http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2010/12/16/new-study-shows-images-sɛҳuąƖized-teen-girls-dominating-airwaves/

Prime Time TV 'Objectifies and Fetishizes' Underage Girls, Study Says
By Hollie McKay

Published December 16, 2010 | FoxNews.com

Long gone are the days when Marcia Brady’s sweet smile and Winnie Cooper’s brains and beauty were how television represented teen-age girls.

According to a new study conducted by the Parents Television Council (PTC), Hollywood is shockingly obsessed with sɛҳuąƖizing teen girls, to the point where underage female characters are shown participating in an even higher percentage of sɛҳuąƖ situations than their adult counterparts: 47 percent to 29 percent respectively.

PTC’s report, entitled “New Target: A Study of Teen Female sɛҳuąƖization on Primetime TV” is based on a content analysis drawn from the 25 most popular shows in the 12-17 demographic throughout the 2009-2010 television season.

“The results from this report show Tinseltown’s eagerness to not only objectify and fetishize young girls, but to sɛҳuąƖize them in such a way that real teens are led to believe their sole value comes from their sɛҳuąƖity," said PTC President Tim Winter. "This report is less about the shocking numbers that detail the sickness of early sɛҳuąƖization in our entertainment culture and more about the generation of young girls who are being told how society expects them to behave."

“Storylines on the most popular shows among teens are sending the message to our daughters that being sɛҳuąƖized isn’t just acceptable, it should be sought after,” Winter said. “It is outrageous that TV executives have made it their business to profit off of programs that depict teen girls blissfully being sɛҳuąƖized by casual partners.”

Examples used by the PTC to illustrate their findings, all taken from prime time broadcast television, included Taylor Momsen’s character in bed with Ed Westwick on “Gossip Girl,” Annalynne McCord taking a swig of alcohol while donning a bra and panties on “90210,” and a lesbian kiss between cheerleaders on “Glee.”

The data, based on factors ranging from the genre of the program to the gender of the initiator and the participant’s attitude toward the sɛҳuąƖizing incident, also revealed that 98 percent of the sɛҳuąƖ incidents involving underage female characters occurred outside of any form of committed relationship, and that 73 percent of the underage sɛҳuąƖized incidents were presented in a humorous manner or as a punch line to a joke.

Winter also claims that TV networks can’t be trusted as 75 percent of the time they leave off the “S” descriptor to warn audiences about sɛҳuąƖ content. However, Adam Temple, the Coalitions Director at the TV Watch Organization, a broad-based coalition that opposes government control of TV programming, said that examining the age appropriate rating is the most important factor to take into consideration.

“You have to look at the whole story. First and foremost shows are rated based on age, so before you even get to the point of those content descriptors (such as ‘S’ for sex, ‘L’ for language and ‘V’ for violence) parents have to decide what is appropriate,” Temple said. “As with other PTC studies, it is very subjective, so 'reader beware.’ It is important to remember that parents are the ultimate authority, and that this seemingly ‘scary’ study based on vague methodology is subjective.”

Nonetheless, the PTC and its supporters don’t simply just want networks to slap more warnings on programs – they’re calling on parents, actors, and advertisers to take action and demand that the trend to air content based on teen sɛҳuąƖization be reversed. However, Temple argued that end of the day it is up to parents to take control over what their children can and cannot view.

“Parents understand that all programming is not for all children and, according to polling conducted solely among parents, take seriously their efforts to ensure their children view what is appropriate based on their age, taste and values,” he said. “What is increasingly difficult to take seriously, is a patchwork of studies characterized by vagaries and omissions, apparently intended to raise money because the group has the word 'Parents' in its name."

But another expert not associated with these studies or organizations firmly believes that Hollywood is indeed sɛҳuąƖizing underage characters on its shows for profit.

“Certain shows, advertisers, etc. sɛҳuąƖize underage people, which does double damage: it sends a message to youth that their self-worth depends on their sɛҳuąƖity, and provokes inappropriate sɛҳuąƖ responses from adults.  This is irresponsible programming and is disrespectful to youth,” Los Angeles-based psychologist Dr. Nancy Irwin said. “This (PTC) study is not being blown out of proportion.”

