Effects of sex in the media

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In the past several decades, researchers have spent continuous efforts on exploring how sexual content in the media influences individuals' perceptions of sex, marriage, and rape. Among these sexual content in the media, pornography has been a big business, generating $13 billion just in the U.S. in 2006. [1] Researchers have reached agreement on some effects of sexual content in the media, such as arousal and some attitudinal effects. However, there is still an argument on whether the Catharsis effects resulting from the sexual media content.

Contents

Types of sexual content

Scholars analyzed the violent sexual content based on different types of sexual content, including rape, bondage, torture, sadomasochism, hitting, spanking, hair pulling, genital mutilation, and nonviolent sexual material. Nonviolent sexual material is much harder to categorize. Some nonviolent sexual material is entirely mutually consenting and affectionate, depicting vagina or oral intercourse in a loving, or at least non-coercive, fashion. On the other hand, some nonviolent sexual material is sexually dehumanizing, depicting degradation, domination, subordination or humiliation. Nonviolent sexual material presents the woman with few human attributes besides body parts and sexual appetite. [2]

Effects of sexual content in the media

Arousal

One crucial effect of consuming sexual media is sexual arousal, "the heightened physiological state that energizes sexual behavior. Arousal can be measured in two methods. One method is self-ratings of participants and the other is that physiological measures such as electronic sensors measuring penile tumescence, vaginal lubrication, or temperature (thermography). [3]

Some researchers found that men are more aroused by sexual media than are women, especially in response to sexually violent or dehumanizing materials. [4] Also, sexual violence may only appeal to sex offenders and other violence-prone men and even to "normal" men if the victim is portrayed as being aroused by the assault. Slides or verbal descriptions of coercive sex are more appealing to sexually coercive men physiologically than "normal" men. [5] Since the Internet provides an unlimited number of websites that feature any sexual desire that the user wants, it results in sexual arousal because the stimuli are new. [6] Carnes think that the Internet can allow people to see any of their fantasy, which usually do not exist in most people's daily lives. These images can be reactivated during sexual intercourse.

Attitudinal effects

One of the major criticism from scholars is that the dehumanization of women in sexually explicit materials. Men rated their own partners as being less physically endowed after seeing beautiful female nudes engaged in sexual activity. It seems that the voluptuous model has become the norm or anchor to which real people are compared. [7] Zillmann and Bryant also found that such effects are not limited to men. [8] [9] Compared with control groups, both men and women who watched weekly pornographic films later reported that they are less satisfied with their partners' affection, appearance, sexual curiosity, and sexual performances. They also sex with less emotional involvement and showed greater acceptance of premarital and extramarital sex. They placed fewer values on monogamy and marriage. Teenagers who have watched a whole day of talk shows discussing sexual topics later overestimated the frequency of such behaviors. [10] [11]

Individual differences

Different people have different reactions to sexual content in the media. Men are more likely to be aroused by sexual content than women. Gettleman argued that men are main consumers of sex videos, with an estimated 71 of sex videos consumed by men by themselves. [12] It does not mean that men are more interested in sex videos than women. Women have been found to be more interested in written and directed by women and for women, [13] [14] [15] while men appear to be more interested in seek out sexual media and be aroused by it. Malamuth and Check found that men, not women, were as aroused by a rape scene as by a consenting sex scene but only if the victim was portrayed as enjoying the rape and coming to orgasm. The men were not aroused if the victim was shown to be terrorized.

Personality can also be an indicator of individuals' different reactions to sexual content. Bushman, Bonacci, van Dijk, and Baumeister found that narcissistic men will be more likely to enjoy the rape scene preceded by affection between the parties than low narcissists did. [16] Borgaert's study considered intelligence is a mediator between personality and arousal attitudes. Men, who have lower intelligence and higher aggressive/antisocial inclinations, are more likely to prefer violent sexual stimuli than men higher in intelligence and lower in aggressive/antisocial tendencies. [17]

Behavioral effects

Bryant and Zillmann concluded that potential behavioral effects of violent sexual media content include: catharsis, disinhibition, imitation, and desensitization.

Catharsis

Catharsis holds that "vicariously participating in others' fictionalized hostility or aggression enables drama watchers, readers, or listeners to be purged of their anger and hostility and thereby become less aggressive. [18] " This popular idea comes directly from psychodynamic models of personality. The Catharsis effect has been applied to support loosening restrictions on pornography and it has also been reported by sex offenders as a strategy for reducing impulses for committing an offense. [19] [20] However, very few empirical studies support the catharsis effect.

