Sexual Media Attitudes in "Freaks and Geeks"

In our class discussion on the article, Disinterest, Intrigue, Resistance: Early Adolescent Girls’ Use of Sexual Media content, many students volunteered information and memories from their adolescence.  The study conducted in this article looked at girls from the ages of eleven to fifteen to determine their sexual media use.  The girls were then put under three categories of either “disinterested,” “intrigued,” or “resisting.”

This made me wonder about the attitudes characters portray towards sex and sexual media in the media, and not just how these characters behave sexually.  I immediately thought of an episode of “Freaks and Geeks” I recently watched when Lindsay gets her first boyfriend, Nick.  Lindsay and Nick have been friends the whole season, however, one day, when Nick was feeling sad, Lindsay decided to kiss him.  At this moment in time, Lindsay seemed like she enjoyed this kiss.

 

As Nick and Lindsay started hanging out more and became official “boyfriend and girlfriend,” the viewer becomes aware that Lindsay is nervous about the next sexual step for the two of them.  Kim, a sexually promiscuous character on the show, as well as some of Nick friends, often asked Nick and Lindsay “when they’re going to do it.”  This clearly implies that sex would be the next logical step in the progression of their relationship in the eyes of Kim.  Lindsay, who is much less mature sexually than Kim, shows obvious signs of disinterest and resistance towards the ideas of sex.

As I’ve touched on, Kim, a very sexually promiscuous character, appears to have a lot of sex and seems to like it…a lot.  As a viewer, I tend to dislike Kim, who often bullies other characters, including Lindsay.

Another instance in this television show when the characters show attitudes towards sexual media is when Sam and his friends watch a pornographic film for the first time.  Their facial expressions all demonstrate how they feel about it. One friend appears to be intrigued, while Sam seems to resist the pornography.  Sam is also clearly the least sexually mature adolescent of his friend group.

So, I wonder. I am watching this show as an adult with a decent amount of exposure to sexual media.  I have formed my opinions about sex and promiscuity.  However, “Freaks and Geeks” is a show that is geared towards younger audiences.  Do other fifteen year olds tend to mimic not only the sexual behaviors of the characters in television shows, but also their attitudes towards sex?  I am curious as to what are the social predictors of whether an adolescent girl would identify with the attitudes of Lindsay, or with Kim; with Sam, or with his friend.

Works cited:

Brown, J. D., White, A. B., & Nikopoulou, L. (1993). Disinterest, intrigue, resistance: Early adolescent girls' use of sexual media content. IN B. S. Greenberg, J. D. Brown & N. Buerkel-Rothfuss (Eds.), Media, sex and the adolescent (pp. 177-195). Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.