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Sex Roles, Vol. 50, Nos. 7/8, April 2004 ( C© 2004)
Sex and Punishment: An Examination of Sexual Consequences and the Sexual Double Standard in Teen Programming1
Jennifer Stevens Aubrey2, 3
A content analysis was conducted to examine sexual consequences on teen programming. The sample consisted of prime-time television dramas that featured characters between the ages of 12 and 22 years. Two major goals guided the study. First, the types of sexual conse- quences in teen programming were investigated. Results showed that emotional and social consequences far outnumbered physical consequences. Second, the portrayal of the sexual double standard was investigated. Negative consequences were more common in scenes in which female characters initiated sexual activities than in scenes in which male characters initiated sexual activities. Implications for future content analyses and media-effects research are discussed.
KEY WORDS: sex; adolescents; television; sexual stereotypes; content analysis.
Content analyses of sex on television have provided a great deal of information about the frequency and explicitness of sexual behavior and di- alogue (Fernandez-Collado, Greenberg, Korzenny, & Atkin, 1978; Franzblau, Sprafkin, & Rubinstein, 1977; Greenberg et al., 1993; Kunkel, Cope, & Biely, 1999; Kunkel, Cope, & Colvin, 1996; Kunkel, Cope-Farrar, Biely, Farinola, & Donnerstein, 2001; Sprafkin & Silverman, 1981; Truglio, 1998; Ward, 1995), yet one contextual element of the portrayal of sexuality has not been adequately conceptualized and analyzed: the portrayal of sexual consequences. A common theme from content analyses is that sex on television is vir- tually free of consequences (Kunkel et al., 1996, 1999, 2001; Sprafkin & Silverman, 1981; Truglio, 1998). For
1An earlier version of this article was presented at the 2001 meeting of Broadcast Education Association, Las Vegas, NV, and at the 2002 meeting of the International Communication Association, Seoul, Korea.
2Department of Communication Studies, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
3To whom correspondence should be addressed at 2020 Frieze Building,105 S. State St., Ann Arbor, Michigan 49109-1285; e-mail: [email protected].
example, Truglio (1998) found that a 1990 representa- tive sample of 109 network television programs con- tained only 16 references to any form of unwanted pregnancy or STD in the entire sample.
However, researchers have typically defined sex- ual consequences as physical and have downplayed the more ubiquitous emotional and social conse- quences of sex. In biennial content analyses of prime- time television shows, Kunkel et al. (1999, 2001, 2003) coded “risk or responsibility themes,” defined as sex- ual patience (waiting until a relationship matures and both people are equally ready to engage in sex), sex- ual precaution (pursuing efforts to prevent AIDS, STDs, and/or unwanted pregnancy), and depiction of risks and/or negative consequences of irrespon- sible sexual behavior, such as unwanted pregnancy and anxiety about contracting AIDS. Two of these three themes were hinged on the definition of conse- quences as physical, that is, STDs and unwanted preg- nancies. Kunkel et al. (2003) concluded that although risk/responsibility themes were relatively rare amid the large number of scenes with sexual talk or be- havior, they had increased modestly since the 1998 sample of television programming. The percentage
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of scenes with any sexual content that mentioned risk/responsibility was 4% in 1998 and 6% in 2002, and the percentage of episodes with risk/responsibility themes increased from 9% in 1998 to 15% in 2002.
Although researchers have defined the negative consequences of sexuality as physical, it appears that adolescents are just as concerned with the emo- tional and social consequences of sex. For example, adolescents are relatively unconcerned about the physical dangers of sex and more concerned about the maintenance of their sexual reputations, about uncertainty and confusion about their bodies, and about their emotional relationships with their sexual partners (Martin, 1996). Thus, a central goal of the present study was to broaden the definition of sexual consequences to include emotional and social consequences, which were expected to be more common than physical consequences.
Another goal of this study was to investigate the possibility that the portrayal of sexuality differs by gender. According to the sexual double standard, sexual activity among young men is tolerated and en- couraged, whereas for young women, sexuality is con- trolled, restricted, and subjected to censure if norms are violated (Jessor & Jessor, 1975; MacCorquodale, 1989; Muehlenhard, 1988). If television targeted at adolescents perpetuates this script, men’s sexuality will be seen as rewarded, and women’s sexuality will be seen as punished.