Disinhibition

Disinhibition is that after being repetitive exposed to sexual materials may undermine learned social sanctions against using violence that usually inhibit aggressive behaviors. People may become more aggressive after watching, reading or listening to media violence because they may tend to legitimize using violence in real life. A dozen experimental investigations have explored the disinhibition effects and provided support for this hypothesis. [21] [22]

Imitation

Imitation is explained in terms of social learning theory, which argues that "humans have evolved an advanced capacity for observational learning that enables them to expand their knowledge and skills on the basis of information conveyed by modeling influences". [23] Social learning explains how observers match the performances of models. Four things must happen before imitation: The first is the attentional process, which people must have seen, read, listened to sexual materials. The second is the retention process, which people can retain some memories of what they have seen, read and listened to. The third is the production process, which the learner must have the capabilities to replicate the action. The fourth is the motivational process, which people must have sufficient desire or will to perform what the violent behavior. Only when all of these four conditions were met, people imitate the performances of actors.

Desensitization

The desensitization effects have been touted by some researchers. The desensitization hypothesis argues that the repeated exposure to sexual violent materials can result in less emotional responsiveness to violence in fiction, news, and reality fare, which could, in turn, result in an increased acceptance of violent behaviors. However, this notion was touted a lot and limited research evidence available supports disinhibition effects.

Mitigating the negative effects

Harris and Barlett concluded that a few studies have developed extensive pre-exposure training and/or post-exposure debriefing procedures to lessen the desensitizing effects. [24] Linz found that by offering pertinent educational information about rape myths reduced the effect of desensitization, which means experimental participation can also help reduce the rape myth acceptance. Wilson, Linz, Donnerstein, and Stipp conducted a field experiment, they found that men who are older than 50 had preexisting attitudes reinforced and actually blamed women for rape after seeing the film. In other words, preexisting attitudes and personal experience should be considered when conducting research studies. [25]

Allen, Emmers, Gebhardt, and Giery concluded that experimental studies show positive significant effect between pornography exposure and rape myth acceptance, whereas correlational field studies how a very small effect or nonexistent effect. [26] But the relationship consistently stronger when the sexual materials was violent than it was nonviolent.

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Sexual fantasy Mental image and thought that stirs persons sexuality and enhance sexual arousal

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Opposition to pornography

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Rape pornography is a subgenre of pornography involving the description or depiction of rape. Such pornography either involves simulated rape, wherein sexually consenting adults feign rape, or it involves actual rape. Victims of actual rape may be coerced to fein consent such that the pornography produced deceptively appears as simulated rape or non-rape pornography. The depiction of rape in non-pornographic media is not considered rape pornography. Simulated scenes of rape and other forms of sexual violence have appeared in mainstream cinema, including rape and revenge films, almost since its advent.

In media studies, mass communication, media psychology, communication theory, and sociology, media influence and media effects are topics relating to mass media and media culture's effects on individual or an audience's thoughts, attitudes, and behavior. Whether it is written, televised, or spoken, mass media reaches a large audience. Mass media's role and effect in shaping modern culture are central issues for study of culture.

The studies of violence in mass media analyzes the degree of correlation between themes of violence in media sources with real-world aggression and violence over time. Many social scientists support the correlation. However, some scholars argue that media research has methodological problems and that findings are exaggerated.(Ferguson & Kilburn, 2009; Freedman, 2002; Pinker 2002; Savage, 2004)

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There are many theories explaining the causes of sexual violence. These theories include military conquest, socioeconomics, anger, power, sadism, traits, ethical standards, laws, and evolutionary pressures that lend some explanation to the causes of sexual violence. Most of the research on the causes of sexual violence has only been done on male offenders and has been target of criticism.

Sex industry Field of business

The sex industry consists of businesses that either directly or indirectly provide sex-related products and services or adult entertainment. The industry includes activities involving direct provision of sex-related services, such as prostitution, strip clubs, host and hostess clubs and sex-related pastimes, such as pornography, sex-oriented men's magazines, sex movies, sex toys and fetish or BDSM paraphernalia. Sex channels for television and pre-paid sex movies for video on demand, are part of the sex industry, as are adult movie theaters, sex shops, peep shows, and strip clubs.

Alcohol and sex deals with the effects of the consumption of alcohol on sexual behavior. The effects of alcohol are balanced between its suppressive effects on sexual physiology, which will decrease sexual activity, and its suppression of psychological inhibitions, which may increase the desire for sex.

