Good and Bad News about Network TV

By Mary Beth Bonacci
Herald Columnist
(From the issue of 12/2/04)

Is network television getting better or worse? Apparently, from what I’m seeing, it’s a little of both.

The "worse" part is obvious. The latest example, of course, is the whole ABC/Monday Night Football/"Desperate Housewives" debacle, in which Nicolette Sheridan dropped her towel and jumped into the arms of Eagles wide receiver Terrell Owens.

But there’s good news about that incident. People didn’t like it. They complained — loudly. ABC overestimated the public’s interest in tawdry sex. They’ll tolerate it in certain contexts, but they don’t like to see it during football, when their kids are watching. ABC was forced to apologize. All in all, it was one more example of how the media "elite" are out of touch with the average American. Geraldo Rivera, for instance, believes that the outcry was based primarily on the fact that Owens is black and Sheridan is white. Personally, I wouldn’t care if they were both bright blue. I just want them to keep their clothes on.

But there is other — slightly good — news in the world of television. A new study has been released by Jennifer Aubrey of the University of Missouri. Aubrey watched 84 hours of prime-time network television shows with characters ages 12 to 22. She found that shows aimed primarily at teenagers are shifting their emphasis from physical consequences of sexual activity to the emotional consequences of engaging in sex.

Here are the numbers: during those 84 hours, there were 676 scenes containing sexual references. According to my math, that comes to an average of roughly 80 sexual references per show, or 1.3 references per minute. Good grief! Is there any time left to discuss anything else?

What happened in those 676 scenes? Well, only 5 percent dealt with physical consequences of teen sexual activity. It’s no wonder kids figure "it won’t happen to me." When it comes to pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, "It" apparently doesn’t happen to anybody they see on television, either. In fact, the study showed that 4 percent of scenes in these shows dealt with positive consequences of teen sexual activity. So apparently the odds of their experiencing negative physical consequences are roughly equivalent to the chances that they’ll benefit from their promiscuity.

Surprisingly, however, a full 32 percent dealt with the emotional ramifications of sexual activity. This struck me as pretty good news, especially given the fact that it wasn’t that long ago that I could find no discussion of emotional consequences anywhere in the vast wasteland that is network TV.

Granted, 32 percent is still a long way from 100 percent. When added to the 5 percent physical consequences discussion, we’re still left with 63 percent of references on these shows that fail to address any consequences whatsoever of teen sexual activity.

But we’re moving in the right direction.

I doubt that these discussions about emotional consequences are perfect, either. The study’s author listed "humiliation, guilt, anxiety and rejection" as the primary topics. All true, but none of these — superficially understood — goes to the core of what happens emotionally as a by-product of extramarital sex. Sex speaks a powerful language of self-donation, and causes a powerful bond to form. All of the humiliation, guilt, anxiety and rejection happen as a result of the misuse of that powerful language. Without that core understanding of the meaning of sex, it is easy to reach the conclusion of the author of the study — that these emotional consequences aren’t inherent to the misuse of sex, but are rather socially imposed. Aubrey writes that when adolescent girls identify with "sexually punished" characters, their own self-esteem could be "reduced, and this, in turn, could be disempowering for them when making healthy sexual decision."

Ah, yes, "disempowerment."

So television still has a long way to go. But at least we’re making some progress.

What does all of this mean for you? First of all, certain television shows could be used as teaching tools, if used in the right way. Notice I said "If used in the right way." That way is not to plunk children down in front of the tube and say "Here, learn from this." It means watching certain shows together — parents and teens — and using the situations depicted as a springboard for discussion. What would the consequences be if she decides to do this? They’re talking about guilt or rejection or humiliation. Why would that be happening?

Of course, parents need to know a few things about these shows in advance. The sexual discussion should not be explicit or disrespectful. And teens should never be exposed to anything even remotely sexually explicit in terms of images.

But, if all of these parameters are in place, I believe there might just be a place for certain television shows — even if they aren’t perfect — in the formation of the virtue of chastity.

After all, the networks spend a lot of time and money developing characters that teenagers can relate to. We might as well try to use it to do them some good.

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