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| its my birthday. im 20, nostalgic. my childhood is past, but still present in time. because growing older is only a matter of time. looking back on my childhood, i cant help but return to the one thing thats been present, constant. its family. i guess in a way my family's childhood has past too. my family has become adult, complicated. complicated only because we are far from each other. yet still always constant, changing but unchanging. always there. impervious to time. i guess whats funny is that immortality has always been in the reach of men. immortality, that thing which men seek the most, but seem to rarely find. it lies in family. the fountain of youth. the novel "Tuck Everlasting" that we all read in grammar school as children. it gives us the formula for immortality. it lies in family. the only thing that remains constant. my father and mother have guaranteed their immortality through my sister and i. they will always be present. i spoke to them on the phone tonight. they called to greet me a happy birthday. they sounded old. i wanted them to sound young, but all i needed was to hear my own voice: a reminder of my immortality. I will always be present in time. it makes me happy for my parents. it makes me happy for my family. it makes me happy for myself.
sorry ive been a little ambiguous with this entry and the explanation. interpret as you will. =) | | |
| Generation Sex
I was born in 1985; a year when Madonna became the reigning idol among teenage girls, AIDS emerged to the forefront of the public’s attention, and a universal parental warning sticker appeared on the front of cassettes because of excessive sexual content in albums. My generation started the early years of their lives with sex subliminally imprinted onto their infant brains. The young people in this generation, while growing up to their teens, were then exposed to the first condom commercials aired on television, the emergence of the internet as a new means of media output, Beverly Hills 90210 as a so called accurate portrayal of teenage life, and dancing that simulates the act of intercourse called “grinding.” With the media encouraging the obsession towards sex, it is no wonder that my generation is so intent on making everything sexually related. So now that my generation has the power as young adults to influence things in our culture, we have decided to push the boundaries of morality and good taste to the limit as if we were starting a new Bohemian Revolution, only not for freedom in art, but freedom in sex. Therefore, my generation shall, or should be called “Generation Sex,” the generation that succumbed to the powers of the penis and the vagina, and are actually proud of it.
The media in the early years of my generation from 1985 to 1995 created a good foundation for sex fixation that ranged from music to television. Although the members of Generation Sex were too young to fully understand the severity of the things they were subjected to by the media, there is no doubt that the images and references to sex that were present in the late 1980’s to the early 1990’s had a great deal of influence in their upbringing. In 1985, Madonna emerged as the reigning pop icon. The reason for her fast climb to the covers of magazines and cameos on television was her willingness to use sex for shock value. She was only the first of many other artists who would then follow the strategy of sex as shock value to sell records. “While sexual themes have always been an aspect of popular music, sexual references… [became] increasingly more direct with little room for interpretation or ambiguity. Between 1980 and 1990, implicit references to sex decreased approximately 20% and sexually explicit language increased by 15%. In other words, the amount of sexual references did not drastically increase, but the language used to describe sexual behavior became more graphic” (Mediascope). The statistics show that there was a radical shift in the way the media was presenting sex to their audience. Although sex had been present in the media years before, only during the late 1980’s did sex transform from being an implied, sort of hush-hush indulgence into a blatant and obscene marketing strategy. The standards for media decency were then lowered, and consequently affected the standards for social decency. The universal parental warning sticker was never needed before 1985 because parents did not need to worry about what their kids were being exposed to (VH1). It was a weak attempt to stifle the power of the media. Music was not the only contributor for the lowering of standards. Magazines also started making more obvious references to sex. “Seventeen percent (17%) of magazine ads containing at least one man and one woman depicted or implied intercourse in 1993, up from one percent ten years earlier” (Mediascope). The steady rise of sexual references in the media can be reflected in this quote. In the years 1983 to 1993, the number of magazines that allowed graphic sexual references in their pages increased from a mere one percent to a drastic seventeen percent. Obviously, the media became much looser about sex, and conveniently just as my generation grew into their teens.
