Sexual attitudes among Barney from "How I Met Your Mother"

The class on Thursday made me think of another episode of How I Met Your Mother where Barney reaches his 200^th girl he has had sex with. The reason why he does that can be traced back to his middle school years when a boy in his school lied to have had sex with 100 girls. Barney’s friends all express their feelings of how disgusting having sex with 200 girls is because certainly two hundred is too many. Even the boy in his middle school, who is a man with wife and kids now, thinks he is gross and suggests him to counsel for sex addiction, but Barney still thinks himself as awesome.

From this media content we can see that, although teenagers tend to connect sex with their social status, the so-called grownups are expected to have some sense in terms of how much people they should have sex with. Two hundred is too many, even for Barney, who is represented as a playboy. However, unlike the clip we saw in class, where it clearly states that 4 sex partners is not enough and 19 is too many, there is no statement of what is the “appropriate” number of girls a guy should have sex with. In other words, the show did not make a clear statement about what people should behave in terms of having sexual partners.

In HIMYM it does state clear that how nice it is for Marshall and Lily to only have sex with each other. On the other hand, being an “awful and gross human being”, Barney ends up pretty well too. In fact, he actually has a fairly successful life, with a bunch of best friends, a healthy body and good look, and a job that nobody knows what it is but somehow pays extremely well. He barely gets into any serious problem in the show. Will this portrait of Barney affect how the audiences of HIMYM perceive sex? According to Chia and Gunther, the hypothesis, which is based on the cultivation effect, that “Among college students, higher levels of media consumption will be associated with perceptions of more permissive peer norms about sex” is not supported by empirical data (311). However, does cultivation effect really not influence people’s sex attitude towards others at all? I found another clip summarizing all the sex partners Barney has in the show HIMYM, and it is nearly 200 as well. I specifically looked into the comment section to see how people react to this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3htVoHJm7OM

Most of the people in the comment section took Barney’s behavior as norms by not challenging the actual content but keeping discussing the counting mistakes in the video. Of course I did not go through all the comments, but within those I saw, nobody thought Barney hooking up with nearly 200 girls is inappropriate or disgusting, although two comments did mention or question the STD problem he might be having. There are also people showing “respect” to Barney and “love him.” The comments indicate that people potentially give Barney permission to do that. In other words, they become “more permissive of sexual attitudes of peers,” which coordinates with the hypothesis raised in the Chia and Gunther article. In my opinion, Barney is a loveable character. Even when he is picking up girls he seems pretty hilarious. But it is probably his funny characteristics that have kept the audiences from really thinking through. When the audiences watch Barney hitting on different girls, they might pay too much attention on how funny it is and ignore the fact that it would be really “disgusting” if someone actually sleeps with all of them. They may bring this kind of perspective into real life and therefore, form the cultivation effect. It does not matter how “awful” one is sexually, as long as he is as funny and cute as Barney, he can get away with it.

Here is another clip showing what Barney’s moves would look like in real life: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5_105w18wA

Reference

Stella C. Chia and Albert C. Gunther (2006) How Media Contribute to Misperceptions of Social Norms About Sex. Mass Communication & Society, 2006, 9(3), 301-320

Gender Roles and Adult Humor in Children's Shows "Adventure Time"

Adventure Time is a popular show on Cartoon Network about a human boy in a post-apocalyptic magical world. What's surprising is how many deeper and more adult themes there are for a "children's" show. There's more adult humor sometimes and the show has received a lot of praise for it's unique characters and plots. I was watching an episode recently and I thought about how interesting the character dynamics are compared to the real world. While this show is purely fantasy they do tackle real world problems, such as self-respect, love, and other morals. I wanted to focus on moral lessons and adult humor in an episode I was watching called "I Remember You" (2012). You can the episode above on Youtube.

Because this is obviously a kid's show, there isn't any explicit mention or visuals of sexual content, but I think that it's important to see what the shows that kids are watching are teaching them. This episode starts out with some interesting interactions between the Ice King and Marceline. There are adult jokes such as when Ice King gets tangled in cords talks about he likes it. They briefly deal with abuse when Ice King pushes Marceline onto the ground and he immediately apologizes and the mood changes. I wanted to relate this episode to the article on social cognitive theory and moral judgments by  Eyal and Kunkel (2008). While it doesn't relate directly, I found that their findings could transfer over to other moral judgments between people. The Ice King is frequently criticized for blatantly hitting on women who mostly don't give consent. Jake tells him, "your harassment of the female gender makes me sick." This could go along with their findings that negative portrayals of sex also lead to negative attitudes about premarital sex. I think Adventure Time's view on female harassment and consent could have the same social effects and that would be good for kids. Viewers will understand that there are consequences to these gendered acts and it will effect their moral judgments.  

