Growing up as a teenager in 2011 is vastly different than when I was a teenager in 2004, less than a decade ago. I find myself becoming more and more disconnected from that age period and with that comes hindsight and self-reflection. The messages and media that target today’s youth are much stronger and sexual from the pressures and social cues I remember. With such shows as MTV’s “Teen Mom”, “16 and Pregnant” and ABC Family’s “Secret Life of an American Teenager” that prominently feature teenage sex and sexuality teenage culture as certainly changed. And is this for the better or for worse? In a world today that has terms such as “sexting” and readily available access to the Internet, what kind of implications does this have for our growing youth and in turn our future population?
Thomas Laquer’s chapter “New Science, One Flesh” goes into great detail of the historical perception of sexual anatomy and practices and how our cultural biases and ideologies are intertwined with science and our understanding of sexual physiology. Previously, female orgasm was believed to be as vital to conception as male orgasm and thereby great attention was focused on foreplay and “when pleasure is greater, the woman emits seed and suitable material for the formation of the foetus” (Laquer 101). This commonly held belief by anatomists and physicians tied orgasm with ejaculation and in time where “one in five children died before age one” (Laquer 101) reproduction and child bearing were high concerns, the female orgasm became pretty important. In the progression of years, science learned how conception actually happened and there seemed to be a shift away from the importance of female orgasm and one solely focused on the males’. With this women again got placed into the category of the “slower sex” and the more knowledge published on female anatomy seemed to perpetuate the complexity of the female orgasm and highlight the simplicity of the males’, almost creating a “Get out of Jail” card in dealing with female pleasure: you can’t orgasm? Well it’s really not my fault; your parts need a lot more attention than mine.
With the variety of feminist movements and so on, women have sought to reclaim their pleasure and sex. This can be attributed to science also in terms of the research being made public and the medicalization of an intimate topic. With anatomical terms and descriptions of orgasm devoid or any emotion, people seem to have become slightly more comfortable in talking about sex and pleasure. Just in comparing the past fifty years in terms of how our culture views and discusses sex is already a huge shift. Shows such as “Sex and The City” showcased women speaking frankly about their sexual experiences and researchers gave us messages that “more and more women are watching porn” and “70% of women need clitoral stimulation to achieve orgasm”, etc. Our society as a whole became a lot more open to talking about sexuality and previously taboo subjects. I feel that this really gave women the tools to gain power over their bodies in a way that was not present before. It also has allowed parents to engage in much more open discussions with their children regarding sex and teenagers seem much more mature about the topic than some adults. However, this power did not come without clauses and repercussions. For women, I feel that this sexualization of the feminine mystique is still very male dominated as we have seen in magazine examples in class. And even in television shows, the women are still seeking sexual satisfaction with men, not with themselves. This hegemonic sexuality is perpetuated in most of mainstream society and there are signs of its effects on youth.
New York: "They Know What Boys Like"
The social and sexual interactions of teenaged girls and boys are the topic of “They Know What Boys Like” with greater focus paid to girls. The article is especially interesting in that it addresses how technology has affected these interactions in that “sexual maturity is inextricably bound with technology” and many of the teenagers interviewed cite that everything they learned about sex they learned from the Internet. This subtle difference in how children today are now receiving and shaping their sexual knowledge is notable in that, as anyone who has perused the Internet can attest to, information on the Internet is certainly not scientifically accurate or medically neutral. The hyper sexualized information teenagers are receiving from television shows and from web pages, especially in regards to teenage boys as the article describes has lasting effect on their sexual expectations towards their partners. Although the images and metaphors that Laquer details are culturally charged medical texts, the information teenagers are currently receiving about sex are generally pornographic. As we have discussed in class, pornography has its own history of being almost entirely male-centric with very little regarding to female pleasure. This creates paradox of the teenage boy: “more aggressive sexually…less interested in…standard-issue…girls” and robs teenage females of any autonomy in their sexuality. The media echoes this point of view that teenagers are supposed to have sex on the brain and creates that as the norm. This seems to create another generation of “female as slower sex” under the guise of an openly sexual society (although it must be noted that America stands as one of the most overtly sexual yet puritanical culture).
A big question raised in class was “With all this talking we do about sex, is it for the better?” and I felt that the New York Magazine article brings at least one answer to the table. Our society is one that constantly talks about sex, in schools, in the radio, on the Internet and our younger generations who have access to all these outlets are listening and learning.
Works Cited
Morris, Alex. “They Know What Boys Want”. New York Magazine January 30, 2011.Web
Laquer, Thomas. Making Sex: Bods and Gender From The Greeks to Freud. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press 1990
Images from: http://www.mtv.com/onair/16_and_pregnant/images/logo//456x330.jpg, http://teenmom.maxupdates.tv/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/Teen-Mom-Season-Summary-1.jpg
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