Sexual leeway in modern media doesn’t liberate teens

Sigmund Freud’s theory of psychosexual development helped begin the release of a centuries-long cultural repression about anything regarding sex. Sixty years ago, no one could find information about sex outside of the parental birds and bees talk without risking social stigma.

Today, the rise of public school sex education and widespread availability of contraceptives in a medical system based on confidentiality and anonymity has unlocked conversations about sex for virtually anyone who wants to learn — which, according to Freud, is everyone.

Sullivan Brown | Daily Trojan

At last, the people have been freed.

This sexual freedom abounds so readily in our culture that we can’t even turn a corner without seeing sexually suggestive advertisements or hearing a sexual innuendo. We’re bombarded with trailers for movies such as Easy A and The Virginity Hit that reinforce the notion: “hey, awkward teens exploring sex — funny!” I’m suddenly reminded of 1984 and how freedom is slavery.

As the media craves more and more sexual tropes to display — because, let’s face it, sex sells — more haze and confusion is added to the endless number of stories about sex we’ve already been told. Raunchy films, such as American Pie, that retread the same awkward narrative of sexual blunders have only exacerbated the anxiety young people already experience with sex.

Instead of being a freely discussable topic, the salience of sex in the media is rapidly becoming a different kind of mass cultural repression, one where young people assume everyone knows all about sex and that anyone who doesn’t is a loser. The result is a prevalent pattern of silence and misinformation.

The recently released movie, The Virginity Hit, caused some controversy with billboards that read “Still a Virgin? For help call 888-743-4335.” Though obviously a publicity stunt to promote a movie following the trend of Superbad, Youth in Revolt and The 40-Year-Old Virgin, the rising grassroots popularity of The Virginity Hit reflects how the plotline popularized by American Pie has been ingrained in the cultural language we use to talk about sex.

It is far too common these days to hear someone reference a movie when explaining the social dynamics of sex, with names like Stifler mentioned ubiquitously among young people.

I’m all for enjoying First Amendment rights by putting out movies that expose topics previously deemed taboo, but the suffocating presence of the raunchy sex movie has blurred the lines between the “normal” sex story and the fictional one. With movies like The Virginity Hit and Easy A parading as pseudo-documentaries society is fed more sex stories that actually detract from healthy sex education.

The only thing these movies perpetuate is that the label “virgin” is akin to social leprosy.

Aristotle wrote that comedy functions by featuring characters the audience identify as inferior to themselves. The audience can then revel in their follies because they recognize and possess the traits those characters lack, and so can avoid those same follies.

But with more movies blurring the line between reality and fiction, creating characters that are promoted to be real, such as The Virginity Hit, the laughs become the result of tragic social schizophrenia. Instead of laughing off the characters in such movies, they become the fiber of the modern language of sex, with more audiences identifying unhealthily with such characters and adopting the value that one must lose his virginities at all costs to avoid the same plight.

With sexually themed movies so prominent in today’s society, the chances young people will exit those theaters admitting their own sexual ignorance is growing slimmer. No one wants to be the outcast who doesn’t get the sex jokes; the ignorant portion will remain silent or contribute with movie-based sexual misinformation to fill the void of real-life experience.

And which is more likely — that teens will seek the safe-sex education and risk exposing their ignorance or remain silent and jump at the chance to shed their perceived inexperience? The result is that these movies, originally works of fiction, cause their plots to play out in real life.

I admit, I enjoy lewd comedy now and then. It only bothers me to see that one awkward teenager in the audience leaving the theater, laughing nervously among his friends as they relive graphic points of the movie and proclaim their proud sexual achievements. It feels wrong that the awkward teen’s only two choices to avoid being a social outcast are silence or lying.

Today’s young people need a culture willing to educate about sex as much as the media is willing to joke about it.

Victor Luo is a senior majoring in English.