It's a little hard to compare this show to the readings we've done in class, but I think that it has a lot of implications for what we talk about in class. But the show has a lot of different character types and relationships that would be worth looking into. Gender is pretty fluid in this show, there are both straight and heterosexual relationships, and they talk about consent. 

When Women Have Sex Like Men

I have come to the point in my life where it seems necessary to admit my seemingly serious addiction to binge-watching television. While my constant need to have a show that I binge has created some negative effects in my life, it has also created a wonderful environment for me to discover some shows that may go under the radar as far as mainstream popular television goes. One such show I've had the fortune of becoming addicted and sadly, very, very, emotionally attached, to is the british drama, The Fall.

The Fall is a joint BBC/Netflix drama series that tells the story of a string of murders that happen in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Unlike many murder-mystery series that rely upon twists in plot and prototypical elements like red herrings, The Fall wastes no time in revelling to the viewer who the serial killer is (Jamie Dornan) and who his law-enforcement nemesis is (Gillian Anderson). Because the series does not need to spend time trying to hide the identity of the killer, more attention is spent developing these two characters and exploring their psyche. Which is how The Fall, in my biased opinion, has crafted one of the most progressive, interesting, and dynamic female characters on television in the form of Anderson's Stella Gibson.

Stella is not just a competent detective, she is the best detective, the only one who can truly go head-to-head with Dornan's Paul Spector. She's smart and strong, and what's more, when she wants to sexually express herself, she does. Within the first episode of the series, we see Stella looking at another officer with interest, whom she then asks upfront to spend the night with her. In Markle's piece reviewing sexual scripts in Sex in the City, much time is spent on examining the ways in which the show displays typical male and female sexual scripts, and then subverts them (2008). Stella, much like Carrie and the other leads from Sex and the City, has sex when she wants, with whom she wants, and does not need commitment or emotional connection. However, unlike Sex and the City, in the The Fall, breaking from these scripts does not lead to a lack of repercussions for Stella. Markle points out that much of what happen in SITC happens in a post-feminist setting, where women can have sex like men, and not have to fear ostracization or an abusive partner (2008). When Stella's colleagues find out about her one-night stand, she is subjected to real-life character attacks, such as 'slut-shaming'. How those around Stella choose to address her sexual openness gives the show more of a realistic take on how sexual scripts play out, highlighting the reality of female sexuality.

Her dialogue, working in tandem with how her character has been crafted, clearly highlights the sexist nature of some of these scripts, and tears them down. Even though Stella is ostracized for her behavior, she isn't one to lay down and let this attack against her happen, and the viewer is led to sympathize with her as opposed to the men in the office who make her out to be a slut.

The Fall is full of moments like this. Mystery-dramas, as anyone who's had a chance to view them knows, are a troublesome genre in some regards for their heavy reliance on violence, most often committed against women, in the name of story development. While all the victims of Dornan's Spector are women, characters like Stella are there not only to give the presence of a strong female character, but also, in some cases, to give back the importance and character to the women who are victims of the serial killer. They are people too in this drama, not just casual asides, and they, much like Stella after he one-night stand, are subject to questions of innocence on the grounds of sexuality. Stella isn't having it, though.

Reference List:
Markle, G. (2008). “Can Women Have Sex Like A Man?”: Sexual Scripts In Sex And The City.Sexuality & Culture, 45-57

The "Perfect" Match

I was watching older episodes of the show "New Girl" the other day, and came across a funny clip. In class we were discussing the perfect partner, and what that would look like in a man and a woman. Some of the traits we came up with for men were nice, funny, stylish, chill, smart, ambitious, and attractive. Watching this episode, a scene came up where Schmidt, one of the roommates, made an online dating profile to try and attract women. The clip shown below is his dating profile. While watching it, make sure to keep in mind the terms we came up with for the ideal male partner.

The clip shows Schmidt in what he claims a normal day in his life would be. It is set to the theme music from "The Hills," and has Schmidt driving in a nice car in California by the Hollywood sign. It goes on to show many unrealistic aspects of what a daily life would be, but it makes Schmidt look glamorous and classy. Throughout the clip, words like "chill", "charm", and "intelligence" pop up next to his face while he is laughing. At the end he says, "and that was just a day in the life. That was actually Tuesday. Call me."