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Excitation-transfer theory purports that residual excitation from one stimulus will amplify the excitatory response to another stimulus, though the hedonic valences of the stimuli may differ. The excitation-transfer process is not limited to a single emotion. For example, when watching a movie, a viewer may be angered by seeing the hero wronged by the villain, but this initial excitation may intensify the viewer's pleasure in witnessing the villain's punishment later. Thus, although the excitation from the original stimulus of seeing the hero wronged was cognitively accessed as anger, the excitation after the second stimulus of seeing the villain punished is cognitively assessed as pleasure, though part of the excitation from the second stimulus is residual from the first.
However, the excitation-transfer process requires the presence of three conditions. One: the second stimulus occurs before the complete decay of residual excitation from the first stimulus. Two: there is the misattribution of excitation, that is, after exposure to the second stimulus, the individual experiencing the excitation attributes full excitation to the second stimulus. Three: the individual has not reached an excitatory threshold before exposure to the second stimulus.

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Gender in horror films

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The exploitation of women in mass media is the use or portrayal of women in mass media as objects to increase the appeal of media or a product to the detriment of, or without regard to, the interests of the women portrayed, or women in general. This process includes the presentation of women as sexual objects and the setting of feminine beauty ideals that women are expected to reflect. Sexual exploitation of women in the media dates back to 19th century Paris, in which ballerinas were exposed to harassment and objectification. The ballerinas in the Paris Opera Ballet were ogled by their male audience members and often even expected to perform sexual favors for the male subscribers behind the scenes. Feminists and other advocates of women's rights have criticized such exploitation. The most often criticized aspect of the use of women in mass media is sexual objectification, but dismemberment can be a part of the objectification as well.

The culture of violence theory addresses the pervasiveness of specific violent patterns within a societal dimension. The concept of violence being ingrained in Western society and culture has been around for at least the 20th century. Developed from structural violence, as research progressed the notion that a culture can sanction violent acts developed into what we know as culture of violence theory today. Two prominent examples of culture legitimizing violence can be seen in rape myths and victim blaming. Rape myths lead to misconstrued notions of blame; it is common for the responsibility associated with the rape to be placed on the victim rather than the offender.

Effects of pornography on young people Consequences of pornography in young people

Sexual themes have become prominent in the media, print advertisements, television, video games and other child-friendly mediums. Children are more likely to come across sexually explicit material online intentionally or unintentionally. The large quantity of explicit sexual content online increases the likelihood of young people to experience early sexual debuts or to have sexual experiences at a young age. Young people who frequently engage with explicit sexual content, which exhibit violent and objectifying themes, are more likely to imitate risky and violent sexual practices and to be more accepting of sexual objectification in society. They are also more likely to perceive other people's values and worth solely based on sex appeal.

Dolf Zillmann

Dolf Zillmann is dean emeritus, and professor of information sciences, communication and psychology at the University of Alabama (UA). Zillmann predominately conducted research in media psychology, a branch of psychology focused on the effects of media consumption on human affect, developing and expanding a range of theories within media psychology and communication. His work centred on the relation between aggression, emotion, and arousal through media consumption, predominately in pornography and violent genres of movie and television. His research also includes the effects of music consumption, video games, and sports.