As Generation Sex entered their teenage years of exploration and experimentation, they were more than ever bombarded with sex in the things they watched, listened to, and read. In 1991, Fox Broadcasting was the first to permit condom advertising on television (VH1). So by the time Generation Sex reached their teenage years around 1995-96, condom commercials on television just started to become somewhat of a norm. Although condom commercials promote safe sex, they also heavily imply that having sex is alright as long as it is safe sex. Also, television sitcoms portraying teens in a rebel view started emerging in the early to mid 90’s. Although television sitcoms with an adolescent cast like Saved by the Bell already existed, no shows that portrayed teens as something other than innocent were broadcasted; until Beverly Hills 90210, that is. “Beverly Hills 90210, was the first in a string of programs on FOX geared toward adolescent and young adult audiences who were attracted to glamour and attention to certain issues…Many of the show's main characters were sexually active” (Fry). Beverly Hills 90210 pioneered the emergence of this new niche in media concentration. Television began to shift its sights toward a new audience: the young adult. This meant that the sex that already existed in the media was no longer just available for adolescents to see, but actually specifically designed to attract them. “A study of 1,792 adolescents ages 12-17 showed that… Youths in the 90th percentile of TV sex viewing had a predicted probability of intercourse initiation that was approximately double that of youths in the 10th percentile. Basically, kids with higher exposure to sex on TV were almost twice as likely than kids with lower exposure to initiate sexual intercourse” (Parents Television Council). With this statistic in mind, one can estimate just how much the teens in Generation Sex were influenced by the media in their decisions about sex.
The culmination of years of sexual bombardment by the media becomes ever more apparent as we venture on the most recent years of Generation Sex. The young adults have become influential people with control over the media and therefore control the trends of behavior in society. Many artists, actors, and reality show contestants we see today on the television screen are members of Generation Sex. The most blatant and popular form of sexual media in today’s society that reaches its influences over the world is mainstream hip hop music. Although one cannot deny the talent of the products of Generation Sex, the way in which the artists use these talents are questionable. Most rap or reggae ton songs in the mainstream contain references to sex, if not actually giving a description of sexual acts. One doesn’t have to stop there; just a click of the remote can send a viewer to music videos that resemble strip club surveillance tapes. Also, many popular sitcoms in television blatantly depict sex as a casual hobby. Even the movements that Generation Sex considers dancing in today’s society simulate sexual acts. This form of dancing has many terms but dubbed most popularly as grinding. “One [high school] senior quoted in the Kansas City Star called the proposed rule [against grinding] ‘a joke ... We're moving with the generation,’ she said, ‘This is what we've seen’" (Zeiger). One thing I’ve learned about people over the years is that most will follow the crowd and the trends without second thought. Sadly, the people with the most power over today’s society are the people controlling the media, and they are not responsible enough to do so.
One can make the argument that Generation Sex only emancipates society from the previous restraints on human sexuality. I don’t agree. Emancipation still gives people a choice: take the freedom or not. What the media does today because of Generation Sex’s influence, forces sex into the lives of people who are not ready for the consequences that accompany the change in views. What if the newly found freedom is falsely achieved? One cannot deny the destructive consequences that come with this sexual freedom. There are diseases out there, pregnancies, abortions, and the devaluation of emotions that have the potential to create soulless young people with little hope of a good future. “Students [interviewed by CNB News]… admit …a stark truth: that many college kids throw themselves into soulless sex, a series of meaningless sexual encounters” (Strand). The consequences of Generation Sex’s media can be seen not on television, but on the streets where kids are suffering from consequences they had no full knowledge of. “Why would college kids choose to lead such libertine lifestyles? ...many literally do not know any better: No adults ever told them they should, or even can, lead lives of sexual purity” (Strand). Because many young people don’t discuss sex with their parents, they look to the media for answers, and the answers they receive are given without responsibility. So why not just simply ignore Generation Sex’s media? Media cannot be escaped from in today’s world. Perhaps a decade ago, one can make that argument, but in a time where television screens generate images in almost every building, and even some streets, the media created by Generation Sex cannot be ignored. One way or the other, subliminally or intentionally, media today affects everybody, and Generation Sex made sure that you can find sex everywhere.
