Student Essay
Harri Istihari (1304554)
“Study on Media-2”
Argumentation
Writing for Academic purposes 1
1. Lecturers: Prof. Emi Emilia Ph. D
2. Sudarsono, M.I, M.A
Indonesia University of Education
May 26, 2015 Bandung
The movies released by some film productions have steadily got more graphic over the years, whether it is through scenes of violence, harassment, abusive, or sexuality. It is not astonishing that there is an arguable connection between how graphic a film is and how much attention it receives. Certainly, there is one genre which is notorious for combining all those graphic categories to grab as much attention as possible. It is horror movies.
If you are a partisan of horror, you may probably be in favour that the most eagerly awaited parts of these films, beside the mediocre acting and ridiculousness of the plots, are the scenes where the clothes start coming off. It seems when you were in your teens, Harry Potter was just hitting theaters, but now either way you have to admit: the sexier the movie, the better. All may agree that every aspect of a horror movie is quite beyond extreme. We mean the sex and the gore, things that are polar opposites, but paired together as a horror flick hallmarks. There is; however, the questions emerge dramatically about if those scenes allows for children. How come do we as supervisor of the children put them in such circumstances in which they are suffering from high as they watch sexual scenes? Who will be responsible for that? As long as there are two different sexes in a situation, sexuality exists everywhere, no matter in any environment either formal or informal setting and occurs to all level of society. It exists to make us aware of how we can be a protective guide for our children as the matter is knockout to deny.
Many studies have revealed that television programs often portray sexual themes that may inappropriate for children. Today’s television programming is replete with sexual innuendo, sexual contact, and sexual reference (Collins, Elliott, Berry, Kanouse & Hunter, 2004). Furthermore, the presence of Indonesian horror movies in many theaters can be easily accessed by kids under eighteen through many ways, for instance by youtube channel. So what is it about this particular genre that makes steamy scenes a guarantee? When asked whether or not sex was even necessary for horror films to be successful, Rami Ungar a writer, explains that sex is sometimes used to relax the audience after they have seen something scary. But how if the sexual scenes are displayed at the beginning of the movie as in Hantu Datang Bulan and Paku Kuntilanak movies which clearly portray the sexual intercourse scenes? As Ody Mulya Hidayat, a producer of Maxima pictures points out, most of the time sex is used by filmmakers to distract the audience when they know that their script is not strong enough. Amid the uproar of criticism from some parties, the criticism has done him good. Instead, he proudly plans to generate horror genre that contains sexual content within the film. As cited in tempo.co, he said:
“Kami memang jawara di genre ini, semakin banyak ditentang justru kian merangsang” (tempo.co/29/03/2010)
(We are indeed the best of this genre, the more people oppose us, the better we feel stimulated)
But it can be argued that the genre has gone a little overboard. In fact the amount of sex in these films has become so abundant that the adult industry has decided to further blur the line of explicit material by creating pornographic horror films. This skips the sham of hiding them as anything but porn while giving the audience the extended adult scenes that they enjoy from typical slasher flicks. Series of Suzana film for instance the episode of Malam Jumat Keliwon is a perfect example of a mash up between the adult industry and horror films. In terms of western film, a parody of A Nightmare on Elm Street, the movie has a full storyline about a man who was unjustly murdered by the townspeople. Like the real Freddy, he then haunts the people responsible in their dreams, though with a far more sexual vibe. And people seem to enjoy it. Wet Dream has positive reviews on Adam and Eve, earning 4/5 stars from the 10 users who have rated it.
Regarding the effect creating by the media, media portrayals of sexuality can affect young people’s socialized attitudes toward sex. In discussing potential effects of sexualized media, Stern (2009) states, “One concern is that sexual content posted by teens may prompt the perception among teen viewers that sex is normal, even glamorous, and risk-free” (Stern, 2009, 5). Here, there are several preventive steps to keep the children from the sexual content in the television that may become the consideration.
First is related to the guidance of parents. Parent should be able to regulate and direct their children in many kinds of sex shows in television especially the horror movies. They have to explain things that the children may not understand. Here is to do with sexual education. It can be upheld not only in the school by the biology teachers but also in the house. Regarding this, some scholars propose to state that media such as television is a form of sexual education that is utilized by parents instead of sitting down with their children to talk about sexuality (Schneider, 2010). This is also in line with the statement of Stern
“These media have become important sex educators as they include frequent discussion and portrayals of sexual behaviors that affect adolescents’ conceptions of sexual behavior” (Stern, 2009, 22). This is relevant considering the amount of time (6-7 hours) the average person spends watching television and engaging other forms of media.
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