Study shows less sex on TV
A Washington think tank, The Centre for Media and Public Affairs, a Washington-based group, found in their study that sexual material on TV fell by 29% and serious violence by 17% from the 1998-99 TV season to the 2000-01 season.
This report is a shock to most of us watching TV. Maybe there is a decrease in violence after the 911 incident, but sex? I don't think so. There is hardly a commercial and certainly not a show without sex.
Few of us are against sex, but there are other things in life; sex doesn't have to be in every joke, every scene, every advertisement, etc. At some point it becomes hypnotic. It literally says to the weak minded individuals, and there are many of those, go out and do sex right now, every chance you can, with everyone you can.
Isn't AIDS still caught through, and primarily through, sex? Aren't teen and unwedded mother pregnancies still a problem in America? Why are we throwing caution to the wind when AIDS is still being transmitted and still killing people and we still have too many unwanted babies?
The Centre for Media and Public Affairs' study may show that sex on TV has decreased, but if it has decreased, what this study really shows most of all is that there is far too much sex on TV, there has been far too much sex on TV, and we still do not have quality TV. When there is not enough quality in programs or scripts, we always bring in sex to heat things up. The problem with that strategy is this: too many impressionable individuals watch TV and they actually think that TV is real life. So they are set to replicate TV life as if it is real life.
TV sex programming to the extent it is in America is harmful to a society. And it is also true that studies can be deceptive and flawed. []
Gibbs Staff