One way in which the sexual double standard could be manifested on television is through the por- trayal of male characters disproportionately initiating sexual activities. Kunkel et al. (2001) found that fe- male characters were more likely to initiate physical flirting, but male characters were more likely to initi- ate kissing/intimate touching and sexual intercourse. When types of behaviors were collapsed, however, male and female characters initiated approximately the same number of sexual behaviors. The hypo- thesis that male characters will be more likely to initiate sexual activities was tested again in this study.
No research to date has examined differences in whether women or men are more likely to be por- trayed as receiving sexual consequences. However, some research has shown that in general television portrayals of women’s sexuality differ from those of men’s sexuality. Ward (1995) found several themes that support the sexual double standard in a content analysis of the television programming most pop- ular among adolescents. One of the most frequent
messages in the programs was that men view women as sex objects and value them primarily for their physical appearance. Other messages characterized women as delimiters of sexual activities. Popular teen magazines also commonly present adolescent sexual- ity in accordance with the sexual double standard. In Seventeen and YM, women’s sexuality was associated with allure, passivity, and responsibility, whereas men’s sexuality was associated with aggression and urgency (Carpenter, 1998; Durham, 1998). In Sev- enteen, adolescent girls were portrayed as obsessed about boys, but they were warned to be passive in interacting with boys in sexual situations (Wray & Steele, 2002). According to Durham (1998), one of the most troubling aspects of these texts was the underlying message that discouraged women from ac- knowledging their sexuality; the texts focused instead on how to curb the insatiable sexual appetites of men. Certainly, structural and narrative features of maga- zines are qualitatively different from entertainment television. Nevertheless, the possibility that similar trends in support of the sexual double standard exist in entertainment television merits exploration. In keeping with the findings of the content analyses on television and magazines, female characters might be more likely than male characters to be portrayed as experiencing negative sexual consequences, and this might be the case especially when female characters are shown initiating the sexual activity. Likewise, male characters might be more likely than female characters to reap the positive outcomes of sexuality.
Exploring the sexual consequences of male and female characters is motivated by social cognitive theory (Bandura, 1994), which argues that individuals can learn how to perform behaviors from media models. The principle of vicarious reinforcement is especially useful in conceptualizing what audiences might learn from television. According to the theory, the functional value of the modeled act is com- municated to audiences through the rewarding or punishing of the action. For example, when a viewer observes a model engaging in an enjoyable sexual behavior and perceives that person as rewarded in some way, the viewer will be vicariously reinforced to model that behavior (Bandura, 1994). On the other hand, a viewer will be discouraged from modeling the behavior if he or she perceives the behavior as resulting in an unrewarding or a punishing outcome. The positive or negative consequences received by the model for performing the behavior serve as cues that indicate the perceived functional value of the act
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and thus guide the viewer about the appropriateness of performing the act. Thus, it is important to discern what types of messages regarding the functional value of sexuality are presented to young television viewers because these messages can have implications for adolescent viewers’ decisions to model sexual scripts on television.
In summary, two overall goals guided this content analysis. First, the definition of sexual consequences (both positive and negative) was expanded to include not only physical consequences but also social and emotional consequences. The hypothesis was that so- cial and emotional consequences would outnumber physical consequences. Second, gender differences in the spirit of the sexual double standard were in- vestigated. Specifically, the sexual double standard might be manifested in the following areas: (a) male characters initiate sex more than female characters, (b) female characters bear the brunt of the negative consequences of sex, (c) male characters reap the pos- itive consequence of sex more than female characters, and (d) negative consequences will be especially likely to occur when female characters initiate sex.