Although this scene is extremely comical, analyzing the clip shows many stereotypes that are commonly seen in many television shows. Schmidt made the dating profile in order to find women and have sex with them. He was not looking for a relationship when the profile was being created. Instead, he talked about how to make himself seem like a perfect guy women would want to date in order for them to be more attracted to him, and be able to sleep with them easily. I instantly thought of Kim's article "From sex to sexuality: Exposing the heterosexual script on primetime network television," and how that relates. Traditionally, men are thought of to be dominant in relationships, in addition to "actively and aggressively pursuing sex" (Kim, 2007). Schmidt, although not aggressively pursuing sex, was actively making the attempt to present himself as the perfect match to women in order to gain sex.

In every episode, Schmidt dresses in suits, and pretends to be a high-class businessman, although he is really the assistant to the assistant. He has claimed multiple times that acting as a high status male and portraying confidence helps to attract women, and ultimately earns sex. Kim says in her article that, "that men actively seek sexual activity, and that women use their bodies and looks to attract wealthy and handsome men" (Kim, 2007). Since Schmidt always dresses like he is wealthy it should result in him being able to pick up more women, right? Wrong. In the show he is constantly trying to win women over, but usually fails because he almost tries too hard. The attempt to act out the dominance script backfires in his case.

References:

Kim, J. L., Sorsoli, C. L., Collins, K., Zylbergold, B. A., Schooler, D., & Tolman, D. L. (2007).   From sex to sexuality: Exposing the heterosexual script on primetime network television. Journal of Sex Research, 44(2), 145-157. doi: 10.1080/00224490701263660

Bringing "The Heat": Reversing or Reinforcing Sexual Stereotypes

The movie combines the powers of America's sweetheart and America's new favorite raunchy female comedian. The Heat, released in 2013, stars Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy who portray an FBI agent and Boston cop on the hunt for a ring of drug dealers that are violently taking control of Boston's streets. Sandra Bullock stars as uptight FBI agent Sarah Ashburn that is vying for a new promotion and trying to crack this case to impress her boss. Melissa McCarthy, quite conversely, stars as hot tempered and foul-mouthed Boston police officer Shannon Mullins that plays by her own set of rules and is trying to save her brother from getting involved in the drug market.

This is one of my most favorite movies- I just happen to find their casting selection brilliant and the plot hilarious. However, what brought this fantastic movie back to mind was our discussion in class about which stereotypes surround women and which surround men. As a class we came up with quite a startling list of stereotypes. We agreed that women are emotional, bad drivers, weaker, domestic, crazy, needy, clingy, materialistic, dramatic, feminine, bad at math and science, nurturing, and bad at sports. Men are assertive, stoic, strong, aggressive, unemotional, independent, competitive, dirty, stubborn, not nurturing, masculine, and good at math and science. What struck me most about these lists were how confining they were. That's where the movie The Heat comes in. 

These two characters in the movie seem to completely reject the list we came up with for the stereotypical female. Both Bullock and McCarthy play characters that are completely independent, unemotional, not naturally nurturing or understanding, not clingy, and non-materialistic. These two are competitive and stubborn as well. Thus, the two seem to reject the female stereotypes and actually embrace more of the male stereotypes. Maybe that is part of the reason this movie is so funny: these women are not sexy or elegant. They are devoted to their careers figure out how to crack the case between the two of them. 

However, one scene does stand out, especially in relation to Ferguson et al.'s (2005) analysis of the "Promiscuous Female" stereotype and the nature of the application domain. This scene is one where Ashburn and Mullins are trying to get a bug into the cell phone of a person of interest. They find the guy at the newest club and decide that they have to dance like all of the other girls to get close to him. But Mullins decides that it will have to be Ashburn that gets close to him and that she cannot hit the dance floor in her FBI suit. So they go into that bathroom where Mullins revamps Ashburn's outfit: 

This last image shows how Ashburn leaves the bathroom and the outfit that allowed her to successfully seduce the man in question enough to get the bug into his phone. Thus, those stereotypes that Sandra Bullock's character rejects through most of the film are embraced in this scene: she is clingy and promiscuous, feminine and kind of crazy as she attempts to get the man's attention with her 'dirty' dancing. Ferguson et al. (2005) found that their study and their activation of the promiscuous female stereotype "through exposure to a  popular television show can affect subsequent judgments of other women" (p. 485). They also found that subjects placed in the condition with exposure to a promiscuous female judged women as less likely to succeed at a prestigious university (p. 484). This is directly played out in this part of the movie. Ashburn becomes the promiscuous woman in this scene to get the attention of the man in question, something she never would have gotten in her professional suit. After the two leave the club, they run into two DEA officers that are tracking the man that Ashburn just bugged. The men, based on Ashburn's dress, judge both Ashburn and Mullins to be inadequate in doing their jobs. They say directly that they are in the way and make fun of Ashburn's unshaved legs. Just as Ferguson et al. found, Mullins was subsequently judged based on Ashburn's promiscuity. Both the male DEA officers think these two women to be incapable and belonging at a desk somewhere rather than in the field. 