References

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  2. ↑ Bryant, edited by Jennings; Oliver, Mary Beth (2009). Media effects : advances in theory and research (3rd ed.). New York: Routledge. p. 205. ISBN   978-0-8058-6449-6.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
  3. ↑ Bryant, edited by Jennings; Oliver, Mary Beth (2009). Media effects : advances in theory and research (3rd ed.). New York: Routledge. p. 307. ISBN   978-0-8058-6449-6.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
  4. ↑ Mallamuth, Nell. "Sexually explicit media, gender differences, and evolutionary theory".
  5. ↑ Lohr, Bethany A.; Adams, Henry E.; Davis, J. Mark (1997). "Sexual arousal to erotic and aggressive stimuli in sexually coercive and noncoercive men". Journal of Abnormal Psychology. 106 (2): 230–242. doi:10.1037/0021-843X.106.2.230.
  6. ↑ Carnes, Patrick J. (13 October 2011). "Cybersex, Courtship, and Escalating Arousal: Factors in Addictive Sexual Desire" (PDF). Sexual Addiction & Compulsivity. 8 (1): 45–78. doi:10.1080/10720160127560.
  7. ↑ Utility, Probability, and Human Decision Making Selected Proceedings of an Interdisciplinary Research Conference, Rome, 3-6 September 1973. Springer Verlag. 2013. ISBN   9789401018364.
  8. ↑ ZILLMANN, DOLF; BRYANT, JENNINGS (December 1988). "Effects of Prolonged Consumption of Pornography on Family Values". Journal of Family Issues. 9 (4): 518–544. doi:10.1177/019251388009004006.
  9. ↑ Zillmann, Dolf; Bryant, Jennings (April 1988). "Pornography's Impact on Sexual Satisfaction1". Journal of Applied Social Psychology. 18 (5): 438–453. doi:10.1111/j.1559-1816.1988.tb00027.x.
  10. ↑ Greenberg; Smith. "Daytime talk shows: Up close and in your face. Sexual teens, sexual media": 79–93.Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  11. ↑ Greenberg.Cite journal requires |journal= (help); Missing or empty |title= (help)
  12. ↑ Gettleman (1999). "XXX=$$$". Manhattan Mercury: A6.
  13. ↑ Senn, Charlene Y.; Desmarais, Serge (1 December 2004). "Impact of Interaction With a Partner or Friend on the Exposure Effects of Pornography and Erotica". Violence and Victims. 19 (6): 645–658. doi:10.1891/vivi.19.6.645.66347.
  14. ↑ Quackenbush, Debra M.; Strassberg, Donald S.; Turner, Charles W. (February 1995). "Gender effects of romantic themes in erotica". Archives of Sexual Behavior. 24 (1): 21–35. doi:10.1007/BF01541986.
  15. ↑ Mosher, Donald L.; MacIan, Paula (January 1994). "College men and women respond to X‐rated videos intended for male or female audiences: Gender and sexual scripts". Journal of Sex Research. 31 (2): 99–113. doi:10.1080/00224499409551736.
  16. ↑ Bushman, Brad J.; Bonacci, Angelica M.; van Dijk, Mirjam; Baumeister, Roy F. (2003). "Narcissism, sexual refusal, and aggression: Testing a narcissistic reactance model of sexual coercion". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 84 (5): 1027–1040. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.84.5.1027.
  17. ↑ Bogaert, Anthony F. (2001). Archives of Sexual Behavior. 30 (1): 29–53. doi:10.1023/A:1026416723291.Missing or empty |title= (help)
  18. ↑ Bryant, Jennings; Zillmann, Dolf. "Violence and Sex in the Media". An integrated approach to communication theory and research: 195–209.Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  19. ↑ Langevin, Ron; Lang, Reuben A.; Wright, Percy; Handy, Lorraine; Frenzel, Roy R.; Black, Edward L. (1988). "Pornography and sexual offences". Annals of Sex Research. 1 (3): 335–362. doi:10.1007/BF00878103.
  20. ↑ CARTER, DANIEL LEE; PRENTKY, ROBERT ALAN; KNIGHT, RAYMOND A.; VANDERVEER, PENNY L.; BOUCHER, RICHARD J. (June 1987). "Use of Pornography in the Criminal and Developmental Histories of Sexual Offenders". Journal of Interpersonal Violence. 2 (2): 196–211. doi:10.1177/088626087002002005.
  21. ↑ Berkowitz, Leonard (1974). "Some determinants of impulsive aggression: Role of mediated associations with reinforcements for aggression". Psychological Review. 81 (2): 165–176. doi:10.1037/h0036094.
  22. ↑ Donnerstein, Edward (1980). "Aggressive erotica and violence against women". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 39 (2): 269–277. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.39.2.269.
  23. ↑ Bandura, Albert (August 2001). "Social Cognitive Theory of Mass Communication". Media Psychology. 3 (3): 265–299. doi:10.1207/S1532785XMEP0303_03.
  24. ↑ LINZ, DANIEL; FUSON, ILENE ARLUK; DONNERSTEIN, EDWARD (October 1990). "Mitigating the Negative Effects of Sexually Violent Mass Communications Through Preexposure Briefings". Communication Research. 17 (5): 641–674. doi:10.1177/009365090017005004.
  25. ↑ WILSON, BARBARA J.; LINZ, DANIEL; DONNERSTEIN, EDWARD; STIPP, HORST (December 1992). "The Impact of Social Issue Television Programming on Attitudes Toward Rape". Human Communication Research. 19 (2): 179–208. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2958.1992.tb00299.x.
  26. ↑ Allen, Mike; D’Alessio, David; Emmers-Sommer, Tara M. (18 May 2016). "Reactions of Criminal Sexual Offenders to Pornography: A Meta-Analytic Summary". Annals of the International Communication Association. 22 (1): 139–169. doi:10.1080/23808985.1999.11678961.
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