METHOD
Sample
To be included in the sample, the television pro- grams had to fit the following criteria: (a) each pro- gram had to be 1 h in length because programs in the 30-minute format are typically of a different genre (e.g., situation comedy, variety show) than the dra- mas investigated here; (b) the program had to be aired between 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. Eastern Standard Time; (c) the program had to be shown on one of the five broadcast networks (ABC, NBC, CBS, UPN, and WB); and (d) the program had to feature adolescent or college-aged characters. The actual ages of the char- acters had to be between 12 years, which was thought to be early adolescence and thus the beginning of the development of a sexual identity, and 22 years, which was thought to be the end of late adolescence. Around this age, sexual identities were thought to be relatively stable.4
4The author watched an episode of each of the programs that fit the first three selection criteria (1-h, prime-time, broadcast network) and determined whether any regular members of the cast were between the ages of 12 and 22 years. Because characters often do not explicitly discuss or acknowledge their ages in the episodes, the websites for the television programs were checked to make
Programs that feature young characters were chosen for three reasons. First, programming that con- tains young, attractive characters with whom young viewers are likely to identify will be powerful in in- fluencing viewers’ attitudes toward and perceptions of sexuality (Bandura, 1994; Huston, Wartella, & Donnerstein, 1998). Second, networks such as the WB and UPN explicitly target young viewers with programs that feature mostly adolescent casts, which makes these programs quite popular in the 12–34 age group (Collins, 1998; Freeman, 2000; Keough, 2000; Rathbum, 1999). Third, Kunkel et al. (1999, 2001, 2003) found that shows targeted at adolescents were more likely to portray sexual consequences than were programs that targeted other age groups. Likewise, dramas and soap operas portray sexuality as “high drama,” fraught with punishment and pain (Smith, 1991). Thus, to obtain the greatest variation in the types of sexual consequences coded, a sample that was likely to contain a relatively large number of sex- ual consequences was chosen.
Two waves of episodes were collected for this analysis for a total of 84 episodes (42 episodes per wave). In the Wave 1 sample, programs that appeared between April 16 and May 11, 2000 (4 weeks) were included. A matched sample was collected between October 16 and November 10, 2000 (4 weeks). Two waves of episodes were included to enhance the rep- resentativeness of the sample. For example, some programs that aired during the spring of 2000 (e.g., Beverly Hills, 90210 and Party of Five) did not air dur- ing the fall of 2000; likewise, some new programs pre- miered during the fall of 2000 (e.g., Gilmore Girls and Dark Angel). Thus, including both waves of episodes increased the diversity of programs in the sample. It should be noted that both waves of episodes included 2 weeks of sweeps episodes and 2 weeks of nonsweeps episodes. Originally, this was done to test for differ- ences in the portrayal and frequency of sexuality be- tween sweeps and nonsweeps time periods. However, because that was not the goal of the current analysis, those results are not reported here.
The sampling strategy was to include all episodes of a program that occurred during the selected sampling periods. When possible, four episodes per wave were included in the sample. However, because of a variety of circumstances, including scheduling changes, emergency newsbreaks, preemptions, and
sure that at least one character was between the ages of 12 and 22. After the programs were collected, the age of the characters in the sample was coded (Scott’s pi = .94).
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cancellations from the networks, some programs had fewer than four episodes and one program had more than four episodes.5
Consecutive episodes were sampled because it was important to follow storylines that continue between episodes. It was found that a sexual trans- gression in one episode had repercussions for several subsequent episodes; thus, analyzing consecutive episodes was more desirable than analyzing randomly selected episodes.
Coding System
Units of Analysis
The programs were coded on two levels: scenes and sexual references. The episodes were coded into scenes, which were defined as exchanges that occurred in a single location with one set of participants present without interruption by time, changes in participants or locations, or commercial breaks (Greenberg & Busselle, 1996). At this level, coders determined if the scene contained a sexual reference. If a scene contained a sexual reference, it was examined with a more detailed set of coding procedures about type and context. A sexual reference was defined as a depic- tion of dialogue or behavior that involved sexuality, sexual suggestiveness, sexual activities, or sexual re- lationships (Kunkel et al., 1999). This definition did not include references to love, romance, or romantic (nonsexual) relationships.
