significant part in influencing sexual behavior. These were first reported in a sex education newsletter in 1981. Negative changes of sexual attitudes and behaviors have been as a result of effects of viewing Television. Adolescents use media as a source of information, and this raises concerns about the influence of media portrayals on sexual attitudes and normative expectations of adolescents at a critical development stage. Regardless of each article’s perspective, audience and purpose, all of the reviews of the research evidence on media and sexual behavior have described serious limitations in the evidence base and aggressively called for more research. After watching television and see the behavior that is rewarded in the media, adolescents imitate and may eventually adopt that behavior as their own. Exposure to sexual content in the media also may prime viewers, sensitizing them to sexualized attitudes and behaviors’. Girls read adolescent directed magazines during their formative pre – teen years. Since the negotiation of sex roles, relationships and sexual behavior are a source of anxiety and a major development task, narratives about and strategic for romance and sexuality are prevalent to teen magazines. Magazines for teens have doubly increased the number of stories with sexual content and themes, increasing its portrayals of female sexual desire, recreational sex, and described a wider variety of sexual activity (Fausto-Sterling, 2000). The magazines coaches’ girls to be sexually alluring while admonishing them to be chaste, thus reflecting contradictory social norms and sexual power dynamics. They also encourage girls to abandon their own interests and make their appearance more attractive to boys. Fashion advertising typically dresses and poses adolescents seductively, portraying older females as younger and more virginal and prepubescent girls as more sexualized. The other form of media is Television. TV remains the most frequently used by adolescents despite the recent explosion in new media technologies. Sexual content is prevalent on Television, with talk about sex being the predominant form of content. Romancing behaviors such as kissing and touching are more prevalent than sexual intercourse which is portrayed in about 12 percent of all shows. The proportion of shows containing sexual material and the average number of scenes per show has increased from over the years. Of recent programs containing sexual content and sex related scenes is about seventy one percent (Fausto-Sterling, 2000). Youth broadcasting episodes features sexual talk, sexual behavior and also portray them. Movies’ also being the other type of media also plays a major role in increasing sexual behaviors. The sexual content in R- rated films has steadily increased over the past ten years. Even though it is considered non - illegal to sell pornographic movies many people engage in this business which leads to increase of people who watch these movies. Use of the internet also has made materials about sex to be more accessible to youth than ever before, making it an important source of information reproductive health. Many youth uses internet to search for information about their bodies and bodily functions including sex. Consumer demand for pornography has been a key economic driver of the internet as it was for videocassette recorders a century earlier. The internet provides a marketplace for the portrayal, and sale of items related to all manner of sexual interests, including and often featuring the unconventional and bizarre. A research shows that 70 percent adolescents who have internet access are being exposed to internet pornography. This exposure can lead bring both physical responses such as sexual arousal, avoidance, tension, nausea and emotional responses such as disgust, shock, embarrassment and interest in the material (Mitchell & Finkelhor, 2007). Adolescents acknowledge that they use media to learn about sexuality, relationships, and love. Youth approach and respond to media from their own life experience, so ethnicity, gender, class and developmental stage influence their media choices. Adolescent girls who reached their physical maturation earlier showed more interest in sexual media, viewed more R-rated movies, accessed more media information on dating, contraception, and were more likely to perceive on media as normalizing or giving societal permission for sexual activity. With rapid use of internet among children and youth, exposure to explicit sexual materials and vulnerability to online sexual interactions with others has been on increased concerns to parents and to society. Children start using the internet while quite young and many report problematic experiences. As youth get older and more experienced, their internet use becomes less accessible to parental oversight, but many still feel unsafe (Morris Balsam & Rothblum, 2002). Many young people even use internet to connect with strangers, and this has increased the rate of rape and defilement. Developing an internet based social network led to an unhealthy retreat from real life interaction with peers. Media portrayal of sex as a source of fun and a common activity that does not require concerns may cultivate similar beliefs and influence wrong sexual behaviors among youths. Frequent