VIEWPOINTS

February 16th, 2010 | Sex and TV

MTV’s Teen Mom has followed four of the original 16 & Pregnant girls during their first year as mothers, welcoming an eager audience into their lives to witness the challenges they face as young parents. We’ve seen sacrifices on the part of the girls--from earning a high school diploma to attending college to having a social life--as well as the impact that having a child has had on their relationships with friends and family. But those girls don’t get pregnant on their own; what about the dads?

January 28th, 2010 | Sex and TV

Everyone loves a Grey’s Anatomy/Private Practice crossover and this past week’s back to back episodes were chock full of drama and, just our luck, teen pregnancy. As Mark Sloan (Big Sloan) grapples with the notion of becoming a father and grandfather at the same time, his daughter, Sloan Riley (Little Sloan) questions her ability to become a mother when she is still a child herself. When a medical condition further complicates the situation, Big Sloan asks Little Sloan to stay with him (and Lexie) after the baby is born and they will all take care of him together. Three generations of Sloans living together as one, big McSteamy family. How quaint!

December 11th, 2009 | Sex and TV

MTV’s new show Teen Mom premiered last week and introduced us to the difficulties involved with actually raising a child after pregnancy and delivery. Farrah wants to date, Maci and Ryan are attempting to get along and plan a wedding, Amber is trying to find balance in her life with baby Leah and boyfriend Gary, and Catelynn and Tyler are working to get back to normal after their adoption experience.

December 11th, 2009 | Stefanie Says

This week Stefanie’s Crazy Stories will be brought to you by the fabulous Lauren Mann. Why, might you ask? Because this is her crazy story and I don’t think I would do it justice. Have no fear, I will be back next week with hijinx, shenanigans, and antics of all shapes and sizes.

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One of the incentives I used to persuade my mother to let me move into an off-campus apartment this year was the fact that many med school students call my building home. I reasoned with her that her dream of having me marry a nice Jewish doctor could be more attainable if I surrounded myself with doctors-in-training. While there were other reasons it made sense for me to get an apartment, I’m pretty certain that was the factor that tipped the scales.

October 26th, 2009 | Sex and TV

The last time we paused to ponder the portrayal of sex on television, images of instant orgasms and hairless bodies floated into our minds and we mercilessly criticized those scripted acts of love. I’m going to put it out there: I may have been too quick to judge.

October 14th, 2009 | Sex and TV

During this week’s episode of “Greek,” Casey and Ashleigh come up with a sneaky plan to uncover the things guys talk about when girls aren’t around. They’re shocked to hear the KT guys not discussing jock straps, but instead, mature topics, like the prevalence of sex on college campuses and how one in two pregnancies in the U.S. are unplanned.

October 5th, 2009 | Occasional Contributors

I assure you, this won’t be easy for either of us.

Last time I left you, I was waiting for that familiar vibrate of my phone to indicate that my social experiment was ready for the next phase. What happened next even I can’t sugarcoat with sarcasm.

September 1st, 2009 | Occasional Contributors

If you read Part I of this experiment, you may remember me saying goodnight to my subject as I made my way home alone. I stuck to my guns and managed to avoid all aspects of hook up culture that first night, venturing into the unknown abyss of dating. How quickly the cookie crumbles.

Flash forward two nights and I still had not received so much as a smoke signal from this guy. More upset about ruining my experiment than about being rejected, I decided to go out with the girls and see where the night would take me. I really do promise I set out with good intentions.

August 20th, 2009 | Sex and TV

Cue the seductive look. Passionate kiss. Clothes ripped from bodies. Heavy breathing. Sheets pulled over heads. Cut to an attractive couple, lying side by side, cheeks flushed, faces matte, hair coiffed. Just like real life, right?

Not so much. In the magical world of television, however, this is the standard protocol for a love scene, employed in almost every adult-oriented drama, sitcom and comedy on air. A show with romantic character development would seem incomplete, or maybe even implausible, without sex scenes. In actuality, the most implausible thing on TV is often the sex itself. In a society that is so greatly influenced by the media, what if everything we knew about sex came from television?

August 13th, 2009 | Occasional Contributors

I’m going to be honest. Growing up, I learned everything I know about sex, love and relationships from television. I think I entered the scene with 7th Heaven. Since Lucy started dating when she was 12, I figured I should start dating when I was 12. During my OC phase, seeing Marissa date Ryan, the bad boy, made me start peering over the proverbial train tracks, just to see what I was missing. Even now, my nights spent in Gossip Girl land make me yearn to date a guy like Dan - perfectly scruffy, perfectly witty and, most importantly, perfectly into dating.