All of those things spoke about our sex-driven culture. One of the most interesting things to me, though, was the Bachelor wedding. There's been magazine article after magazine article about Sean Lowe's faith and his commitment to abstain from sex until marriage. His beliefs make a statement. However, in some weird way, that statement turned mainline in the end. Our culture is not only obsessed with sex but has lost all total respect for it, in what appears to be, all instances. If you tuned in AT ALL to The Bachelor wedding a hour and half prior to the ceremony, you will know what I'm talking about. There was way less talk about the wedding and way more talk about the wedding night. ABC even {super awkwardly} had a live cam so viewers could see into the honeymoon suite. The rest of the programming contained lingerie shopping, a peek into Catherine's boudoir shoot for Sean and mention after mention about the wedding night. There were a few instances where viewers saw Catherine trying on dresses or picking out flowers; however, these moments were far overshadowed by all the wedding night talk. For two people who hadn't even had sex yet, there was A LOT of sex talk.
The one instance that really set me off though, was the very end scene; the one that played as the credits were rolling. The wedding was over and ABC cut out to the honeymoon suite (Sean and Catherine were not there yet). The lights were on and there was a sign on the door that said "honeymoon suite." Then, the lights turned low as ABC zoomed the camera out. Just when you thought it was over the camera stayed and kept a watchful eye on the honeymoon suite as the credits started to roll. Then the noises started -- some "bow-chicka-wow-wow" music, an owl hooting, a train going by. At first I thought, "Oh, whatever." But then the noises grew in number and got louder and louder as the camera kept an eye on the ever-glowing honeymoon suite. Ok, enough already. Twitter fans started catching on. These noises had a purpose, they were sending a pretty overt message. What a distasteful way to end the show! How ABC ended up taking a lack of sex and focusing completely on sex is pretty beyond me. Marriage is about sex; but it's also about 100 other things.
It's not a secret that our world has lost respect for sex. What's beginning to worry me though is that we seem to be nurturing a really raunchy disrespect towards sex. I'm just going to say it, I was not okay with the way ABC/Sean/Catherine and whoever else allowed the show to carry on. I'm not on board with all lingerie shopping, the sneak peek into the boudoir shoot scene and the excessive wedding night talk. Don't get me wrong, all of those things are great within the right contexts. I'm a married woman, for heaven's sake! I think lingerie, boudoir shoots and sex are all plenty fun. But publicized on ABC? This, my fellow blog readers, was the absolute wrong context. Catherine claimed that she wanted her wedding to be "Grown sexy," whatever that means. But, honestly, I feel like all ABC did was portray their impending sex life as one big party. I think all of this goes to show that those of us who believe in saving sex for marriage still have a responsibility, when given the chance and opportunity, to be modest because sex really is something that's sacred and it's not just some party that we desperately can't wait to participate in someday.
*I should note that the wedding ceremony itself was really, really beautiful. Sean's dad did an excellent job at explaining the purpose of marriage. I am really happy for Sean and Catherine. But this is a blog post about sex and popular culture, nonetheless.
I missed the bachelor wedding on ABC so I'm just going off your description with this response (I don't really watch the show lol).
ReplyDeleteI noticed you used the phrase sex driven culture. That particular phrase got me thinking enough for me to leave a comment. I tend to believe that we, as individuals, are sex driven. I don't know if it is so much "the culture" as it is just being human. People have been interested (obsessed?) long before recent American culture.
Anyway, those were just some thoughts i had. Hope everything is well with you!
I agree. As humans we have always been interested in sex. The only difference now is that media has made it possible for more and more people to express their sexuality openly.
DeleteI too, did not watch the Bachelor (i find the idea of pimping yourself out slightly repugnant). But in light of all the emphasis on "sex talk", I don't think TALKING about it is the problem. In fact, talking about it reveals how people perceive sex, and so allows us to assess the effects of such individual ideas on the population as a whole. Stifling people's voices is not going to change their opinions. If sex is to be revered, the first step to achieving that is to establish a baseline of people's views on sex, and figure out how to proceed from there. (but that is assuming that everyone shares or desires to share the same ideals on sexuality.)