I think that most people would agree that important aspects of humanity are under attack, the entertainment industry is one of the weapons used by the attackers. The entertainment industry portrays women negatively it also makes out that casual sex is a very regular part of society, sometimes it is although it is not as regular as TV makes out (at least not in my experience.) TV shows like the shit How I met your mother, Friends, Modern Family and many others show a completely unrealistic and unhealthy portrayal of sex and relationships. One night stands and flings are regularly shown yet the potential consequences are usually completely overlooked.
Think about friends how many one night stands and short term boyfriends and girlfriends do they have between them? Yet how often do you see Joey looking at his penis telling Chandler “I think there is something wrong down here” or Phoebe, Monica or Rachel having to deal with a child conceived from a one night stand with a stranger or stressing about the fact they think they could have an STD? Many of these TV shows show very little in the way of actual sex but they still manage to show an incredibly liberal attitude towards it, if only they were so liberal minded in other aspects of life.
Obviously TV usually attempts to imitate the real world and real life and casual sex is sometimes a part of real life but is it as regular as portrayed on TV? Instead of TV imitating real life is the entertainment industry seem to be leading the way in this casual attitude towards sex, most of this shows have a young impressionable, audience. Instead of using this power they have to give a positive message they seem happy to pass negative messages and reckless attitudes to our youth. Why would they do they this? I believe it comes down to the fact that a critical thinking, intelligent society is harder to govern and control than a demoralized, desperate, unthinking society. The attitudes promoted on mainstream TV will usually lead to a lifetime of self oppression, disappointment and desperation, this self oppression, disappointment and desperation is hardly ever realistically portrayed by mainstream entertainment especially on these so called “family friendly shows.”
The entertainment industry also fails to realistically portray the fact that these women giving themselves away so cheaply are actually devaluing themselves in the eyes of many including them future-selves , lets be honest nobody wants a misses that has a list of lovers longer then an average weekly shopping receipt for a family of four. Men are encouraged to act like none thinking, drunken whores and on these TV shows women love them love it, it is portrayed as harmless fun and cool, independence is portrayed as lonely and using people to get over people that you love and care for is regular. This portrayal could one of the biggest contributors towards social problems like; the rise in broken families and single parents, the rise in teenage and unwanted pregnancies and the rise of STDs (a problem never mentioned in most TV shows.)
These TV shows undoubtedly normalize casual sex and many of the TV shows that are guilty of doing so are in fact aimed at lower age groups! I think you could easily make an argument for many of these shit, trashy and dumb TV sitcoms having worse morals to them than much of adult TV.
Alcohol is also usually portrayed as harmless fun and the trouble alcohol brings usually consists of an headache and a couple of jokes about feeling like shit, yet alcohol kills thousands of people every week and injures many more. These TV shows present our youth with the boring, one dimensional, lonely world of go to work, get drunk, get laid but they portray as fun, meaningful and the route to happiness. Guess what kids, most the time it’s not!