TV in the old days was as corrosive as that now.  Any responsible parent would not let their children watch tv today, but tv was falsely regarded to be "okay" back then, which made it more dangerous.

Most Catholics gave up on trying to educate their children away from bad influences a long time go.  The coeducational high school is a place that is inimical to purity.  The influence of such a place is far worse than any tv shows, and it's been standard for 100 years now.

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04088b.htm

Leave it to Beaver and Father Knows Best was as corrosive as Sex in the City and Desperate Housewives?

Never said that.  

I'm thinking of the examples they brought up - The Brady Bunch and The Wonder Years.

The first one celebrates sterile adulterous marriage, the second one was certainly corrosive of morality.

There is a difference though, in that no one with religion has any illusions anymore that the shows you mentioned would be okay.  Leave it to Beaver was the cool inviting water the frog was put in first.  And the temperature was steadily turned up.

TV is a lot to blame, Twilight seems to be very popular among young trad women - but what is really to blame is the setting of Twilight, the coeducational high school, an institution that makes fornication a cultural norm for teenagers.

If these popular moralists were really interested in purity they would attack the bastion of immorality that is the coeducational school - but they are not really serious.  They want to raise money and complain professionally about immoral tv, without doing anything real to stop it.

Twilight is popular among Trad women!??  :surprised:

Neo-Trad women or real Trad women?

People tend not to be all one or the other, in general, don't you think?

That's why this new course the SSPX is on, moving away from militancy, spells the demise of its mission.

Actualy, in the series premeire of Brady Bunch-just prio to Mike and Carol's wedding, it was established that both were widowers/widowed.....so, they were free to marry each other and no adultery was there!!!

How the heck can Trad women justify reading Twilight? I've heard it is basically vampire porn literature.

I only really read the Agony Booth review-they can be funnythere, though the language is not that great and some reviewers there are using God's name often in vain......

basically, it is an appeal to sappy emotionalistic romance, with moppy vampires, a severely depressed girl and anguished werewolf indians......from what little I have seen/heard/read, it is rather depressing and unmanly all away around....

best get them books,etc on good Catholic topics, learn about OUR history,etc, no Ports, USA,etc....

The immorality was already there before the TV was even available. The radio's "Golden Age" was populated with incompetent men in comical roles, numerous fast romance and love-at-first-sight stories ,  criminals and mobsters in masculine roles, and heroes trying to put them behind bars flirting or making out with a new woman in almost every episode, and the perverted likes of Bob Hope, and the scene being set for the horror genre by Arche Obeler.  The material was simultaneously being displayed in the theater and broadcast on the radio, and was just DYING to get onto television.

I think that while shows like "Leave it to Beaver" and "The Brady Bunch" seem wholesome compared to T.V. today, the truth is, the storylines of teen crushes and dating were prevalent then ... and ultimately it has led to what we have today, rampant depiction of immodesty and immorality.  

We began watching old movies and t.v. shows a number of years ago (we dropped satellite t.v. 3.5 years ago completely)...and it's only been in the last year or so that I noticed that a lot of movies and t.v. from the 30's through 50's had increasing amounts of innuendo and inappropriate situations depicted.  You still have to be careful what you're picking and choosing.  Even right in the middle of following the Hayes Code (censorship), there are plenty of movies with women wearing what amounts to undergarments ... and cute little scenarios involving characters flirting around the subject of immorality.

The article mentions underage girls being victimized on t.v. That well be new as far as how blatant it is .. I never really watched "The Wonder Years," but I do recall some clips and I think that the whole show ran on the undercurrent of this pre- teen crush between the two main characters.  

But t.v. itself has been bad for years.  Remember "Three's Company" for example?  Awful stuff!  

Even the Andy Griffith show depicted both Andy and Barney carrying on long-term "dating" with two women from town with no indication of getting married .. why is that?  Frankly, I think it would have changed the storylines if both had wives' at home .. nonetheless, it is inappropriate for middle aged men to be "going around" with women, visiting at each other's homes, etc., unmarried.