listening to music that has degrading sexual lyrics has a higher likelihood of initiating sexual intercourse (Mitchell & Finkelhor, 2007). The world today is full of violence. Sexual and gender based violence is most disturbing phenomenon which exists in all regions of the world. Violence can either be emotional (kicking, slapping, hitting, or use of weapons), emotional violence (threats, degrading treatments, controlling behavior, systematic humiliation), sexual violence (coerced sex, forced into sexual activities considering degrading or humiliating) and economic violence. Somehow violence in the media like computer games is one thing that is difficult to avoid. Sexual violence is an attempt to obtain a sexual act by coercion. Sexual violence occurs throughout the world although the research differs (Fausto-Sterling, 2000). Due to the secretive nature of violence estimating its magnetite has proved to be difficult. About a third of adolescent girls report that their first sexual intercourse as rape. Sexual violence has a great impact on physical and mental health of an individual (Abrahams Jewkes, Hoffman & Laubsher, 2004). Apart from causing physical injury, rape is linked to with high risk of sexual and reproductive problems with both immediate, short term and long term consequences. It is also associated with death rates which maybe as a result of suicide, HIV or murder during assault. Sexual violence affects the social well- being of victims since individuals may be stigmatized and be rejected by their family members. Coerced sex may result to content on the part of the perpetrator, but its underlying purpose is frequently the show of power and dominance over the person being assaulted. People who force their spouses into having sex believe their actions are legitimate only because they are married (Jewkes, 2002). The act of rape is described as a weapon of war internationally; it is a form of attack directed to the enemy, degrading women or men. It is also used to punish people who breaks social or moral codes, for instance, adultery or drunkenness in public. Cases or rape to both men and women has increased in prison and police custody. A wide range of sexual violence can be carried out in various circumstances and settings such as forced prostitution and hijacking people for the purpose of sexual exploitation (Goldstein, 2001). These violence involves sexual abuse of children, sexual abuse of mentally and physically disabled, systematic war rape during the conflict among nations or communities, rape during dating relationships or within marriage, unwanted sexual harassments, forced abortion, denial to use measures or contraceptives to protect sexually transmitted diseases and rape by acquaintances (Lewis, 2009). Sexual violence has been a neglected area of research. Many people do not report sexual violence to those who are responsible for handling these matters because they are ashamed and they fear not to be secluded by the families or fear being blamed (Fausto-Sterling, 2000). The number of people who seek medical services related to sexual violence is relatively small. Children are more vulnerable to sexual violence due to their low levels of involvement in decision making processes and also due to myths that sex with virgins can cleanse the perpetrator or the HIV have contributed to the rising phenomenon of child rape (Horwood, 2007). Conclusion Sex, violence and transgression are matters that require adequate attention especially among the youth. The media has played part in encouraging sexual activities among the adolescents through their programs. There is need for creation of awareness among the youth so as to educate them on sex. There should be limitation on the access to the pornographic sites among the teenagers to eliminate moral decay. Sexual violence must be eliminated as it can lead to disastrous effects such as death or infection. References Abrahams, N., Jewkes, R., Hoffman, M. & Laubsher, R. 2004. “Sexual violence against intimate partners in Cape Town: Prevalence and risk factors reported by men”. Bulletin of the World Health Organisation, 82(5), 330-337. Connell, R. W. 2002. Gender. Cambridge: Polity. Fausto-Sterling, A. 2000, Sexing the Body: Gender Politics and the Construction of Sexuality, New York, Basic Books. Goldstein, Joshua S., 2001, War and Gender: How Gender Shapes the War System and Vice Versa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Horwood, C., 2007, The shame of war: sexual violence against women and girls in conflict. Malta: Ocha/Irin. Jewkes, R. 2002. “Intimate partner violence: Causes and prevention”. Lancet, 359 (9315), 1423-1429. Lewis, D. A., 2009. “Unrecognized Victims: Sexual Violence Against Men in Conflict Settings Under International Law”, Wisconsin International Law Journal 27(1):1–49. Mitchell, K.J., J., & Finkelhor,D. 2007. “Trends in youth reports of sexual solicitations, harassment and unwanted exposure to pornography on the internet”. Journal of Adolescent Health, 40 (2), 116 126 Monro, S. 2005. Gender Politics: Citizenship, Activism and Sexual Diversity, London: Pluto Press Morris, J. F., Balsam, K. F., & Rothblum, E. D. 2002. “Lesbian and bisexual mothers and nonmothers: Demographics and the coming-out process”. Journal of Family Psychology, 16, 144–156. Read More