Therefore, this movie is complicated. Most of the movie shows the two main characters outrightly rejecting the promiscuous female stereotype and female stereotypes in general. However, this scene with the phone bugging is a crucial step in the progression of the case. Without the information from the phone, Ashburn and Mullins would not have been able to shut down the drug operation by the end of the movie and save Mullins' brother. Thus, even though the end of the film shows the two women on top and successfully carrying out their mission without any male assistance, there still is this judgment of female promiscuity and female inadequacy. 

References

Ferguson, T., Berlin, J., Noles, E., Johnson, J., Reed, W., & Spicer, C. V. (2005). Variation in the application of the 'promiscuous female' stereotype and the nature of the application domain: Influences on sexual harassment judgments after exposure to the Jerry Springer Show. Sex Roles, 52(7-8), 477-487. dii: 10.1007/s11199-005-3713-y

Sex in the Super Bowl

What if there were no sexually enticing Super Bowl Ads? Well, there would basically be no Super Bowl Ads left. The media is filled with sexually appealing ads which contribute to what viewers think the social norms are. When watching the Super Bowl, avoiding the sexual ads is basically impossible to do.   After watching the Super Bowl, I began to think about the commercial advertisements.  What ads are the worst offenders? If typed into Google, “Sexual Super Bowl Ads”, thousands of results come up. There was one ad in particular, from 2003, that I was attention-gabbing. The Miller Light Catfight commercial is definitely a sexually primed commercial.

In a nutshell, everything about this commercial revolves around the ideal “hot” woman and how they can be sexualized. 

The two women in the commercial get into a catfight about why they drink Miller Light beer.  In the end, clothing is flying and the girls are in their underclothes. The actresses in the ad are very pretty and make you want to watch the commercial, even though the message is a little far-fetched.  I found it interesting, that when I was discussing Super Bowl commercials with my dad, he remembered this particular add which is more than ten years old.

            In the end of the commercial, we see that two guys are pondering about the commercial.  In the final line of the commercial, one guy says he has an idea for how the commercial should end. His idea is that the two women should make out. Media has the ability to contribute to misperceptions of social norms about sex. This is just one example of how the media can influence people. Stella Chia and Albert Gunther conducted and published research on this topic. They found that “…college students tend to overestimate how comfortable their peers were with premarital and casual sex” (Chia 314). These findings support the fact that sexual ads, especially prominent in the Super Bowl, affect how others are thinking.

Bud Light is not the only offender of sexually explicit commercials. The reality is that people like watching the ads. Many Super Bowl ads feature sexual innuendos, which in turn, leads to viewers thinking that this is the sexual norm. Although the Kate Upton Southwest Patty Ad was not allowed to air during the Super Bowl, it was still created, and perpetuates the theme of sexy Super Bowl Ads. 

Reference:
Chia, S.C.,& Gunther, A.C. (2006). How media contribute to misperceptions of social norms about sex. Mass Communication & Society.

Asking for sex

As we were talking in class about people’s “numbers” and about sexual permissiveness of males vs. females, it reminded me of these videos I had seen a little while back.  It was described as a social experiment where a woman would walk up to random strangers on the street and ask them to have sex, and they would record their responses.  Similarly, a male would walk up to 100 women and ask them if they would have sex with him, and their responses were recorded.  This really reminded me about how we have been talking about double standards between men and women.

In this first video, although shorter and less men are asked, we can see that an attractive, young female walks around town asking men if they would have sex with her.  Many don’t find her very threatening (other than the confused man at the beginning), and seem to laugh it off and just say, “Wait, are you serious?”.   Many of the men, after asking if she was serious, decide to say that they would in fact have sex with her and walk with her.  At the end, the woman ends up having a 50% success rate in getting males to say yes to her.

            Similarly, although a longer video and there is a larger subject pool, we can see an attractive, young male walking around the same town, asking women to have sex with him.  Many women give him skeptical looks, laugh and walk away.  Some women are even more offended and call him names or call him creepy, and one woman (at 1:11) even throws her drink in his face.  Throughout the whole video, many of the women have similar reactions to this male when approached by him to have sex.  At the end, the male ends up have a 0% success rate, and no females said yes to wanting to have sex with him.

