Final Thoughts

For this blog, I thought I would just look back at the 5 weeks of summer session. When I first started summer session I thought it would be a nice change from the normal school year; I'd get my classes done in a shorter time, I'd have my apartment to myself, and I had also heard that summer down in athens is really fun. However, even though I got my classes done in a shorter amount of time, they were very fast moving and kind of stressful. Also, about 2 weeks into the summer session I became bored and lonely having no roommates. And I havent really gone out to the bars or done anything super fun. But, overall I'm glad I had this experience, because not onlu did I get two more classes out of the way, but I also realized that summer session is not for me. ha ha.
As for this english class, I really enjoyed everyone in it. I found the material interesting and relatable to everyday life (especially at our age). I do however, feel like the work load was outrageous, but I guess thats to be expected when taking an english class in just 5 short weeks. I thought the essay and paper assignments were creative and the blog gave us a chance to speak or minds and share it with everyone.
Anyways, although i enjoyed the subject of this class and all of you that were in it, I'm glad to be finishing up and I'm ready to have a break!

Sex Myths in Porn

With this upcoming week and last week being so hectic and stressful, I began thinking about my next blog topic early on and had a hard time (at first) deciding what I wanted to talk about. But, after having had a discussion about pornography in my philosophy class I instantly thought, research paper! Unfortunately, I had already picked my research topic and also figured that researching porn might be somewhat inappropriate, being that our primary source is that of whatever video, television series, or magazine it is that we are researching! However, upon thinking about pornography further, I realized that Dr. Galician’s sex myths are definitely present in porn videos. Now, I don’t want you all to look at me as a pervert, but I have seen some porn and from that I have gathered that specifically, myths 4, 5, and 6 are often accounted for.
Myth 4 states: If your partner is truly meant for you, sex is easy and wonderful. Now we all are smart enough to recognize that most porn stars probably aren’t actually in a relationship with their co-stars. But, often times, in their films they sure make it look as though they are partners and in a relationships with each other. Nevertheless, the actors in these films, certainly forward the myth that sex is easy and wonderful (and if its not, something’s wrong). Because many porn videos are scripted, this definitely adds to the notion that the actors know exactly what they are doing and could perform no wrong on or with the other star. This falsely shows normal, everyday people that sex should be easy and that everyone should know what they are doing perfectly while engaging in sexual acts.
The next myth: To attract and keep a man, a woman should look like a model or a centerfold, is obviously perpetuated by pornographic films. Every woman featured in professional porn videos is gorgeous, thin, tan, big – boobed, has blonde hair, etc. These women are not normal/ typical looking women. Many of them have enhanced and exaggerated features. This could give women the idea that not only do they need to be centerfolds, but they also need to be porn stars to attract a man’s attention!
Finally, myth 5 is also present: The man should NOT be shorter, weaker, younger, poorer, or less successful than the woman. Most of the men that I have seen in porn videos are definitely stronger and taller than the women. They also tend to be very good looking and successful. This easily perpetuates the myth that men should be successful, in charge, and dominate the women.
These sex myths can potentially cause problems in a society where many people already view these myths (not as myths, but rather) as reality. They can damage a person’s confidence and overall being. The myth that sex should be easy and wonderful can simply ruin a good relationship that a man and a woman have, by making them think that they are obviously wrong for each other since they may not be performing sex “perfectly.” And again, both myths 5 and 6 are confidence damaging for both women and men!
Anyways, again I wish that I could use this topic as my research topic, but as I said earlier, it would be rather difficult and inappropriate to share results of a possible primary source (aka: a porn video). However, if this were not the case, it would be very easy to research secondary sources and put to use Dr. Galician’s myths 4, 5, and 6 without problems.

Research Paper Idea

I'm stuck between researching the tv series Sex and the City and different types of Wedding magazines. Although I'm leaning towards wedding magazines. I'm interested in finding out what type of sex, love, and romance myths are presented in these magazines and whether they are forwarded or countered. This research paper is geared towards people who are interested in wedding magazines, specifically women who are preparing to get married. I'm hoping to show my audience the falsities presented by these wedding magazines so that they can try to look passed them and view the important material in these magazines. The sources that I will probably need will be a couple different wedding magazines, some books about weddings, and some online sources. i hope to spend time both inside and outside of class researching for myh project. I have a very busy week ahead of me next week and I hope to get as much done on this paper this week as possible!