Sexual references could take the form of sexual dialogue or sexual behavior. Sexual dialogue referred to a conversational exchange between characters re- garding a sexual topic between characters. Sexual di- alogue could also constitute a sexual consequence, if the subject of the conversation was a positive or neg- ative outcome of sexuality. However, the sexual di- alogue did not have to contain a consequence. As a minimum requirement, the dialogue had to include
5In Wave 1, the following programs were included in the sample: 7th Heaven (three episodes), Angel (four episodes), Beverly Hills, 90210 (three episodes), Buffy the Vampire Slayer (four episodes), Charmed (six episodes), Dawson’s Creek (four episodes), D.C. (two episodes), Felicity (four episodes), Party of Five (four episodes), Popular (four episodes), and Roswell (four episodes). In Wave 2, the following programs were included in the sample: 7th Heaven (four episodes), Angel (three episodes), Boston Public (two episodes), Buffy the Vampire Slayer (four episodes), Charmed (four episodes), Dark Angel (two episodes), Dawson’s Creek (four episodes), Felicity (four episodes), Freakylinks (three episodes), Gilmore Girls (four episodes), Once and Again (two episodes), Popular (two episodes), and Roswell (four episodes).
a sexual topic. Each new sexual topic discussed in a scene was coded separately; thus, it was possible to have more than one sexual reference per scene. A be- havior was coded as sexual if it conveyed a sense of sexual intimacy. Thus, a peck on the cheek or a friendly hug was not coded as a sexual behavior. The gender of the initiator of the sexual dialogue or sexual behavior was coded for each sexual reference. The initiator was defined as the person who started the conversation with the sexual topic or the person who made the first move that resulted in a sexual behavior.
Negative Sexual Consequences
A negative consequence was conceptualized as an undesirable outcome related to sexuality. The sex- ual activity for which a person was punished could be dialogue, as would be the case of a character being ostracized for expressing sexual desire verbally, or it could be behavior, as would be the case of a charac- ter being ostracized for engaging in a sexual act. The gender of the recipient who bore the brunt of the con- sequence was coded (man only, woman only, or both man and woman).
Three types of negative consequences were coded: emotional/social, physical, and punitive. A list of possible nonphysical consequences was com- piled to code for emotional and social consequences. After pilot testing the coding scheme with three undergraduate coders, it was determined that the original list could be reduced to four consequences that coders could reliably code. Emotional and so- cial consequences were conceptualized to be simi- lar in that they were both nonphysical; thus, they were coded in a combined category. The main dif- ference between the two was that emotional conse- quences were experienced in isolation from others, and social consequences were typically exacerbated by others in one’s social group. Emotional conse- quences included disappointment (Carroll, Volk, & Hyde, 1985) and guilt/anxiety (Levinson, Jaccard, & Beamer, 1995; Tolman, 1999). Social consequences in- cluded humiliation (Tolman, 1994, 1999) and rejection (Tolman, 1994). Physical consequences included un- wanted pregnancy, contraction of an STD, and physi- cal abuse by a sexual partner. Punitive consequences occurred when characters were literally punished by others for engaging in a sexual act, such as the case when a teacher gave detention to a couple for “making out” in a school hallway. Punitive consequences could come from a parent, school official, or law enforce- ment official. In some scenes, there were undertones
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of more than one of these negative consequences; thus, the most obvious consequence was coded to avoid double coding a single interaction. For exam- ple, if a scene portrayed a character finding out he had contracted an STD and showed him expressing anxiety in the same scene, only the STD—the more manifest consequence—was coded.
Positive Sexual Consequences
A positive consequence was conceptualized as an instance in which a character reaped manifest benefit from sexuality. Positive consequences were conceptu- alized to be emotional/social and physical. Emotional/ social consequences included an increase in self- esteem or self-worth (Kunkel et al., 2001; Levinson et al., 1995), expression of closeness, intimacy, and/or affection (Levinson et al., 1995), and pride in the en- hancement of one’s reputation among others (Kunkel et al., 2001; Levinson et al., 1995). Positive physical consequences included a clear expression of physical satisfaction and intentional pregnancy.
Coding and Reliability
Three undergraduate coders underwent exten- sive training to learn how to implement the coding system. The coders practiced on several episodes be- fore coding the actual sample. The reliability results for these practice episodes were not included in the final reliability results. The purpose of the practice coding was to identify and resolve problems with the coding scheme. After the coding scheme was modi- fied on the basis of these practice rounds, the coding of the episodes was independent. Twenty-four percent of the sample (N = 20 episodes) was coded by at least two coders and subjected to reliability analyses.
