Are you a hopeless romantic, waiting around for the right girl or guy to come around and make sense of your world? Well, maybe you’ve been watching too many romance movies. Hollywood presents love as a feeling, one that most teenagers confuse with infatuation and lust. Movies like The Notebook create a false view of what love looks like and many teenagers lose the opportunity to find love because they are waiting for someone to sweep them off their feet and kiss them in the rain while the background music slowly plays; but there are movies out there that do give us a pretty realistic view of what love looks like without having to showcase any nudity or sexual scenes. I wish to contrast the differences between the movie The Notebook and Fireproof along with their affects on teenagers. Most teenagers have learned to handle heated situations in the manor in which they have seen presented in movies. Dr. O’Hara, a researcher at the University of Missouri, studied the behavior patterns of 1,200 teens for six years and he found that the teens that watched suggestive movies tended to be more sexually active and have a more casual view on sex than those that were not exposed to as much media (Hagelin 2). What if Hollywood made more movies that focused on wholesome values and principles? In this paper I challenge the parents of teenagers to take off the blindfolds and help their teens to find a balance between these fantasies that Hollywood presents and reality, and I believe that Hollywood could play a role in reshaping the mindsets of teenagers.
The Notebook begins with an elderly man telling an elderly lady in the nursing home the story of a rich girl, names Allie who meets a poor boy, named Noah and falls head over heels in love. The...
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... such as integrity, honesty, and loyalty.
Works Cited
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Hagelin, Rebecca. Sexually Suggestive Movies Profoundly Affect Teens . 17 August 2012. 1 December 2013` .
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Rolphe, Dick. Dove's National Consumer Opinion Poll Is Closed And The Results Are In. 1 December 2013 .
“In 2005, out of 68% of TV shows that showed steamy sexual content, only 15% discussed risk and responsibility. And it’s not just movies and TV: Music, video games, and the Internet are also filled with sexually explicit, often-degrading messages that can shape kids’ attitudes about sex.” (greatschools.org)
As many may know, television has become less cautious as to what is being showed. Television shows are now revealing certain aspects and situations that should not be displayed. One show that has grown to be a major problem is Bad Girls’ Club, created by Jonathan Murray. A blogger by the name of Bea Blessing states that, “The Bad Girls’ Club is definitely an American reality television line that parodies womanhood and follows the lives regarding seven ladies with several personalities, behavior and subconscious problems, as they live collectively in a house while in three months.” This show undermines females on many different levels, and it is indeed a show that thrives on negativity. These seven ladies live together for three months, have no job, and display immoral behavior. In fact, during a 30-minute episode, you can expect to find grown women constantly fighting, using provocative language, drinking and partying excessively, and even transporting random men from the club to in and out of their home. This type of content is a major problem because adolescents feel the need to believe that this behavior is acceptable. As a result, children show an increase in violence and a chance that they will engage in sex prematurely. Children, as well as teenagers, are receptive to what they see on television; therefore, they are more likely to mimic that type of behavior.
...ers, Kim. Sexual Teens, Sexual Media: Investigating Media’s Influence on Adolescent Sexuality. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2002.
The media is known for displaying a large quantity of violence and sex on television, possibly desensitizing situations that should not be taken lightly in real life. Two previous studies show sexual attitudes portraying entertainment television tend to correlate to attitudes, beliefs, and actions of people in real life. According to a study, television suggests that sexual encounters take place between young, attractive individuals, overemphasizing heterosexuality, and ignoring the fact that major risks are included in such impulsive actions. In "dialogue, characterizations, storylines and themes, television presents adolescents with numerous verbal and visual examples of how dating, intimacy, relationships and sex are handled" (Ward 237). Therefore, television is to blame for promiscuity, especially at a young age. In a second study, people watching television with a lot of sexual content also made incorrect assumptions on frequency of sexual behaviors in real life. Research was analyzed that showed "a correlation between sexual content on television and sexual activity...other researchers, however, find no such relationship" (Taylor 130). However, both studies have many grey areas, and the topic needs further investigation.
Weigel, R. H., and Jessor, R. (1999). "Television and adolescent conventionality: An exploratory study." Public Opinion Quarterly, 3779-90.
