American media distorts view of sex, sexual norms

Stephanie Fitzgerald

Welcome to The Flor-Ala’s new biweekly blog on sexuality and sexual health for UNA students. Over the course of the rest of the semester, I will explore normal and abnormal facets of the sex life of college students, identify causes and effects of the modern American’s sexual stimulation through the media and discuss the sexual reality of our generation.

I recently watched the French film “Sexual Chronicles of a French Family.” The film contained extremely realistic sex scenes and normal people with flaws. There were no enlarged penises and silicone breasts — just the typical skinny boy, middle-aged man and slightly overweight prostitute.

My roommate arrived halfway through the movie, and we were both surprised that we felt totally comfortable with watching this sex-drenched film together. Afterwards, we discussed how utterly normal the sex was. It was everyday, somewhat non-kinky, married people sex and inexperienced, barely developed teenager sex. Why didn’t we feel slightly dirty or guilty like after watching raunchy porn? Well, it was just normal sex.

On reviewing the French film, I realized the blatant (but natural) sex scenes surprised me because they are so rare in American film. It is common knowledge that American cinema is much more eager to depict violence rather than sexuality, but I have begun to wonder if this is detrimental to our society’s sexual health.

I am probably (definitely) not the most knowledgeable source on porn; however, I know it when I see it. When I think of American porn, I picture male genitals that look more like weapons than reproductive organs and women who look like they walked straight out of “Tomb Raider.”

So, why has this grotesque depiction of sex become the object of our sexual fantasies? Why do ladies fantasize about men with a shoe size 15 and men expect women to be hairless like 9-year-olds?

I think it is possible that our lack of normal and healthy sex in the media is causing a weird, oversized, flawlessly waxed sex-monster to creep into our psyches as the norm.

To clarify, I do not have a vendetta against porn, but on the other hand, I don’t think kids should be overexposed to sex through the media. I would just like to explore the possibility that we have rejected normal sexual stimulation on our living room TVs in favor of abnormal sex on our laptops under the covers.

Questions? Comments? Feedback? For more updates and sexual health facts, follow me on Twitter @StephanieFitz21.