Week 9 Readings
Yay! We’re about half-way through the semester! Congrats! 
Celebration post-midterms aside, I’m obviously posting about the Sternheimer reading we had this week as well as the Fight the New Drug website we had to look at.
First, Sternheimer. This has probably been my favorite chapter so far because it was on a topic I find really interesting. I’m really into music and a big part of our pop culture now is the performing of music. However, it seems like those performances are constantly pushing some sort of sexual envelope (I’m looking at you Miley at the 2013 VMA’s). I was happy that Sternheimer pointed out that the sexualization of our culture reinforces a narrow version of feminity (p.162) which, I think, leads to a power struggle between the media and women. Men, I also think are sexualized, especially on television. Shows like “Teen Wolf” and “The Vampire Diaries” come to mind, where every guy has a ridiculously toned and fit body. Moving on, I really agreed with Sternheimer’s statement that we should find out what children think about sex rather than focusing on what we don’t want them to know (p. 157). We should focus on enriching rather than restricting youth knowledge about sex. It was interesting to see that trend of adults being fearful, once again, of something they don’t understand. Similarly, the trend of poverty as a risk factor has followed from violence and on to sexuality. Overall, I really enjoyed this chapter and found myself agreeing with a lot of what Sternheimer had to say (for once!).
However, I cannot say the same about the website we had to look at. At first, I thought it was a good and informative website, but the more time I spent reading, the more uncomfortable I got. First off, they make people pay for their “helpful” services. I feel as though this is profiting off of people’s insecurities about using porn and their possible serious addictions (I am not sure if whoever developed these programs has a medical license or degree). Secondly, their arguments were extremely one-sided. They did have interviews with people who had left porn, but even then, their examples of what porn actors experience (gun to the head? really?) I felt were a little extreme. I think instead of talking about the why porn is bad, maybe we need to ask why do people feel the need to look at/use porn and why do people go into the industry? There are women who have found much success not only acting but independently producing porn. This, to me, is an example of porn being more of a business than a “drug”.
I am going to link to a couple videos I found that I felt were kind of anti-Fight the New Drug ( and they are written by/explained by an actual doctor!). This is a channel that I really like and I feel is relevant to this discussion. Very informative.
Effects of Porn: Effects of porn are due to the people watching, not the porn itself
Removing the shame from pornography
I’m not saying there are not issues with porn, I do think it can be addictive and perhaps the ethics are not always the best. However, I don’t think the Fight the New Drug website shared the whole story, so this is me playing devil’s advocate.
Also, one more video! Relating to last week’s topic of media and violence, I foud a great video by The New York Times that revisited Columbine and had interviews with people who were students at the time. There is an argument about whether or not the shooters really were out for revenge or if they had an extreme god-complex and were suicidal. Once again, taking in multiple factors that may have contributed to the shooting. This video also compares our modern views on shootings compared to our past views. I spent about an hour watching the videos from this Retro Report series because it’s a lot of news that affects us today but that happened right before some of us were born. Hope you guys find it as interesting as I did!
Sorry for the long post this week but I couldn’t help but go a little further into the discussion. I’m interested to see what you have you to say about the readings and videos that I’ve shared.
