"New" Sex Culture?

In the past week I’ve been doing more research to try to answer my question about the sex culture of today. When I first started, my question was: why is there an obsession with sex in our culture today and how is it affecting young people.  As I looked into it more I’ve started to question whether there even is a so called obsession. Is there an obsession with sex in our culture or are we led to believe that by pop culture media? What does this mean for sex education? I still need to refine my research question but that’s roughly the direction I’m going on the issue.

We are considered part of the “hook up culture”. The implication is that people now are more inclined to participate in sexual activities, or anything related to it, even something as simple as  kissing, without an expectation of a relationship or any kind of commitment in the future. With this “new” method, traditional dating and romance is in danger of being extinct. There is also a high risk of getting STDs for participating members and there may be unforeseen emotional consequences, mostly for young girls.

To me, this all sounds very familiar. If we go back in time to the 60’s, we find ourselves in an era of “free love”. Women began to assert their sexual freedom and thus began the hippie movement. Magazines like Cosmopolitan made an entrance into public view and led the way to openly talking about sex. Young people participated in casual sex and this was where STDs really began to affect a big part of the population. Some trends do eventually make their comebacks and I think the same rule applies to sex culture.

I’m not entirely convinced that there is a “big problem” with the “hook up culture”. The problem lies in sex education, or lack thereof. I can’t deny that pop culture media is overly sexual, since I’ve seen it for myself. Songs are getting more explicit, people become famous from their sex scandals, and TV shows like The Jersey Shore existed. However, the fact that young eyes are exposed to this everywhere they look, should spark some serious discussion about educating them on sex.

Sex in Popular Culture

We live in a generation that lives in the so-called “hook-up culture”, where dating is almost extinct and is instead replaced by no commitment, short-lived hook ups.  The main focus is no longer finding your soul mate or starting a family, it’s now all about sex and just doing what you want because you want to. When did this mentality begin and what are the consequences of living in this kind of culture? What can we expect of this for future generations?

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen this kind behavior make up a culture. It all began in the 60s and early 70’s where it was all about “free love”. In that time, women expressed their sexuality more openly than ever before and the feminist movement began to sprout. Along with this new attitude however, erupted negative effects, such as STDs. The hippie culture changed things forever.

Before then people were very conservative about their personal lives. Even adult shows were very PG; the most you would ever see was a passionate kiss. One famous TV couple, Lucy and Ricky Ricardo, weren’t even allowed to be filmed lying in the same bed, even though they were married on the show, as well as in real life. Bedrooms were hardly ever seen on most shows.

Today sex is a very common subject all over popular culture. Music now contains very explicit lyrics, ads use sometimes controversial sex appeal as a means of persuading viewers, and TV shows sometimes have a sex scene here and there (or like “The Affair”, where the entire show is based on sex). It’s not all bad however, since now there seems to be more of a push for sex education. There are also public service announcements and ads promoting safe sex.

I’m sure I can find a lot of examples in popular culture to back up my statements. I think my main focus should be on researching the effects these things have had. I need to compare statistics on teen pregnancies and maybe compare it to the statistics from other less-sexualized countries. Organization is also something I really need to work on, although this was more of a free write to get my ideas down.