Sex and Violence in Popular Culture

Rachel Mugambi

Professor Chris Foster

Subject: Sex and Violence in Popular Culture

February 2014

Sex and Violence in Popular Culture

Popular culture is a natural product of the modern civilization. In the XX century popular culture became something external for people, something that one may learn, take for granted and even discard as soon as it is out of need. Popular culture gains fantastic revenue from the exploitation of such clear and dear notions as love, family, sex, career, crime and violence, adventure, horror, etc. Art, TV and The Internet became overused means of influencing people’s mind. Teenagers and pragmatically-minded youth are active consumers of such products. Sex and violence including rape, sexual abuse, forced abortion, forced prostitution and trafficking, self-directed and collective violence, child abuse and abuse of the elderly became the norm of the modern life. Instead of introducing positive changes and transformations, popular culture glorifies these disgraceful elements of our society.

Speaking about the negative forms of sex and violence in popular culture, it is necessary to admit that “coitus” and “sex” are not identical and sometimes even opposite. Violence and love are the central theme of the creative work of many prominent artists of the XX century. At the same time, sex and violence nowadays by TV, Internet and computer games from the means has turned into the goal. Sex has broken out the limits once set for it by the former Christian cultural traditions. Today, not without the help of Freud or Reich, sexual relations can be the explanation for everything that happens among males and females.

In different centuries, people were interested in capturing erotic impulses in literature and visual arts. The border between eroticism and pornography is subjective, and it reflects the changing standards of a particular society. Peculiar interests of pornography are emphasized on genitals...