Dexter Season 1 Super Peer?

Dexter Season 1 Episode 8

During our last class period we recently discussed whether or not media can serve as a sexual “super peer”. One of the con’s mentioned during our group discussion was the idea of young girls engaging in media content not meant for adolescents. Showtime’s Dexter , now in syndication, is a widely popular crime/horror/comedy. Dexter is a forensic detective with the Miami police by day, and a serial killer at night. Interestingly though, he only kills individuals who should justifiably die. Season 1 also explores Dexter’s softer side, with his relationship with girlfriend,  Rita. At this point in the show, the audience knows that Rita has two kids, by her ex-husband who was physically and sexually abusive towards her and has been recently paroled. Rita is a woman who has been through a lot and has been clearly broken down. In other episodes, Rita and Dexter have gotten close to, but had not consummated their relationship. Dexter is understanding, and patient with Rita, progressing their sexual relationship on her terms. Dexter’s sister Deb,  on the other hand,  is sexually liberated and adventurous. Deb, also works in the Miami police department as an officer and entertains a few sexual relationships during the course of the show. Dexter is the emotionally void psychopath, who is also in a relationship with an emotionally battered woman. Deb is the not so smart, cutie who doesn’t seem to pick men for the right reasons. Though in this episode, her relationship with the prosthetics doctor seems promising.  

The relationship dichotomies prompted me to think about a couple of questions. How does the relationship between Dexter and Rita come across to young audiences? More specifically, the 13-15 female age group discussed in Mass media as a sexual super peer for early maturing girls, as their Table 1 results showed that 13, 14-15 girls reported higher interest in sexual media content than their 12 year old female counterparts ( Brown et al., 2005, p.5). Although Dexter isn’t focused around romance, I wonder what sort of messages young females would gather from the show. I also wonder if younger females would be able to identify with the female characters on the show, since the cast are all adults. 

References

Brown, J, D., Halpern, C. T., L'Engle, K. L., (2005). Mass media as a sexual super peer for early maturing girls. Journal of Adolescent Health. (420-427).