The author of “Hollywood, Stop Exposing Our Kids to Violence” claims that filmmakers need to stop producing violent movies. The article argues that many children pick up bad habits from watching violent
The progression of youths into reckless beings coincides with the progression of adults, though media chooses to emphasize reckless teenagers over reckless middle-aged men. A trip to the movie theater to see the latest teen comedy infiltrates the moviegoer’s mind with the idea that teens behave horrifically, thus harming their reputations (Phan). In addition, vulnerable young minds view the films and feel the need to compensate for their hermited behavior and act similarly to the fictional characters. These actions all contribute to the effort to satisfy pop culture’s image of the ultimate teen, however unrealistic it may be (“Movies Portrayal of High School Misleading”). Finally, the film industry utilizes these exaggerations on purpose, not considering the psychological effects on teens and adults and instead as a means of generating more box office revenue. Since most people watch movies as a means of escaping reality, the alteration of the high school reality cultivates greater interest in the film, all at the price of adults’ opinion of teenagers
Lloyd Duhaime, Barrister, Solicitor, Attorney and Lawyer, defined Pornography as “sexual acts or sexual representations that are calculated to stimulate sexual feelings, independent of the presence of another loved one or chosen human being.” These sexual feelings and stimulations could result in some mental and emotional issues. Let’s start by looking at the mental issues that pornography leads to. As explained and proved in the ”Family North Carolina Magazine- Winter-2010” pornography viewing among teenagers creates a disorientation in their developmental phase, where they start learning about sexuality and gaining moral values. These teenagers get the wrong meaning of sexuality which have some negative effects on them in the future such as the fear of getting married or unfaithfulness to their partner. This study has also proved that pornography lower the level of self-esteem among adolescents. Also, according to Robert A. Baron, pornography has an effect on mental health among adult, and being highly exposed to pornography creates a ...
The beginning of this book puzzles the reader. It doesn't clearly state the setting and plot in the first chapter; it almost leaves the mood open to how the reader interprets it. In the romance story The Notebook, by Nicholas Sparks, the plot then shifts from a nursing home to a small town -- New Bern, North Carolina. It baffles the reader so much that it urges one to read on. The romance of Noah and Allie in this book is so deep and complex that it will bring a tear to the eye of any reader.
The film The Notebook offers not only a form of entertainment but also different psychology concepts throughout the film. The Notebook is told from the point of view of an elderly man reading to a woman around his own age. He reads the story of two young lovers that come from differing backgrounds but fall in love. The young girl, Allie, is from a well-off family from the city that is visiting Seabrook Island for the summer. While the young man, Noah, is a poor country boy and that must work to make a living. They quickly fall in love but Allie’s parents disapprove of Noah due to his economic status. Once Allie leaves Seabrook, Noah writes her everyday but her mother hides the letters. The young lovers wait for one
Peter, Jochen, and Patti Valkenburg. "Adolescents’ Exposure To A Sexualized Media Environment And Their Notions Of Women As Sex Objects." Sex Roles 56.5/6 (2007): 381-395. Academic Search Premier. Web. 20 Nov. 2013.Vaes, Jeroen, Paola Paladino, and Elisa Puvia.
Hefner, Veronica. "From Love at First ASight to Soul Mate: Romantic Ideals in Popular Films and Their Association With Young People's Beliefs About Relationships." Dissertation (2011): 1-241. Print.
Sexual activity in the mass media is another negative influence on teenagers. The first example is early sexual intercourse. According to Stockwell, a research shows that teenagers who are exposed to a lot of sexual content on television are more to likely to have sex by 16 years of age than those with limited exposure.
Young people especially the teenagers are sensitive and receptive to learning new things. The media provides more than they can handle. Access to different programs, shows, and movies affect the manner that the teenagers behave. Today, it is unfortunate to say that the media is becoming more sexual and violent than the older days, resulting in similar behaviors among the teens (Craig, & Baucum, 2001). By watching programs intended for the adults, teenagers are drifting even further. They start behaving like adults without the prerequisites of becoming one. This means that they have contents that do not match with their ages. And then terrible things begin – increased college dropouts, teenage pregnancies, and increased cases of suicides. Some teenagers who had bright future ahead of them will
Sexually active youths tend to be more exposure to media than any other members of society. The reason behind that is because they are in charge of their own time without much interference from their parents and burdensome responsibilities. This, combined with the fact that both implicit and explicit sexual content and crime in the mass media has grown over time predisposes youths to premarital sex (Rosengren, 2000).