Works Cited
Fry, Katherine. “Beverly Hills, 90210.” The Museum of Broadcast Communications. 14 May 2005 <http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/B/htmlB/beverlyhills/beverlyhills.htm>
Strand, Paul. “Generation Sex: Promiscuity Makes the Grade on Campus.” CNB News. April 2005 < http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/news/050315a.asp>
“Teens, Sex & the Media.” 2001. Issue Briefs. Studio City, Calif.: Mediascope Press.
“Television Timeline.” Parents Television Council Publications. 14 May 2005
<http://www.parentstv.org/PTC/facts/tvtimeline.asp>
VH1. I Love The 80’s. 25 April 2005
<http://www.vh1.com/shows/dyn/i_love_the_80s/series.jhtml>
VH1. I Love The 90’s. 25 April 2005 <http://www.vh1.com/shows/dyn/i_love_the_90s/series.jhtml>
Zeiger, Hans. “Bumping, grinding, and freak dancing.” Renew America. 24 April 2004
<http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/zeiger/040424>
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COME SEE FUPAC'S BARRIO ON APRIL 29th!! IM THE LEAD!!! | | |
| where am i going with this. with my life completely ahead of me, i am confused as to whether or not i am being honest with myself. Am i living the life that i tell everyone i am, am i living the way i tell myself i am. When i ask this question regarding each aspect of my life, sometimes i answer no. I tell myself i am living a life thats worth living, a life that has substance. But there are so many things in life that slip my mind, that i dont take into consideration when they are so worth being thought about. Like i do things that are trivial, when i could be doing something important. Why do i watch tv? why do i play video games? why do i go out to clubs? etc. why dont i go and write? why dont i go and create artwork? why dont i go to the subways and give homeless people money? why dont i call my parents and have a conversation about life with them? etc. The answer to this is that im not gonna make excuses, i am not living life the way i want to be living it. People my age think life is one big party. People my age think that time is something to be wasted. People my age always say "im young, i want to have fun," forgetting that there is more to life than having fun. People my age including me. well now i remember what i should be doing. I should be changing lives by changing my own life. And what gives me the authority to say that i am worthy of changing lives? the simple fact that i am thinking about the way i am living gives me that authority. Just as it can for anyone else. I am not trying to be some popously righteous person. I am trying to be honest with myself. The only time i will be satisfied with my life, is when i get to that point where people see the way i live and are then inspired by it. Aspirations are castles built on clouds. so that we can appreciate the vast space between where we are and where we are going. Some people say that we are predestined. ..where we are going and where we end up is a result of fate. Serendipity, providence. Yes, we are predestined. Only when we dont have the will to change our lives. Predestination is only the base of our being. I dont want to be in the base. I want to run around so that i can play tag. | | |
| the process of life and death is about continually expressing the beauty of creation. time and time again i am returned to my favorite quote "wax on. wax off." from the karate kid because i think that it, in the most minimalistic sense, describes the process of our lives. we live, create, express, affect, love, hate, learn, teach. and once we pass, although we are gone. .we have made the world more beautiful. for example: when you wax your dress shoes. then take the wax off. your shoes are shinier. This is what we do when we live our lives. we are part of a process of such magnitude that sometimes we are not meant to understand. I guess this is just part of it all, the part i understand the most. that our lives are part of a succesion of events that keep this world beautiful or make it more beautiful. we live and leave our imprints on the world and the people that live in it. today i saw how beauty brings people together. the beauty in a loved one and the beauty in all the people who loved her. the death of someone is their last gift to the world. because it brings out the beauty in people, the sincerity, the emotion, the caring, the love in people. And yes. . death brings sadness. . regret. but its only a step to discovering beauty. to rebuild, to make something better, something/someone stronger, so thar he/she/they can in turn bring more beauty to the world, something must be taken away. a link in the chain with enough beauty to bring the reaction to the ends of the chain. today i saw how people were so affected by one person that they cried, laughed, sobbed, and smiled..at the same time. this is beauty. this is the purpose of our lives. to express beauty. it is a priceless gift.
rest in peace Jella. i wish i had known you better, experienced your beauty a little more. thank you for all that you've given. | | |
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