The coders agreed on the unitizing of the episodes into scenes an average of 91.2% (the range was 77–100%) of the time.
Two scene-level variables were relevant to the hypotheses: agreement on whether the scene contained a sexual reference and agreement on whether the scene contained a sexual consequence. Reliability for both variables was satisfactory. Scott’s pi (Krippendorff, 1980) for sexual references was .84, and Scott’s pi for sexual consequences (positive or negative) was .78.
The remaining variables were coded on the reference-level of analysis. Reliability analyses for the reference-level variables showed that the average
Scott’s pi for these variables across the 20 episodes was .92; the range was from .82 to 1.0. The specific coef- ficients were adequate: type of negative consequence (.91), type of emotional/social negative consequence (.83), type of physical negative consequence (.97), type of punitive negative consequence (1.0), type of positive consequence (.92), type of emotional/social positive consequence (.92), type of physical positive consequence (1.0), gender of the initiator of the sex- ual reference (.95), and gender of the recipient of the consequence (.87).
RESULTS
Although not the primary goal of this project, notation of the frequency of sex in the sample provides perspective on how sexual the programs were. Of the 84 episodes coded, 90.5% (N = 76) contained at least one sexual reference. Sixteen percent (N = 676) of the scenes in the sample contained a sexual reference, and on average, there were 7.9 sexual references per hour of programming.
The strategy for hypothesis testing was twofold. Because the data were categorical, it was neces- sary to use nonparametric tests (Glass & Hopkins, 1996). Thus, the first step was to conduct chi-square goodness-of-fit tests to determine if the distribution among categories was not equal, as predicted by the hypotheses. Second, for hypotheses that called for pairwise comparisons among distributions with more than two categories, Marascuilo contrasts were used. Marascuilo contrasts allow for pairwise comparisons between categories that consist of proportion data (Glass & Hopkins, 1996).
Of the 220 negative consequences found in the sample, coders could decide on a primary type of consequence for 212. Of these cases, 75.0% (N = 159) were emotional/social, and only 17.5% (N = 37) were physical. Punitive consequences comprised 7.5% (N = 16) the negative consequences. Thus, as expected, physical consequences were far less com- mon than emotional and social consequences. For the chi-square test, the null hypothesis was that incidents of negative consequences in the sample were evenly distributed among the three categories: emotional/social, physical, and punitive. Because the chi-square statistic was significant, χ2(2, N = 212) = 168.7, p < .001, it can be concluded the categories of negative consequences were not evenly distributed. As expected, the pairwise comparison showed that the proportion of emotional/social consequences was significantly greater than the proportion of physical
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Table I. Distribution of Social, Emotional, Physical, and Punitive Sexual Consequences
N %
Emotional/social consequences Guilt/anxiety 42 26.4 Rejection 41 25.8 Humiliation 37 23.3 Disappointment 36 22.6 Other 3 1.9
Total 159 100 Physical consequences
Unwanted pregnancy 24 64.9 Other 7 18.9 Contraction of STD 4 10.8 Physical abuse 2 5.4
Total 37 100 Punitive consequences
Punishment by school officials 13 81.3 Punishment by law 2 12.5 Punishment by parents 1 6.3
Total 16 100
Note. Due to rounding error, the %s do not add to 100.
consequences, χ2(2, N = 196) = 58.1, p < .001, and the proportion of punitive consequences, χ2(2, N = 175) = 82.6, p < .001.
Table I presents the data for the types of emo- tional and social consequences contained in the sample. The emotional/social consequences were evenly distributed among humiliation, rejection, guilt/anxiety, and disappointment. Table I also shows the types of physical and punitive consequences. Of the few physical consequences, unwanted pregnan- cies were most common, and punishment by school officials or teachers was the most common type of punitive consequence.
