The way that society views and talks about sex is changing in popular media.
Junior secondary education major Frances McPeak explained that as she was growing up, sex was still not talked about openly.
“It’s not the same. Sex wasn’t this open kind of idea about how it’s just something that happens,” McPeak said. “Being in public school I learned about sex-ed and my mom talked to me about it, but it was more of a private thing.”
Looking into the demographics for “Fifty Shades of Grey” consumers, The Journal of Women’s Health reports that the series is primarily read by white women based off of research from Ohio State University.
“Our analysis showed that young women who read at least the first novel in the Fifty Shades series, but not all three novels, were at increased risk of having, at some point during their lifetime, a partner who shouted, yelled, or swore at them and who delivered unwanted calls/text messages—behaviors that are consistent with definitions of verbal/emotional abuse and stalking, respectively,” the journal said.
The Journal only reported on undergraduate students whose median age was 21, but that does not mean that young teens aren’t picking up the series.
“I definitely think teens are reading it,” McPeak said.
McPeak also explained how she’s learned that views on parenting have changed, enabling younger children to experience sexual content at younger ages than in the past.
“Fifty Shades of Grey,” published in 2011 by British author E.L. James, has been adapted for the big screen set to premiere in theaters on Feb. 14. The series as a whole has sold over 100 million copies and has been translated into 52 languages, reaching global audiences.
As the internet makes media more and more accessible to younger people, the idea of making sex a more talked-about topic for younger children is becoming more of a necessity. The violence in the relationship that the book portrays could be extremely damaging to easily influenced youth.
“The best that I can do is prepare them for what they’re gonna see, teach them how to be able to look at some kind of reading, some kind of literature, and say this is fantasy,” McPeak said in regards to her future students.
Education could definitely play a major role in ensuring the safety of young women as digital media spreads messages that could damage development, according to the journal.
“One possible strategy to assist adolescents and young adults in constructively engaging with popular media is through the development of critical media analysis skills,” the journal said.
Not everyone is into the hype that the series has created. Sophomore education major Allison Gardner has not read the series even though some of her friends have taken an interest in “Fifty Shades of Grey.”
“It didn’t appeal to me,” Gardner said. “I know people that read it and want to see the movie though.”
Some people do not even have an interest in checking out the movie to see what everyone has been talking about.
McPeak said she would only see the movie if “my friends dragged me by my feet into the movie theater.”
