Sex and The City dangerous for girls?
Categories: Teens & tweens, Health & safety, Media, That's entertainment
ABC News has a rather interesting article on the dangers of young girls watching Sex and The City. The piece features the story of "Lisa" and the impact the show had on her as a fourteen-year-old girl. She says she became hooked on the show and began to emulate what she saw. She promptly lost her virginity, started drinking Cosmopolitans and began regularly cheating on her boyfriend with up to seven guys in one week.
"When you're that age you try to emulate people on TV. Carrie smoked, so I smoked, Samantha looked at hooking up with random people as not a big deal, so that's what I did too," said Lisa. "It wasn't 'Sex and the City's' fault. I love the show, but I think it made it a little easier to justify my behavior."
Lisa, now 22, eventually saw the error of her ways and is now a married Mormon living in Utah with her husband and two children. Of kicking her SATC addiction, she says, "I had to sell my DVDs on eBay. But now it's OK. It took a while to get here."
Lisa's story may be a dramatic example of the influence of television, but many believe SATC did change the way women view hooking up. "It did have some impact given that it was a sea change in how women talked about sexuality and what was shown on a network -- full frontal nudity, talking about affairs, vibrators, etc.," said Pepper Schwartz, a University of Washington sociology professor. "If it's not permission giving, it at least demystifies and normalizes what goes on in women's lives in a more than snickering way
That's all well and good if you are talking about adult women, but what about impressionable teens? University of Connecticut's School of Medicine professor Dr. David Greenfield thinks there is a real danger there. "With teenagers and young adults, there's a certain degree of role modeling that goes on. There's a certain 'if it's done on the screen then it's OK, it's normal,'" he said.
The one thing I kept looking for in this article and never found was a reference to the parents of girls like Lisa. Where are they when their daughters are watching sexually-charged shows like SATC? I realize that monitoring the television-watching habits of a 14-year-old girl can be difficult, but it's not impossible. My daughter was sixteen years old when SATC first began airing on HBO. Neither of us watched it because by that time, I had pulled the plug on our cable television subscription.
"When you're that age you try to emulate people on TV. Carrie smoked, so I smoked, Samantha looked at hooking up with random people as not a big deal, so that's what I did too," said Lisa. "It wasn't 'Sex and the City's' fault. I love the show, but I think it made it a little easier to justify my behavior."
Lisa, now 22, eventually saw the error of her ways and is now a married Mormon living in Utah with her husband and two children. Of kicking her SATC addiction, she says, "I had to sell my DVDs on eBay. But now it's OK. It took a while to get here."
Lisa's story may be a dramatic example of the influence of television, but many believe SATC did change the way women view hooking up. "It did have some impact given that it was a sea change in how women talked about sexuality and what was shown on a network -- full frontal nudity, talking about affairs, vibrators, etc.," said Pepper Schwartz, a University of Washington sociology professor. "If it's not permission giving, it at least demystifies and normalizes what goes on in women's lives in a more than snickering way
That's all well and good if you are talking about adult women, but what about impressionable teens? University of Connecticut's School of Medicine professor Dr. David Greenfield thinks there is a real danger there. "With teenagers and young adults, there's a certain degree of role modeling that goes on. There's a certain 'if it's done on the screen then it's OK, it's normal,'" he said.
The one thing I kept looking for in this article and never found was a reference to the parents of girls like Lisa. Where are they when their daughters are watching sexually-charged shows like SATC? I realize that monitoring the television-watching habits of a 14-year-old girl can be difficult, but it's not impossible. My daughter was sixteen years old when SATC first began airing on HBO. Neither of us watched it because by that time, I had pulled the plug on our cable television subscription.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
anonymous 5-21-2008 @ 6:25PM
I'm quite certain that becoming a Mormon and moving to Utah isn't the answer. Sounds like Lisa has an issue with moderation...
Reply
Tree 5-21-2008 @ 6:47PM
And I'm quite certain that you're not qualified to make that kind of judgment.
Anonymous100 5-28-2008 @ 2:36PM
The final say is on the parents. If they subscribe to porn and do not censor their child’s TV veiwings, I’m sure the kid is going to watch porn. Why is it always everyone else’s fault and responsibility to raise our children. I get the “it takes a village” theory, but it also takes one short word too . . . “NO.” "No, you are 13 and you are not allowed to watch SATC on HBO because the content is not tailored to your age group." PERIOD. Why are parents these days unable to say, "no" to their kids. Parents who are looking to be their kids’ “friend” are not doing them any favors.
emily 5-21-2008 @ 6:34PM
i honestly think this is crap....im a 13 year old girl and i love that show. im still a virgin, i dont smoke or do drugs, and i make smart choices on what to do with my life. that might happen to someone with a self confidence problem or something, but all my friends would think this is crazy.....
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Katheryn 5-21-2008 @ 7:37PM
Personally, I'm not a fan of the show, but the show isn't made for teenagers. It's made for adults. If you don't want your teenagers watching it, don't let them.
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Mary 5-21-2008 @ 8:54PM
I don't know if Sex and The City is dangerous as much as it's incredibly boring.
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ame s 5-21-2008 @ 8:58PM
I don't think I want my daughters to watch anything with the word "sex" in the title until they are older than 16 unless it also has the words "don't have until you are 25" :)
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ninainindia 5-21-2008 @ 9:15PM
Why blame it on the show? It seems to me like she made a choice and maybe she wasn't supposed to be watching it anyway if she wasn't mature enough to decide for herself what she wants to do (smoke or have sex).
I do believe the show has made it easier for some women to talk freely about sex, and I will never understand what is so wring with being a bit like Samantha as long as it your own choice.
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Burning Prairie 5-21-2008 @ 9:40PM
Oh for heaven's sake! I used to watch The Dukes of Hazzard and didn't once try to jump my car over anything. Shows on the t.v. don't make anyone do anything they wouldn't normally be inclined to do. That was just her handy excuse, a self-justification she used to make herself feel better about her own choices. "Ooh, look, it wasn't me! It was Sex and The City!"
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Meredith 5-22-2008 @ 10:11AM
Haha good point! I agree. You can be inspired by something you see but you can't justify it as the reason behind your actions.
Chalsey 5-22-2008 @ 8:29AM
I love the show! BUT I totally would not want my teenage daughter watching it! I would rather her wait until her very late teens to watch it. Or until I thought she would be old enough not to be influenced so much by it.
And the show was not made for teenagers anyways.
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anonomommy 5-22-2008 @ 6:25PM
This seems nutso that a girl would watch satc and then go have sex with 7 guys... it seems like she's blaming the show in retrospect but it's hard to imagine that any single non-family influence could truly have that much power over a teenager...
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Rachel 5-22-2008 @ 7:12PM
Where are her parents to discuss her behavior? I am sure, at a minimum, they could smell the smoke on her...that is awfully hard to hide. People need to stop blaming entertainment for the reason the commit stupid acts. The show is made for young adults and not geared towards teenagers, you can't blame them for her stupidity.
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So 8-11-2008 @ 10:32PM
I always have to laugh when stuff like this gets played off as news. Girls might have a sex drive. Big freaking deal. I wish parenting today had less focus on micromanaging and more focus on common sense. Honestly if you tell a kid not to do something, doesn't it make him or her want to do it more? I know that was the case with me.
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