I am a white male. As such, I tend to see people who look like me very often when I watch a movie or a TV show. This was especially the case in my teen years, when I sat through hours of raunchy comedies about men not unlike myself on a quest to have sex with attractive women.
As far as comedic material goes, that plotline may not exactly be original, but it definitely works; the pathetic lengths that guys will go to in order to achieve sexual satisfaction can provide for some pretty entertaining antics.
The problem is, when such men are made out to be the protagonists of the film, there is an implicit message embedded in the story: “These characters may be inept, they may be awkward, but at the end of the day, nothing they do is wrong.” If you’re an audience member, and you’re not careful, you may end up taking that message to heart.
Unfortunately, many of these movies feature characters crossing lines that should not be approached when you’re striving to lose your virginity. As long as you’re seeking consensual, healthy sex, there’s nothing wrong with trying to have as much as you can. But, despite what movies may tell us men, you should never do the following. . .
1. Spy On Women
It’s a classic scene, one that’s often been updated for our digital age by throwing technology such as smartphones and laptop cameras in the mix: Horny male teens find a way to spy on women in their bedroom, in the locker room, in any place where they might remove any item of clothing.
It’s usually depicted as a humorous moment, meant to illustrate just how much effort these poor saps will put into merely getting an opportunity to see the kind of skin they could easily get access to via a Google Image search. In truth, though, it’s an invasion of privacy, and when movies write it off as no big deal so frequently, some men might come to believe this behavior is reasonable.
2. Take Advantage Of Drunk Girls
If there’s one thing teen movies love more than frustrated men trying to lose their virginity, it’s parties. Parties are where friendships are rekindled, true love is confessed, and, most of all, people get very, very drunk.
As such, the protagonists of such films point out to each other that, if they really want to lose their collective virginity, the party is the place to be. Their reasoning: Girls who wouldn’t normally give them a second thought will be drunk, and in an impressionable state. Thus, sex.
But that’s…that’s pretty close to date rape. Giving someone an intoxicant so they’ll be less likely to say no? Yeah, hard to morally defend that idea.
In real life, if two consenting adults hook-up while they both happen to be drunk, that’s one thing. The way these movies operate, though, the goal isn’t to party and see what happens, it’s to specifically target drunk girls while remaining sober enough yourself to use that situation to your advantage.
In other words, the goal is terrible.
3. Assume You Deserve An Attractive Woman
While most adults end up understanding that the basis for a true, lasting relationship must be a shared emotional connection, in teen movies, the primary motive isn’t to find love, it’s to celebrate lust. The women the protagonists want to sleep with are not prized for their intellect, for their compassion, for anything at all related to their character: They are sex objects, there to look good.
It’s easy to see why this trend continues. The producers making these movies want to reel as many audience members in, and promising thirteen-year-old boys some nudity just about guarantees box office profits.
That said, most of these films end with the, ahem, “heroes” managing to achieve their goal, regardless of whether they are very good-looking themselves. Filmmakers are telling men that, when all is said and done, you’ll wind up with a good-looking woman. Those are the laws of the universe, apparently.
And we wonder why there are so many bitter single guys out there, angry that they can’t date a model.
4. Sex Is Everything
While we’re talking about these movies, we might as well address their basic premise. Sure, as mentioned, there’s a lot of comedy to be found in this type of story, but at the end of the day, telling the teen boys in the audience that sex truly is worth obsessing over can cause them to develop some unfortunate ideas about relationships.
Listen, when your hormones are driving you crazy, you already feel that sex is pretty significant. You don’t need a movie to tell you that it’s the only thing in the world. While some of these films are smart enough to have the men in them learn an important lesson – that true connection is far more important than a sexual experience – the vast majority of them fail to truly impress this point.
Our values evolve thanks to a variety of factors, but the art we consume surely plays a role. If movies are constantly telling boys that sex is the number one priority in a relationship, they may come to believe this.
As such, they’ll struggle to truly appreciate real romance when they find it. Like the guys they watched on screen, they’ll simply be focused on sleeping with the “hottest” girl they can find.
