Page 328 - Media Effects Advances in Theory and Research

12. EFFECTS OF SEX IN THE MEDIA 317

What About the Context?

Responses to sexual materials are not entirely due to the nature of the
material itself. They also depend on a variety of intangible and hard-to-
study factors, which Eysenck and Nias (1978) collectively called the pre-
vailing tone. A documentary on rape or a tasteful drama on incest may be
considered perfectly acceptable and noncontroversial, whereas a comedy
with the same theme, even one far less sexually explicit, may be consid-
ered highly offensive or even pornographic. We react very differently to a
sexually explicit drawing by Picasso than we do to one in Hustler maga-
zine. Because Shakespeare, Chaucer, The Song of Solomon in the Bible, and
serious sex manuals are seen to have serious literary or didactic inten-
tions, the sex therein is considered more acceptable and even healthy.
The context and expectations that are brought to the experience can
greatly affect the experiencing of sex in the media. When watching an
erotic film with one’s parents, one’s children, by oneself, in a group of
close same-sex friends, or with one’s spouse or significant other, the reac-
tion to it may be very different because of who else is there. Taking a first
date to an unexpectedly explicit erotic movie may be a much less pleasant
experience than seeing the same move with a longtime companion. A
photo of a nude women being fed through a meat grinder might be unsur-
prising in Hustler magazine but shocking if suddenly encountered in
Newsweek. The stimulus may be the same, but the perceived experiential
reality of the act of seeing is considerably different.
One interesting issue of prevailing tone is how to respond to something
of clear artistic worth but written at a time when standards differed from
today. For example, should Rhett Butler’s forcing his attentions on Scar-
lett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind be seen as rape or as the noncontrover-
sial romantic moment that it appeared to be in 1939? In many old West-
erns of the 1940s and 1950s a man comes on sexually to a woman, she
initially refuses, and finally she falls breathlessly into his arms. Ralph
Kramden regularly threatened to punch his wife in the 1950s sitcom The
Honeymooners (although he never did so), and Ricky Ricardo occasionally
spanked his wife in I Love Lucy. Although such scenes were never sexually
explicit, their effect on the modern viewer from a different world is
unknown. Do these “safe” shows from an earlier “golden age” of televi-
sion trivialize or even condone rape or spousal battering, or does the
modern media scholar–critic need to “lighten up”?
The relation and integration of sex to the overall plot is another part of
the prevailing tone. A sex scene, even a mild and nonexplicit one, may
offend people if it appears to be added merely to spice up the story but
has no connection to it. Something far more explicit may be accepted
much better if it is seen as necessary and central to the plot. Sex scenes in