Let’s Strip Down the Issue

A look into the oversexualization of teenaged television characters.

LET’S STRIP DOWN THE ISSUE

BY AMY SZMIK | PHOTOS BY PROVIDED

After the second season of the HBO drama “Euphoria” aired, there was a lot of discourse surrounding its excessive amount of nudity for a TV show about teenagers. The show included several explicit sex scenes, nudity, and an underage character in sex work. TV shows putting their teenage characters in sexual situations is nothing new. On differing levels, series like “Skins,” “Riverdale,” and “Pretty Little Liars'' have either included nudity or gotten very close to it. The glorification of teen sex is controversial, and the conversation surrounding its consequences is still ongoing. “Euphoria’s” extreme nudity brought the conversation back to the forefront and left many wondering why there is a need to keep putting nudity in shows about underaged characters.

While the actors themselves are not underage and therefore perfectly legal, they are portraying students in a high school setting. Using actors who are adults allows the directors to put their characters in sexual situations. Norwegian drama “Skam” actually used actors who were teenagers, which did not allow for explicit sex scenes, but a rather subtleness about it without exploiting them. TV shows float toward using adult actors because they want graphic sex scenes without the consequences. However, this can bring consequences to real teenagers and their relationships with sex.

Dramas geared toward teens are typically supposed to be relatable to the target age demographic. Even shows that are not all about relatability,

like “Riverdale,” still leave an impression on young teenagers. The media people consume, whether anyone likes to admit it or not, influences those who watch it. When teenagers see sex portrayed in violent or inappropriate ways like many shows include, there is a sense of normalization.

The character Kat Hernandez from “Euphoria” became a cam girl as a way to “reclaim” her sexuality, but her character is 16. Aria Montgomery from “Pretty Little Liars” began a relationship with her high school teacher and eventually married him. Watching these storylines makes teenagers assume that engaging in inappropriate relationships and sex work while underage is normal. There are rarely any consequences for actions either, which is normal in TV shows but not in real life. Teenagers will think camming or starting an OnlyFans is easy and not realize there are issues with that, including legal problems. They could also engage in inappropriate relationships without realizing they are being groomed.

Internalizing sex portrayal on television makes teenagers believe they are doing something

wrong. Exploring sex is a normal part of growing up and there is no shame in any of it. However, when a young teenager sees a 16-year-old character engaging in gratuitous sex, they will wonder why they are not doing that. In multiple scenes in the Spanish drama “Élite,” there are threesomes between characters aged around 17. “Euphoria” has more than enough sexual content in the series, and all season two main characters are in high school. At that young age, most teenagers are not having threesomes and/or confidently stripping down. No shame to teenagers who have done that or can, but for many, it is simply not real life. For many, there are feelings of insecurity, self-doubt, and romanticization toward sex as an adolescent.

“The sexualization of teens in the context of television exposes teenagers, and perhaps even children, to what they think is the brutal reality of the world,” Annie Fink, a senior studying music production and the recording industry, said. “Looking back as a young adult, these shows create a false, dream-like narrative of how teenage life should go.”

While it affects all genders, girls are especially affected by the hypersexualization of characters on screen. The character Cassie Howard from “Euphoria” was naked in almost every single episode of the show’s second

season. Attaching self-worth to sexuality because characters who are supposed to be relatable are always nude warps the perception of how young girls view themselves. According to a report done by the Parents Television and Media Council, 47% of sexual situations on television shows featured teenagers while only 29% featured adult women. Young girls might think they have to hypersexualize themselves to fit what is trendy because the characters they see on the screen are nude and having sex.

“The misconception of believing this is what high school is like creates a false sense for teenagers and the one trying to live in that fantasy and the dangerous world will probably face a lot of challenges, and traumas,” graduate student Joanna Azami, an english literature major, explained. “It is absolutely not a bad thing for teenagers to be educated.”

Though there is much controversy surrounding the topic, not everyone is fully against it. Teenagers learn from what they see, and sex is a very normal part of life. Wanting to explore sex is something that teenagers would do even without the influence of television. The reliability aspect is what draws in an audience, and many teenagers relate to all aspects of characters sometimes. Ohio University screenwriting professor, master’s student, and

back of the closet filmmaker Matthew Valdovinos said, “If I had a teenager playing out their favorite scenes from ‘Euphoria,’ as a parent, I may have a different approach. But, if I stop them at home, they would only go to a friend’s house to get their fix — a common theme from that show. Instead, I chose to embrace them as just that, a show. They allow me a glimpse into a new generation of problems and remind me what I was like when I was sitting in their places. Drug use, not using, having sex, not having sex: the pressures that came with being a teenager have been there before me and will continue long after I am gone.”

There is absolutely no shame in sex or having sex scenes on television. There are some problems with the oversexualization of teenagers, which is still an ongoing topic. Some shows that include sex have received critical acclaim for their healthy portrayal of sex and sexuality, like the series “Sex Education.”

Sex is part of growing up and exploring; it is something that teenagers should understand. While many teenagers are aware the sex they see in dramas is not accurate to real life, it is still important for teenagers to see sex portrayed in a way that can be relatable. There is a stark contrast between having sex in a teen show versus sexualizing the underage characters.