The Student Room Group

How pornography and sexualisation affects young people.

Hey everyone, this seems quite a current topic at the moment so thought we could have a natter about it and see what people's opinions are.

So a few things for us to get our teeth into. Firstly I think we can all agree that sexual images are becoming so much more mainstream, like music videos etc. I know that they were considering trying to get ratings for music videos much like movies.

•

Do you think this is a good idea?


Do you think it'll make much of a difference?
Is it a good thing that people are getting more access to these pictures etc as it's making sex a lot less taboo?
The flip side is that people will have an unbalanced view of relationships and act like the pictures and movies they see and watch. Do we think there's any truth to this?


Also there is research saying that children under 11 are now watching pornography. Is this going to cause any real issues in the future or is it just kids being kids wanting to see something that would be prohibited, the same kind of draw as drinking underage?

Also there is the constant argument that what we're being taught at school isn't comprehensive enough, I definitely think this is true as the type of school I went to I got the biology very science side of it and that was all. No teaching on the relation and emotional side of it. Do you think pornography could cause children to be more confused as apparently most people now go to the internet for answers to the questions they wish they could ask but feel ashamed to. I know I definitely did I remember using the bbc girls page and TSR too.


So any thoughts, any discussion you want to have about it. Anything people have found whilst researching let's have it all out here. :h:
(edited 9 years ago)

Scroll to see replies

Reply 1
Avatar for Clip
Clip
19
It's all hype.

If anything, music videos are getting less sexualised. They probably reached their apogee in the late 90s, early 00s.

As for pornography - it's been available to kids forever.
Original post by Clip
It's all hype.

If anything, music videos are getting less sexualised. They probably reached their apogee in the late 90s, early 00s.

As for pornography - it's been available to kids forever.


That interesting what you said about the music videos... everytime I see a new Rihanna video I am amazed that she can make it even more sexualised than the last!
Reply 3
Avatar for Clip
Clip
19
Original post by Queen Cersei
That interesting what you said about the music videos... everytime I see a new Rihanna video I am amazed that she can make it even more sexualised than the last!


Post a Rihanna video that you think is OTT, and I will reply with a mainstream video at least 10-20 years old that makes it look like The Sound of Music.
Original post by Clip
Post a Rihanna video that you think is OTT, and I will reply with a mainstream video at least 10-20 years old that makes it look like The Sound of Music.


Yes please

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3mP3mJDL2k
Reply 5
Avatar for Clip
Clip
19
Original post by StrangeBanana


Original post by Clip
As for pornography - it's been available to kids forever.


It hasn't.

It's now much more available to anyone than it was say forty years ago.
Reply 7
Avatar for Clip
Clip
19
Original post by unprinted
It hasn't.

It's now much more available to anyone than it was say forty years ago.


40 years ago you didn't need any electronic media to access pornography, all you needed was functioning vision.
Original post by Clip


much appreciated

it didn't exactly make the first video look like the Sound of Music, though
Reply 9
Avatar for Clip
Clip
19
Original post by StrangeBanana
much appreciated

it didn't exactly make the first video look like the Sound of Music, though


This one from the late 80s does:

Original post by Clip
This one from the late 80s does:



...

yes

yes it does
All this is bull****. We have an incredibly unhealthy prudish attitude towards sex, and we have an incredibly unhealthy attitude towards our own bodies.

As a species we are ridiculously suppressed and immature, and after making progress for the last few hundred years, recently people seem to want to drag us back to the dark ages and force people to cover up and be ashamed of their bodies, ashamed of their sexuality.
Reply 12
Avatar for Clip
Clip
19
Original post by StrangeBanana
...

yes

yes it does


You also have to understand that this was a mainstream video for a song that got to #3 in the UK charts, not some unknown thing.
Reply 13
Avatar for miser
miser
20
I don't watch a lot of TV so a lot of these things pass me by unnoticed, but I did happen to be watching 4OD the other day and an advert came on for a singer's new album. She walked out and started taking off her clothes and I just erupted into a fit of laughter in disbelief, marvelling at just how in-your-face they apparently wanted to make it.

It made the whole thing seem so crass. It's cheap and weird. It prejudiced me towards thinking her music was probably crap and annoyed me because I didn't want to watch it. The singer herself was evidently quite forgettable seeing as I can't remember who she was. All I remember is her body, which says it all really.

I haven't seen many music videos lately but the ones I have have been pretty sexualised. Even one of the new Slipknot videos seemed sexualised, having a pretty Occultic girl writhing alluringly yet threateningly in bodypaint.