            This reminded me of the Chia and Gunther reading, where it was said that “We found that male students who believed their peers to be more sexually permissive were more likely to engage in premarital and casual sex, whereas female students showed no such susceptibility.” (316).  This is because in the female’s video where she is asking men to have sex, in one scenario, we can see her talking to a young male, and his friends are yelling to him in the background, so we can assume that he feels more permissive due to peer pressure of his friends.  Similarly, at another point in the video, we see two friends standing next to each other and she asks them if they would like to have sex.  Before both of them say yes, they look to each other for approval.  On the counter, we see that the women being asked by the male to engage in sex showed less susceptibility, much like Chia and Gunther had stated; they don’t have to get any approval from friends, but rather are apt to answer much more quickly and just say no.

            Overall, these videos really just reminded me of what we have been talking about in class, how women have this unfair double standard that expects them to say no when approached by a male asking about sex, but it’s okay if they ask the male for sex.  It is almost as if it is seen as “hot” that the woman engages the conversation, but “creepy” if the male does.  This touches back on the much talked about conversation in class how a woman should be classy, but a “freak in the bed”, but also the type of woman that you can take home to mom, and domestic, etc. etc.  So, it’s humorous and then sexy if a woman will ask you for sex, but creepy if a male does, which doesn’t make much sense, because at the same time, if one of the women in the second videos were to say yes in engaging in sex, wouldn’t she be seen as some type of “slut” by her peers? 

"Mobile Love" Talk: Incomplete but Interesting

            In attending this week’s Sexpertise talk entitled “Mobile Love” I naturally expected what the description of the talk had said what would be discussed; I expected for the speaker to touch on relevant mobile apps like Snapchat and Tinder, and their impact on today’s youths’  conceptualization of romance and love. However, the talk led by Dr. José Bauermeister was not what I had anticipated at all.

            “Mobile Love” certainly delved into technologies and interfaces dealing with romantic connections that I was not as familiar with, in focusing a significant amount of attention on Manhunt and Grindr. I actually had not heard of Manhunt prior to this talk, but I learned that it is a gay dating site that has lost popularity with the rise of its contemporary-counterpart, Grindr. I’ve heard of Grindr through my gay friends, but never really pushed for details. Basically my knowledge of it prior to this speech centered on it using a GPS locator to find men nearby, so as to facilitate the likelihood of in-person interaction, hookups, etc.

            While this discussion of Grindr and Manhunt was not personally relevant, there were parts of this discussion that I did find interesting and surprising. Dr. Bauermeister noted that gays and lesbians are much more likely to use technology in their sexual perusals than heterosexuals. He equated this phenomenon to a sort of digital divide between the two sexual orientations, which I thought was very interesting. I started to wonder, and do wonder, why this might be so. My impression would be that since the homosexual population often times does not receive societal acceptance that this virtual atmosphere offers a space for them to interact and facilitate communication in a covert manner that will not encounter societal scrutiny. This, then, would mean that their sexual relationships would not face, or would face less, public contempt thus making it a more pleasurable experience. This is just a hypothesis, but I think this concept of a digital divide is fascinating.

            I also thought one of Dr. Bauermeister’s opening quotes was controversial and thought provoking. He stated that, “Technology has made dating easier.” However, I don’t know if I quite agree. From my experience, I think people have different understandings of what ‘dating’ means. For me ‘dating’ implies being involved in an emotionally engaging and mutually monogamous relationship; however for others, ‘dating’ means mingling with multiple people and exploring one’s own romantic interests. The others’ definition of ‘dating’ seems to affirm the validity of the idea of technology facilitating dating, as it allows people to meet others quicker and easier; however, my definition, from my vantage point, is in opposition to this idea. Sure, some monogamous and committed relationships emerge from technology (after all, Dr. Bauermeister said he met his partner online), but I think that the vast majority of the users of technology for romance, are likely just seeking a hookup or a fleeting romance. This, in my eyes, is not dating; it’s just a fling. I would be curious to know the number of committed relationships that have come out of mobile technology or online, versus the number of hookups.

            In conclusion, this talk was a little disappointing in its lack of breadth in tackling today’s complex world of mobile love. I genuinely think that Grindr and Manhunt are important facets of the today’s mobile world, but “Romantic love is a universal phenomenon,” (Brown, El-Toukhy, & Ortiz, 2015, p. 94), and I don’t think it was presented that way here. I wish more attention was given to the entire scope of our ever-changing mobile world and its universal impact on our idea of modern love.

Reference

Brown, J. D., El-Toukhy, S. & Ortiz, R. (2014). Growing up sexually in a digital world: The risks and benefits of youths’ sexual media use. In A. B. Jordan & D. Romer (Eds.), Media and the well-being of children and adolescents (pp. 90-108). Oxford: Oxford University Press.