Sex Sells
Uploaded by aname09 on Dec 05, 2000
As Americans we tend to have a conditioned view toward sexuality as a normal, healthy part of life. However, it seems that one may underestimate the power that sex has on culture, which is evident in the many areas. Most recently discussions on a sexual nature received extreme national prominence with the public events surrounding the Kenneth Starr investigation and report, which focuses on the sexual aspects of the relationship between President Bill Clinton and a former intern, Monica Lewinsky. The result was a war of beliefs, morals and differences of cultures mixed with political manipulations. With the increase of sexual presence in our society, it is often wondered how this increase has affected morals and values of those who live it. Sex is everywhere--not just limited to the bedroom, but to the television, movies, billboards, office buildings and almost every fragment of modern culture. Around the turn of the twentieth century, open discussion and study of sex was well on its way. Sexual/cultural pioneer, Sigmund Freud believed that sexuality was tightly woven in all persons, present from birth. His breakthrough thinking affected social practices and was instrumental in breaking the "moral fog that had enshrouded sexuality for most of the nineteenth century did not begin to lift until after the First World War" (Janus 1993). By analyzing modern culture, a person can accurately determine the effects of the sexual revolution and how it has led to the alterations or evolution of personal, moral and ethical principals.
Where do we get our morals and values? Character education was what took place in school and society in the past. This drilling of acceptable social conventions seemed to “contain” our culture for many years. In modern years society has shifted to the "decision-making approach" (Kilpatrick 1993). This approach takes many forms, sometimes as a course in itself, sometimes as a strategy in sex education classes, sometimes as a unit in civics or social sciences--it has set the tone for modern moral education in public and even private schools. "The shift from character education to the decision-making model was begun with the best of intentions. The new approach was meant to help students to think more independently and critically about values" (Kilpatrick 1993). Followers of this approach claimed that a young person would be more committed to self-discovered values than to ones that were simply handed down by adults. That was the hope, but...