A surprising finding was the dearth of positive consequences of sexuality. Of the 676 scenes with a sexual reference, only 4.1% (N = 28) contained a positive consequence. Of these 28 portrayals, 50.0% (N = 14) were social, 35.7% (N = 10) were physical, and 14.3% (N = 4) were emotional. Because of the
Table II. A Comparison of the Gender of the Character Who Received the Negative Consequence and the Gender of the Characters in the Scene
Women received Men received Men and women shared negative consequence negative consequence negative consequence Total
Women only in scene 82.6%a (N = 19) 4.3%b (N = 1) 13.0%b (N = 3) 100% (N = 23) Men only in scene 21.9%a (N = 7) 68.8%b (N = 22) 9.4%a (N = 3) 100% (N = 32) Men and women in scene 43.2%a (N = 67) 31.6%a (N = 49) 25.2%a (N = 39) 100% (N = 155) Total 44.3%a (N = 93) 34.3%a (N = 72) 21.4%a (N = 45) 100% (N = 210) Note. The chi-square goodness-of-fit statistic was significant, χ2(4, N = 210) = 32.65, p < .001. Pairwise comparisons were done using Marascuilo contrasts (Glass & Hopkins, 1996). Means in the same row that do not share subscripts differ at p < .05.
small number of positive consequences, it was not possible statistically to compare positive emotional and social consequences to positive physical conse- quences.
There was little difference between the initia- tion of sexual dialogue by female and male charac- ters; 51.3% (N = 231) of sexual dialogue was initiated by female character and 48.7% (N = 219) was initi- ated by male characters. On the other hand, 60.4% (N = 171) of the sexual behaviors were initiated by male characters, and 39.6% (N = 112) were initi- ated by female characters. The chi-square test demon- strated that the proportion of male initiators and that of female initiatiors were not equal, χ2(1, N = 283) = 12.3, p < .001. Thus, as predicted, male characters ini- tiated sexual behaviors significantly more often than female characters did.
If the programs conform to the sexual double standard, female characters would be more likely than male characters to receive the negative consequences. Of the 220 negative consequences, a primary recipi- ent of the negative consequence could be identified for 210. Female characters received 44.3% (N = 93) of the negative consequences, and male characters received 34.3% (N = 72). In the remaining 21.4% (N = 45) of the negative consequences, male and fe- male characters shared the consequences. Many of the programs in the sample (e.g., Felicity, Charmed, Buffy the Vampire Slayer) feature female main characters and arguably target a female audience. Thus, if women were disproportionately featured in the programs, it would make sense that female characters dispropor- tionately receive the negative consequences. To con- trol for this alternative explanation, a cross-tabulation was conducted in which the gender of characters in the scene was controlled. Table II shows the results. As would be expected, when only female characters were featured in the scene, they received the majority of the negative consequences, and when only male char- acters were in the scene, they received the majority
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of the negative consequences. However, most of the scenes that portrayed a negative consequence (73.8%, N = 155) featured both male and female characters. In these scenes, women were still more likely than men to receive negative consequences. The chi-square test showed that the distribution among categories was not equal. However, pairwise comparisons did not demonstrate a significant difference between female characters (43.2%, N = 67) and male characters re- ceiving the negative consequences (31.6%, N = 49). This is probably due to the small sample sizes within the cells.
The analogous prediction was that male char- acters would be more likely than female characters to be rewarded for sexual activities. Again, it was not possible to analyze this possibility statistically be- cause of the surprisingly low number of positive con- sequences coded in the sample. Of the 28 positive con- sequences, the pattern predicted by the sexual double standard was not supported: 39.3% (N = 11) ben- efited female characters only, whereas 25.0% (N = 7) benefited male characters only. In the remaining 35.8% (N = 10), male and female characters shared the positive consequences. Clearly, no firm conclu- sions about the trend in these data can be made be- cause of the small number of positive consequences identified.
Also related to the sexual double standard is the notion that morally good women do not initiate sexual activities. If the programs conform to the sexual dou- ble standard, a negative consequence will be more likely to be the result of a woman than a man ini- tiating sexual activities. To analyze this possibility, a scene-level analysis was conducted, in which the gen- der of the initiator of the sexual reference was cross- tabulated against whether or not the scene contained a negative consequence. Table III shows the results. The chi-square test showed that the distribution among categories was not equal, and, as expected, the pair- wise comparison showed that the scenes were signifi- cantly more likely to portray a negative consequence (for women or men) when female characters initiated
Table III. A Scene-Level Comparison of Gender of Initiator and Negative Consequences
Initiation by male character Initiation by female character Total
No negative consequence 70.0%a (N = 319) 30.0%b (N = 137) 100.0% (N = 456) Negative consequence 40.1%a (N = 90) 59.1%b (N = 130) 100.0% (N = 220) Total 60.5 %a (N = 409) 39.5%b (N = 267) 100% (N = 676) Note. The chi-square goodness of-fit-statistic was significant, χ2(1, N = 676) = 7.85, p < .05. Pairwise comparisons were done using Marascuilo contrasts (Glass & Hopkins, 1996). Means in the same row that do not share subscripts differ at p < .05.
