Pornographic Mainstream Media

Pornographic media and soft-core pornographic venues are becoming more and more prevalent in American popular culture and media. Nip/Tuck is a show accessible on FX, which is about two plastic surgeons and their interesting clients, along with their complicated private lives. While the sexuality that permeates this show is wrapped in a detailed and well rounded script, the sexual overtones of the entire show are nothing short of pornographic. In any one episode, there are scenes and themes which would not bass on the more conventional channels during typical viewing hours. The strong sexual imagery and themes, if stumbled upon by an unsuspecting viewer, would probably be at least shocking that the show is available on basic cable.

Music videos are also pushing the television boundaries in terms of the pervasive sexual imagery and sexual messages being portrayed through both the music and the visual aspects of the media. More and more often songs themselves, within the lyrics, are becoming more sexually geared. With more and more artists attempting to push this accessible sexual envelope, other artists are forced to push even further to maintain a competitive career. Simultaneously the imagery in the music videos for these songs is in competition with the lyrics and the music videos of other artists. The term “Sex Sells” is taken to heart by the directors and creators of these videos. While lyrics for songs like “Love in this Club” carry obvious sexual overtones, the music video makes an obvious attempt to keep up while still being marketable to its target, youth. Other music videos which are targeted towards older individuals have much more liberty to sell the sex in ways that are more obvious and less mainstream in terms of their appropriateness for forums outside of the internet. Songs like “Lollipop”, which is also on MTV’s top 10 music videos, carries such a strong sexual theme that the lyrics are modified to be acceptable, but it is obvious what is meant. Meanwhile the sexual imagery is still present throughout the entire video, where women are serving very standard roles of sexual servitude while the men in the video are apparently wealthy and in sexual and physical control at all times.

“A Shot at Love With Tila Tequila:2” is another show available on mainstream cable television which is thoroughly rife with sexual imagery which lives on the boundaries for cable television. Most of the contestants spend the majority of the show wearing scantily clad ensembles, men and women, and the star of the show, Tila, is rarely wearing anything but outfits which are sexual in nature. Most of the competitions carry sexual overtones. Documentaries like Tila Tequila’s show and the Real World frequently become acceptable forums for sexual imagery which in the past would have not been allowed because of their pornographic overtones.

While the Real World has, since its inception, been a forum for footage of people living as normal a life as possible while being surrounded by cameras, the result while the cast engages in sexual conduct is often an unforgiving glimpse in to sexuality in a fashion that is more vivid then seen before on typical television. In the last four to five years especially, in my opinion, the show has highlighted more and more sexuality in ways that are surprising. There are now often scenes where the act of sex is shown, although it be covered or blurred to make it more acceptable for basic cable viewing.