I'm Concerned for my Future Children...

I remember seeing this commercial aired again and again a couple of years ago, and I really have a problem with how sexual this commercial is. While parents must shield their young children from the sexual messages and images that most prime time television shows provide, now they have to shield their children from commercials that air all day, which is quite impossible. 

We already know that "the media—and television in particular—have received substantial attention as potentially important sources of information about sex" (Fisher et al., 2009).  If  a young child was watching this ad, he or she now learns that a male's pelvic region is something that all women desire and that a man is clearly dominant in a relationship and can do what he wants sexually with a women, or as in this scene, the man can freely start taking off the woman's swimsuit bottoms.  So, a younger child who hasn't been exposed to sex on television now learns that sexual encounters involve a man and woman's "private parts." 

As a young child, my parents often engaged in restrictive mediation when it came to sexual content in shows, so I never was allowed to watch TV shows that were highly sexual. However, now its harder than ever to restrict children from watching sexual TV shows because sexual content, cough cough HIGHLY sexual content, are prevalent in commercials that air all day long. 

Now as we've discussed, "according to social cognitive theory (Bandura, 1986, 2001), individuals will imitate the behavior of others, including media models, when those behaviors are rewarded" (Fisher et al., 2009). While we've discussed that teens are often the primary age group imitating sexual behavior they see on television, I'd argue we have to worry about an even younger age group imitating sexual behavior they see due to commercials such as this one. In imagining myself as a mom, a long long long time from now, it would be nice to engage in restrictive mediation when it comes to sexual television programs, but how am I to shield my future children from sexualized commercials? As a future mother, I would be concerned that these commercials would implant these sexual messages into my children's brains earlier, and as a consequence they might engage in imitating sexual behavior earlier than their adolescent years, yikes!

 I'd also like to point out the fact that these sexual advertisements are often associated with luxury fashion brands. So does this mean that those who are wealthier have more sex because they're "fabulous?" Or does buying these luxury brands cause a person to become sexier and more desirable to the opposite sex? I think this association would be very interesting to study because when I see these overly sexual print ads, they are often for a luxury brand.

So, in my opinion it's close to impossible to shield children from sexual content in today's world, making this idea of restrictive mediation almost obsolete in this day and age.

Work Cited

Fisher, D. A., Hill, D. L., Grube, J. W., Bersamin, M. M., Walker, S., & Gruber, E. L. (2009). Televised sexual content and parental mediation: Influences on adolescent sexuality. Media Psychology, 12(2), 121-147. doi: 10.1080/15213260902849901