Page 324 - Media Effects Advances in Theory and Research

12. EFFECTS OF SEX IN THE MEDIA 313

Attitudinal Effects

Sex and Values. Many concerns about sexually explicit media have to
do with communicating attitudes and values. Repeated exposure to
media with a more-or-less consistent set of messages may cultivate a
worldview that increasingly reflects the perspective of the media (Gerb-
ner et al., chap. 3). For example, watching numerous sitcoms and movies
showing teenagers being sexually active may cultivate acceptance of such
a position in the viewer and thus weaken family-taught values against
premarital sex. Increasing numbers of ads using themes of coercion and
sexual violence (e.g., a bikini-clad woman held in mock bondage by a
giant shock absorber) may desensitize readers to violence toward women.
A cartoon featuring a child molester may encourage readers to see that as
a humorous subject. Such effects are especially likely to happen if the TV
characters holding those values are respected characters with whom
viewers identify. Sexual promiscuity by a prostitute is less likely to influ-
ence the values of a viewer than comparable behavior by a respected sub-
urban mother.
One of the major social criticisms of pornography is that it is anti-
women in an ideological sense (e.g., Buchwald, Fletcher, & Roth, 1993;
Russell, 1998). It is usually women, not men, who are the playthings or
victims of the opposite sex. This concern is particularly leveled at violent
and nonviolent but dehumanizing pornography. For example, sex maga-
zines have shown a picture of a jackhammer in a woman’s vagina as the
opening photo to a story “How to Cure Frigidity” or a photo spread of a
gang rape turning into an orgy where the women appeared to be aroused
by the assault. One article in a sex magazine aimed at male teenagers was
entitled “Good Sex with Retarded Girls”; another sex video showed a
woman’s breast tied and squeezed for the entertainment of men who
were watching.

Scientific Evidence. A large body of research has shown effects on a
variety of sexual attitudes and values after exposure to nonviolent sexu-
ally explicit materials. After seeing slides and movies of beautiful female
nudes engaged in sexual activity, men in one study rated their own part-
ners as being less physically endowed, although they reported undimin-
ished sexual satisfaction (Weaver, Masland, & Zillmann, 1984). In another
study, men reported that they loved their own partners less after seeing
sexually explicit videos of highly attractive models (Kenrick, Gutierres, &
Goldberg, 1989). Men who saw a pornographic video responded more
sexually to a subsequent female interviewer than did men seeing a control
video, although this result only held for men holding traditional gender
schemas (McKenzie-Mohr & Zanna, 1990). It is as if the voluptuous model