SEX, SEX, PREGNANCY, and SEX

Television has changed quite drastically for the worse since we were younger as I can remember... or maybe its just that my parents had good morals and monitored what my brother and I watched. I remember watching tv shows like Seventh Heaven, Full House, and Step by Step where they were very family oriented and the most morally risque thing that could happen was that someone received an on screen kiss from a hunk or a babe!!! (ewwwww)

So maybe I'm thinking a little further back than my teen years, but nevertheless, I don't ever recall watching many shows as a teenager that had parental advisories. Today there are soooo many shows on television that impact and influence young people (namely teens), including: NYC Prep, The Secret Life of the American Teenager, and Sixteen and Pregnant. Now I am not a huge follower of these particular shows, but I have a very good idea for what these shows are about and have done a tiny bit of research on them.

Lets begin with NYC Prep. I've seen more of this show than I have the other 2. This reality show is about a group of very priviledged New York City Preparatory School kids ranging from 15-18 years old. It films the teens in their everyday lives of partying, gossiping, networking, and dating in the Manhattan elite scene. When the teens arent doing what they do best (gossiping) they are dating anyone and everyone. Throughout the show we view the teens dating many other kids in their group. One of the favorite terms thrown around amongst the NYC Preps is "hook-ups." This show features and discusses many of the hook-ups between the teenagers. Hook-ups have a few different meanings including: to meet up, a kiss, or having any sort of sex act. Unfortunately in the lives of these 15-18 year olds, hook ups refer to the last definition I mentioned, a sex act. What does this show our young people today? That its okay to casually partake in any sort of sex act? This takes me to the next 2 shows I presented above.

Sixteen and Pregnant is an MTV reality series about 16-18 year old high school students who have to face their senior year as a pregnant mommy (and daddy) to be. This series features 6 teenage girls whose lives will be changed forever. Sixteen and Pregnant??? Whatever happened to waiting until you graduated college, found a perfect job, and married the right person to have a child? My thoughts are that these girls and guys who are featured on this show either had parents who didn't teach them anything or made the big mistake of not using protection. Either way I do feel for them. Now, maybe...just maybe MTV has created this series as a means to show people that teen pregnancy can and should try to be prevented. But, I doubt that those were the intentions of the MTV execs. Lets face it, MTV probably created this show for entertainment purposes just like all of their other dramatic reality shows. This series just truly shows kids that teenage pregnancy (because its more common today) is okay. And I personally dont think it is!

Finally, theres a newer show on ABC family called The Secret Life of the American Teenager. This particular show is actually not a reality show. This series is about a young girl around 15 who finds out she is pregnant and decides to have the baby and keeps it. Now, ABC family mentions at the wnd of this show that the viewers can go to abcfamily.com to find out more about pregnancy prevention. This is a very small positive aspect of this show. However, I still feel that this show and other similar series teach teenagers that it's alright and so common today to have babies at a young age. I know these are probably not the intentions of the ABC family producers, but with all movies and tv shows surrounding sex today, one of these family shows can easily be turned into something beyond PG-13 or TV 14. Now just to be sure abc family was being truthful about the pregnancy prevention tips online, I decided to visit the website myself. I didnt find a link about teen pregnancy prevention, but under the Secret Life page, I saw a link for advice. When I clicked on the advice link I saw a few disturbing questions from viewers of the show. One girl had said she was going into her senior year of highschool and loved her boyfriend very much. But then she continues on to ask the advice counselor if it would be a good idea for her to get pregnant in september so that she could graduate and then have her baby in June. What the hell kind of question is that for a teenager to be asking, let alone thinking? Does this show really give teens the idea that it's possible to have a normal highschool experience while being pregnant? Fortunately, the advice counselor told the young lady that she has so many opportunities to try and fulfill before she should start thinking about settling down and having a family. The next question I saw was even more ludacris than the last. A 12 year old girl had submitted a question asking for advice on a dream that she had. The girl said that she had a dream where she was pregnant and enjoyed it. This left her confused and wanting to be pregnant. So she asked the advice counselor what she should do. Again, fortunately the counselor told her that being 12 is a great time for many wonderful things to happen, but being pregnant and a parent at age 12 is not one of them. She continues on by telling the girl that being a parent comes with many many responsibilities. It is sad for me to read these advice questions because I see how many kids think its okay to be a young parent and how many kids think it will be easy and fun.

With shows like the previous 3 I discussed, we can easily see how teenage sex and pregnancy is so common in the media. Unfortunately these shows are not always means of teaching kids/teens that teen prgnancy should be prevented. Often times these shows display the contrary that give young people the idea that having sex (even unprotected sex) is perfectly alright and actually accepted in today society. To me, its a sad thing that our world and media would allow these types of shows to be aired so that teens can see that what is meant to be a wonderful thing between 2 committed adults is actually just a casual common now amongst teens...