a sexual reference than when male characters initiated a sexual reference.
DISCUSSION
A major goal of this study was to explore the posibility that, on television, sexual consequences are more than just physical. If only physical conse- quences had been coded, as has been the common practice in previous content analyses, then it would have been concluded that only 5.5% (N = 37) of the 676 scenes with a sexual reference contained a con- sequence. Indeed, this estimate would have been in range with the percentage of “risk and responsibility” themes (4–6%) found by Kunkel et al. (1999, 2003). In short, the data would have suggested that these programs were relatively free from consequences. However, with the definition of sexual consequences expanded to include emotional, social, and puni- tive consequences, 32.5% (N = 220) of scenes with a sexual reference contained a negative consequence. Thus, past content analyses that have used a narrow definition of negative consequences have underesti- mated the occurrence of negative consequences in the portrayal of sexuality on television. To say that tele- vision does not portray consequences because it does not portray unwanted pregnancies or STDs does not represent the whole picture of sexual consequences on television. This finding is particularly important because adolescents seem to express more concern about the possible emotional and social pitfalls of sex than they do about the physical pitfalls (Martin, 1996). Thus, future researchers should consider not just the manifest, physical consequences of sexuality, but also the more commonly experienced emotional and so- cial consequences associated with sexuality.
Another goal of the study was to determine if sex- uality was portrayed differently for male and female characters. Although the data demonstrated that the proportion of male characters, female characters, and male and female characters who received a negative
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consequence was not equal, a Marascuilo contrast failed to demonstrate a significant difference between male characters and female characters.
Although the difference between men and women receiving consequences was not statistically significant, young viewers might still learn that it is more appropriate for men than for women to make the sexual “first move.” Research shows that girls internalize the belief that “nice” girls and “good” women do not take the initiative in satisfying their sexual desires; they wait for men to make the first move, and, even then, they control and restrict how far the sexual behavior will advance (Tolman, 1994, 1999). The dramas supported this notion in two ways. First, a scene was more likely to end in a negative consequence (to either men or women) when women initiated sex than when men initiated sex. In other words, bad things happened when women took the sexual initiative. This pattern could act as a warn- ing that is relevant to both male and female view- ers. Female viewers learn that taking the sexual ini- tiative is dangerous to themselves and others, and male viewers learn that they are not immune to re- ceiving negative consequences when women take the sexual initiative. Second, male characters simply ini- tiated more sexual behaviors than did female charac- ters. Thus, the repetition of men initiating sex might normalize men’s sexuality as proactive and women’s sexuality as reactive.
Even though almost one-third of the scenes in the sample featured any message about consequences, it is still true that a majority of the scenes did not contain a negative consequence. Thus, it would be tempting to conclude that, on the whole, teen programming is tacitly encouraging of sex because there was no direct message discouraging sex in the majority of the scenes. However, it would be misleading to conclude that a relatively smaller number of consequences would not have an impact on young viewers. Sexual lessons, those references that include a consequence, could be the aspects of the programs most remembered by viewers and thus quite influential. According to social cognitive theory (Bandura, 1994), viewers will attend to and retain information that conveys the functional value of the behavior. Thus, one might predict that the sexual scripts on television that emphasize the functional value of certain sexual behaviors might be more likely to be internalized by the young viewers than depictions of sexuality that do not communicate functional value. For example, the portrayal of a kiss between a male and female character might not be noteworthy per se. However, if a character is in some
way punished or rewarded for that kiss, the viewers might be more likely to retain that information and incorporate it into their cognitive scripts.
