Sexuality isn't the problem. Whatever you find sexy is whatever you find sexy and there's nothing wrong with that.
The problem is when media gets sexualized to the point where children grow up thinking only one way of looking at sexuality is the right way. It creates body image-related traumas that get reinforced in places like schools where kids are often taunted for not having the 'right' type. This should be fought whenever possible.
I just don’t want my children sexualized. I see media that is constantly pushing sexual themes as doing that. I find arguments from the side trying to force that as disingenuous.
This isn’t negotiable. They are my kids and I will raise them as I see appropriate.
Controversy or a move to normalize the sexualization of children? Some claim the latter.
Generally speaking, film is a powerful medium through which things are normalized. Think of the shows and film that helped normalize homosexuality or promiscuity and shaped attitudes toward sex and sexuality (often through humor; levity is a powerful tool). They worked. There doesn't need to be a conspiracy to make this happen, just a cultural trajectory. The backing of powerful and moneyed industry figures helps grease the wheels and deliver the same message very cheaply to millions, or billions, of people. The education system also plays a role, of course.
It's just a shame that people aren't aware of how their attitudes are shaped by their environment, for good or for ill. Things we grow up with are merely taken for granted.
I think the problem is our society's denigration of sex. We see it as consisting inherently of that mix of thrill and shame - when you're a teenager growing up in America, you're told to feel that way about any nudity, never mind penetration. So you come to associate arousal with this guilt - you never experience the one without the other - and then when you're looking for something to turn you on you're already feeling guilty, and there's a part of you that wants to. So you step a little deeper into the pool of fetishes, find something a little stronger (and I'm pleased that the author's actually given some realistic examples here), something that makes you feel guilty and ashamed and is all the more erotic for it. But the interest half-life for porn is tiny; what was dangerous boundary-pushing last week is pedestrian today. It's a feedback loop, one that can only possibly end somewhere unpleasant.
The author's already found the solution - we need to separate sexuality from guilt and shame, to be able to feel aroused and wholesome at the same time. But it's hard to do that after you've already fallen down the spiral. We need to make our children's first experiences of arousal feel natural and wholesome - which means more openness, more embracing of sexuality in artforms that are going to portray it positively. But that's a hard sell to middle America.
Not really. Sexuality is and ought to be a normal part of human life and the repressed puritanism of US culture in particular is kind of awful.
There's a distinction worth making between voyeurism and sexualizing others but when someone portrays themselves as they want to be seen I have no idea why that needs to be put in some sort of box. Because there ought to be nothing offensive about sex, which is just about the most natural thing on earth.
And of course for some reason everything is assumed to be sexualized, from a sculpture of a torso to even breastfeeding mothers, I still remember 'female presenting nipples' on what was it, tumblr? It's like some sort of cursed feedback loop where the repression leads people to be horny about every sight of a nipple.
I agree with this. It’s easy to point to some other group to blame on this but I don’t meet many people in any group in the US who would be okay with children seeing nudity on TV. Contrast my experience with Scandinavia, where nude saunas are the norm and maybe it seems like the US just hasn’t yet progressed to sexual normalization.
Is that even a bad thing though? Who’s to say the Scandinavians aren’t messing their kids up with all the nudity? Who’s to say the Americans aren’t messing their kids up with their Puritanical approach to sex? I feel that nobody knows the answer right now and we’re most comfortable not changing anything until we do.
American here. As always there can be a middle ground. I 100% agree that the female body (or male body for that matter) is not the end of civilization but there's still a line to be drawn with regards to what children see. You never see the human body depicted in media as simply the vessel we exist in. It's always sexualized almost always with the aim of selling a product. My kids don't need to be seeing that until they're a certain age.
By the same token, violence is a part of human nature and we shouldn't go around acting like everyone is holding hands singing kumbaya but again, kids probably shouldn't be exposed to ridiculous levels of that at an early age.
I'm not quite sure what point you're trying to make here. But it sounds like you're trying to say the sexual objectification of children is okay, as long as they are fictional children with a tiny amount of body covering. Is that what you meant, or did you mean something else?
I disagree. I personally think it would be less of an issue if it wasn't treated as such a taboo topic. Particularly in America, many people get far too worked up (IMO) about basic issues of sexuality or displays of anything mildly erotic in mainstream media.
Also, FWIW, I do not see any of these Netflix show recommendations with significant sexual undertones. Then again, we also do not watch any of the fake reality TV, "dating" shows, or other drama-based programming.
This is such a good post, its shameful the HN political correctness crowd have downvoted it so. I don't think HN is a mature enough forum for this discussion. Its just a reddit-like upvote/downvote gamificiation machine at this point.
I find it amusing that American culture dictates that once you become 18 you are now sexualized and free to partake of whatever media you like, but an hour before your birthday you are an asexual being with no interest in things other than what the political correct types dictate.
A lot of this stuff is aimed for the 14-18 group where puberty kicks in. Yes, there are boobs and bulging crotches! The characters sometimes have sex! I know, its crazy! It almost reflects the hormonal madness of puberty.
The problem is American culture is so damn puritanical that not only have we dismissed this kind of art as victimizing, if not illegal, that we pretend that the status quo of this level of censorship is fine. Puberty will find a way. Kids will date, fuck, get high, etc. Why our art needs to reflect some kind of Judeo-Christian 1950s ideal is beyond me. Heaven forbid kids that age are represented as how they truly are or art they want is aimed at them. Or that, heaven forbid to SJW types, that most people don't have a problem with traditional gender roles. A manga about a girl trying to get a boyfriend shouldn't cause a social catastrophe. Its fine.
I think this kind of thing is a legitimate social panic, the same way people were obsessed with Satanism in the 1980s. We're going to look back at these ultra-politically correct attitudes today and wonder why we were so worried about displaying traditional roles, sexuality, and violence in fiction.
This comment is like judging the entire US because of the case where a crossdressing kid was stripping at a bar for money.
And I have to say that fictional underage characters being sexualized is not something that bother me, on the other hand, REAL kids being sexualized does bother me a great deal.
Why not both? You could also argue that repeatedly seeing the most beautiful actors in the business nude, can hurt a teenager self image pretty badly, or that learning about sex from movies is probably not the best idea.
The US market presents a bit of a challenge in that the country is so large with distinctly different cultures. Some parts may as well be called Puritanical while others are more to the Western European mindset.
The parents around my area have no problem with children seeing breasts or other body parts. Scenes involving intimacy on shows and in movies provide a good segue into conversations about sexuality. But, we have a major problem with characters slaughtering one another in gun violence.
The reality is that we simply watch more Amazon and Netflix original series/movies, in which body parts and sexuality are more likely, and avoid shoot-em-up blockbusters.
The problem is when media gets sexualized to the point where children grow up thinking only one way of looking at sexuality is the right way. It creates body image-related traumas that get reinforced in places like schools where kids are often taunted for not having the 'right' type. This should be fought whenever possible.
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