I don't know what kind of effect the sexualisation of media has. I suppose it normalises certain body images and disappoints everyone equally when they can't match it themselves or find a partner who can.
Reply 14
Avatar for Clip
Clip
19
Original post by miser
I don't watch a lot of TV so a lot of these things pass me by unnoticed, but I did happen to be watching 4OD the other day and an advert came on for a singer's new album. She walked out and started taking off her clothes and I just erupted into a fit of laughter in disbelief, marvelling at just how in-your-face they apparently wanted to make it.

It made the whole thing seem so crass. It's cheap and weird. It prejudiced me towards thinking her music was probably crap and annoyed me because I didn't want to watch it. The singer herself was evidently quite forgettable seeing as I can't remember who she was. All I remember is her body, which says it all really.

I haven't seen many music videos lately but the ones I have have been pretty sexualised. Even one of the new Slipknot videos seemed sexualised, having a pretty Occultic girl writhing alluringly yet threateningly in bodypaint.

I don't know what kind of effect the sexualisation of media has. I suppose it normalises certain body images and disappoints everyone equally when they can't match it themselves or find a partner who can.


Nearly 20 years ago, the UK entry for Eurovision was a promoted by appearing dressed only in chocolate body paint, and all of the singer's publicity was based on her wearing as little as possible.

Attachment not found
(edited 9 years ago)
Original post by miser
I don't watch a lot of TV so a lot of these things pass me by unnoticed, but I did happen to be watching 4OD the other day and an advert came on for a singer's new album. She walked out and started taking off her clothes and I just erupted into a fit of laughter in disbelief, marvelling at just how in-your-face they apparently wanted to make it.

It made the whole thing seem so crass. It's cheap and weird. It prejudiced me towards thinking her music was probably crap and annoyed me because I didn't want to watch it. The singer herself was evidently quite forgettable seeing as I can't remember who she was. All I remember is her body, which says it all really.

I haven't seen many music videos lately but the ones I have have been pretty sexualised. Even one of the new Slipknot videos seemed sexualised, having a pretty Occultic girl writhing alluringly yet threateningly in bodypaint.

I don't know what kind of effect the sexualisation of media has. I suppose it normalises certain body images and disappoints everyone equally when they can't match it themselves or find a partner who can.



Who even watches music videos anyways?

Most of these female singers sell 90% of their records to 13 year old girls. Why do they think 13 year old girls want to see their tits?

Maybe I'm missing something here.
Have thoroughly enjoyed the music video posts :colone:

There does seem to be a massive proliferation recently though. I remember when I used to go to the gym (quite a while ago admittedly), the videos they had on were insane. It's similar if I (painfully) watch the top charts... naked sexy chicks dancing everywhere.

Personally I think it's quite harmful to culture. It's all the same - a culture based on the objectification of women. Looking at my girlfriends magazine with her (Cosmo), there isn't one picture that isn't Photoshopped to hell.

As for pornography; it will be interesting to see how the pornography addiction literature evolves over the years (due to such easy access now - extremely cheap basic computing, mobile smart phones etc.).
Reply 17
Avatar for miser
miser
20
Original post by Clip
Nearly 20 years ago, the UK entry for Eurovision was a promoted by appearing dressed only in chocolate body paint, and all of the singer's publicity was based on her wearing as little as possible.


There would be countless instances of sexualisation from the past. What we're interested in is identifying trends. I myself don't know if a trend exists, but I expect it probably does, if only because of the sheer proliferation of sexual imagery around today, enabled by the internet, social media, liberalisation of cultural values, etc.

Sex has always sold, but boundaries of acceptability can be eroded over time.
Reply 18
Avatar for miser
miser
20
Original post by cole-slaw
Who even watches music videos anyways?

Most of these female singers sell 90% of their records to 13 year old girls. Why do they think 13 year old girls want to see their tits?

Maybe I'm missing something here.

They seem popular on YouTube since they always seem to have millions of views.

Even if it was a 10% increase in market - would that not be enough incentive to change what your singer wears?

It's a good point though. I don't know any men who listen to any of these artists.
Original post by Clip
40 years ago you didn't need any electronic media to access pornography, all you needed was functioning vision.


First, you would have needed to find it.

Build a time machine, go back forty years. No magazines showing penetration in newsagents, in fact none showing erections or labia. No home video systems, so no badly copied porn on VHS. There are still two years to go before the Inside Linda Lovelace trial effectively decriminalised written porn. Etc etc etc.
(edited 9 years ago)

Quick Reply

Related discussions

Latest

Trending

Trending

Articles for you