Sex Stigma

Thrusday, February 17th, 2022 Hollywood profits off teenage sex

LeMonie Hutt

Guest Writer

Many of us Gen Z kids were raised off of teen films from our parent’s era. We were taught that sex in high school is the most important coming-of-age experience.

The movie “Clueless,” for example, proclaimed that finding happiness at this age meant finding our sweetheart, and the ultimate high school failure would be “a virgin who can’t drive.”

As consequence, we largely inherited pressure from Hollywood, whose principal goal was to make a profit off the over-glorification of teenage sex.

Teenagers are not one-dimensional. We have family responsibilities, academics to worry about, jobs, and, most importantly, feelings.

So, it’s my goal to rid our generation of the negative ideas around sex we have generationally inherited from our parent’s era.

I feel that the media’s depiction of sex has negatively affected our self-worth, priorities and boundaries in multiple aspects of our lives.

Our relationship with sex is complex and is one of the first arenas for experimentation with our minds and bodies.

In my opinion, the education we need to navigate sexual health is not fully provided, even in our health classes that are supposed to do just that.

Instead, United States health classes collectively preach abstinence that serves to demonize the naturality of sex.

Teaching abstinence further ingrains misogynistic gender norms into our society; where girls are submissive and boys are dominant.

I’m not trying to suggest that teens engage in sexual activity, but rather to educate and encourage a better sexual education curriculum because, for many high school students, health class may be the only formal sex education they receive.

It’s my senior year, and I’ve learned nothing from my high school education about healthy sexual relationships.

I have had to do my own readings which have led me to believe that we can deconstruct this inherited shame around sex.

The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy affirms that teens would choose to delay sexual activity if they had a trusted adult to have an open conversation with.

I believe trust comes with being able to converse without shame or biases.

In sex education classes that describe sex as primarily vagina and penis penetration, sex becomes more like an accident, a situation simply building to the point of penetration.

Sexual education uses single definitions of sex terminology that are not inclusive of the different ways our identities affect how we experience sex.

This is detrimental to teens going through a time of development that includes sexual exploration and confidence when building adult relationships.

In the occurrence of spontaneous sex, there is potentially no

I believe trust comes with being able to converse without shame or biases.

Lila Cohen/PEPPERBOX Pamphlets from Arcata High School health class discusses the topic of teen sex preparation, no discussion between partners, or even a demonstration of what consent looks like (note that consent involves agreeing to the type of sex).

This is mostly due to the stigma of “spontaneous sex.” Spontaneity with sex is rooted in rape culture.

It encourages one participant to make an unreflective decision where formal consent does not take place.

Violation usually occurs in response to “the heat of the moment” that may be only felt by a singular person.

The stigma of spontaneous sex is rooted in the idea that enjoyable sex can only occur at a whim, all because sex is too taboo to talk about.

Yet, Sex Psychotherapist, Todd Baratz, says “The best sex is anticipated.”

Planning sex allows for both partners to take the time to prepare themselves to make sure they are both mentally and physically safe by taking the precautionary steps of getting tested, finding birth control, talking about boundaries, preferences, expectations, and finally deciding if this is what YOU want. Communication is a necessary component to satisfaction with respect to both parties. Before deciding to make the mature decision to engage in sexual activity, there needs to be a conversation in the relationship, simply say “hey do you want to have sex at some point in this relationship?” Then be ready to go in-depth with the topic and whether the answer is yes or no, respect it. It is at the core, an individual decision, so if partners disagree in the future of their relationship that is a reasonable reason to break up because that type of relationship is not what either partner signed up for. Sex needs to be talked about, starting at a young age. Let's Talk about it! De-stigmatize it! And most importantly, express ourselves!