It is also notable that it was not possible to ana- lyze positive sexual consequences statistically due to the small number of positive consequences coded in this sample. Why were there so few positive conse- quences and, relatively speaking, such a substantial number of negative consequences? There are sev- eral explanations to consider. First, positive conse- quences might be less obvious to coders than nega- tive consequences. For example, it was easier to code for STDs than to code for clear and visible pleasure that resulted from a sexual act. In fact, some positive consequences of sex, such as maintenance of a rela- tionship, might not be best coded on the scene level, but perhaps on an episode or season level of analysis. Second, teen programming might contain more nega- tive consequences and fewer positive consequences than general-audience television programming be- cause the programs rely on sexual consequences and conflict to build and advance plotlines. Third, from a cultural perspective, adolescents’ sexuality is gener- ally considered detrimental, inappropriate, and irre- sponsible (e.g., Tolman, 1994); thus, television produc- ers and writers might feel pressure from parents and media watch groups to show adolescents’ sexuality as painful, conflict-ridden, and full of consequences. Fourth, the portrayals might simply be true to life. In- deed, research shows that early sexual relationships are often accompanied by pain, regret, and insecu- rity (Martin, 1996), and engaging in early sexual inter- course is predictive of a variety of negative outcomes for adolescents, including, for example, lowered aca- demic achievement (e.g., Schvaneveldt, Miller, Berry, & Lee, 2001), antisocial behavior (e.g., Bingham & Crockett, 1996; Tubman, Windle, & Windle, 1996), and substance abuse (e.g., Tubman et al., 1996). In considering these explanations, it should be noted that the frequency of sexual consequences and the im- balance between positive and negative consequences found in this sample of teen programming cannot be generalized to general-audience television program- ming or to other genres of television.
Another limitation was related to the sampling of episodes. All episodes that were shown during two 4-week periods were included in the sample. A consequence of this sampling strategy was that pro- grams that showed four consecutive episodes dur- ing the sampling periods were given more weight than were programs that showed fewer than four episodes. For example, in both waves, four episodes of
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Dawson’s Creek were recorded. Thus, relatively more weight was given to Dawson’s Creek than to a pro- gram such as Dark Angel, which premiered during the second wave of data collection and only showed two episodes during that time, because of interruptions by the World Series baseball games. The uneven weight given to the programs would be problematic if the goal of this study was to estimate the number of sex- ual consequences found in the sample and generalize this estimate to all television programs. Indeed, if this were the goal, a more appropriate sampling strategy would have been to obtain a representative sample of all of the episodes in the season for each program. However, this was not considered an appropriate sam- pling strategy for this study. It was important to follow storylines that continued between episodes because sexual transgressions in one episode often had reper- cussions for several subsequent episodes.
Future studies on this topic could extend, and improve on, several aspects of this analysis. First, in future content analyses, perhaps with a more qualitative approach, researchers could more care- fully analyze themes of the entire episode and connect those themes across different episodes and perhaps different seasons. The current analysis was limited in its focus on the scene and reference level of analysis; thus, sexual consequences were examined on a rather contained level. Second, in future content analyses, researchers could delineate genre differences in the portrayal of sexual consequences. Certainly, sitcoms, music videos, soap operas, and talk shows are qual- itatively different from the entertainment television programs analyzed here.
It is hoped that this content analysis will lay the groundwork for research on television effects on sex- uality. For example, it is possible that exposure to television that supports the sexual double standard could increase young people’s endorsement of the sexual double standard in their own lives. If adoles- cent girls identify with sexually punished female char- acters, their own sense of sexual agency and sexual esteem could be reduced, and this, in turn, could dis- empower them from making healthy sexual decisions. Future media effects research might also investigate how young viewers perceive the portrayal of physical and emotional/social consequences on television. Do they find these portrayals to be sexually discouraging? Do they find one gender to be more at risk for negative consequences than the other? Ultimately, it is possible that exposure to these themes in entertainment tele- vision could contribute to the overall endorsement of gender stereotypes.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The author thanks Kristen Harrison and Kirstie Farrar for advice and comments on an earlier draft. The author also thanks Nathan Bertucci, Dana Linnane, and Melissa Pakula, who coded the sample.
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