Sex in the Dark vs. Sex on TV

SEX IN THE DARK

Over the weekend I ventured off campus with a group of friends to hang out at an upper classman’s apartment. We decided to watch a movie. The options were between Girl Next Door and The Goonies. My personal preference was The Goonies, since it happens to be my favorite childhood movie, but since the boys out numbered the girls 5 to 4 Girl Next Door was chosen as the night’s feature film. I had never seen this movie before so I had no idea what I was getting myself into. If you have not seen the movie and don’t want the ending spoiled stop reading because in order to prove my point I will have to reveal key elements of the plot.


In the movie the main character Matthew, due to complicated circumstances, makes a video about having safe sex with his ex-porn star girlfriend’s, the girl next-door, former co-workers. The video ended up being a much larger success than expected, since the video they would previously play in schools was so boring that no one would watch and less learn from it. I started thinking about this whole old fashioned, traditional view of sex and the vast contrast between the current, loose view. Why is it that the word sex and anything associated with it is constantly thrown in the dark and not openly talked about? And, why is it that when it’s not hidden is it that it is then spilled all over t.v and pop culture? Why is it that we can’t have a happy medium?
We live in a world where 12 million new people a year are diagnosed with a sexually transmitted disease, a world that has teenagers popping out children left and right, and over one fifth of people having sexual intercourse before the age of 21. Now I’m not in any way condemning anyone who is one of these statistics, I’m just trying to prove that sex, mostly unsafe, is happening all around us. I blame the two extremes. We have one side refraining from admitting there is such a thing as sex. This interns results in uneducated teenagers engaging in unprotected sexual relations secretly because no matter what you tell them they will still have sex. And promoting sex with television shows like Gossip Girl and Sex and the City, only makes things worse. It gives society the idea that being sexually active and provocative is in style.
My solution to this problem is to combine the two. We need to create a society in which sex is acknowledged and accepted but all options, such as safe sex and abstinence are preached. If teenagers are going to have sex, which they will, it’s better that they are safe then unsafe because they were ashamed. Bring sex out of the dark and into the light without broadcasting it as being chic.