Sex in the Classroom and Porn Culture: A “Hot” Button Issue
May 1, 2011Devon Young
Critics branded Northwestern University with a giant scarlet A after its sex scandal in February. In case you missed the University’s infamous “toy story,” controversy ensued after a human sexuality professor allowed a couple to perform a live sex act in his classroom.
According to reports, the demonstration occurred after class. It was optional, not-for-credit and followed a lesson on kinky sex. Professor John Michael Bailey warned the class that the demonstration would get graphic and asked students to leave if they felt uncomfortable, said reports. Remaining students then watched as a man used a mechanized sex toy to bring his 25-year-old fiancee to climax on stage.
Reportedly, Bailey intended for the session to help dispel false information about female sexual pleasure, particularly the misconception that the female orgasm is a myth. However, many critics questioned the academic merits of the lesson.
“I was kind of shocked,” said Maria Des Jardines, a senior at Madison County High School.“Its actually really disgusting, and I don’t think it really served an academic purpose.”
Others, like fellow Madison County High School senior, Carly Mayne, endorsed Bailey’s decision. “I think it is a bit absurd how people are making such a big deal over something merely educational. Some students might have taken it as pornography, but I think it was for the good of the classroom. After all, the class is about sex.” Like many supporters of the demonstration, Mayne’s argument focused on the importance of educational freedom in the classroom.
“[Students] were warned beforehand and were always welcome to leave,” said Mayne. “I probably wouldn’t have stayed for the demonstration, but I would appreciate the opportunity.”
However, Kennesaw State University Associate Professor of Communication Katherine Kinnick believes the demonstration is part of a bigger issue.
“When respected mainstream media consistently feature sex-saturated content, there is a message of tacit endorsement or approval,” said Kinnick. “There is a belief among teens and the general public that surely if it was too risque, respected media channels wouldn’t allow it. Similarly, when you have a credentialed professor at a respected university inviting students to view a live sex act, there is a message sent that ‘this must be okay,’ or the university wouldn’t allow it. People don’t want to speak out for fear of being labeled “prudes” or of being accused of foisting their values on others, when in fact, a lowest-common denominator value is being foisted on them.”
While most would not consider the act that took place on Northwestern’s campus to be pornographic, many critics would argue that it represents what some experts have come to refer to as the “pornification” of American culture.
As Kinnick explained in an essay published in Pop-Porn: Pornography in American Culture, “The line between pop culture and porn culture is blurring.”
For instance, take Kendra Wilkinson. People like Kendra. Devotees of her show, Kendra, which aired for three seasons on E!, appreciate her down-to-Earth demeanor. Fans envy her voluptuous figure and her relationship with football-star husband, Hank Baskett. Housewives across the nation posted blogs sympathizing with her struggle to lose the baby fat from her first-born child, and 2.1 million viewers tuned in to her extravagant Los Angeles wedding, according to Broadcasting.com.
With such fandom, it may be easy to forget Wilkinson’s claim to fame in the first place: nude photographs, sex tapes, and a former relationship with Hugh Hefner.
Experts like Kinnick agree that ‘Generation XXX’ has come a long way since the days of hiding Playboys under the mattress.
The popularity of shows such as The Girls Next Door and Holly’s World, as well as Jenna Jameson’s memoir, How to Make Love Like a Pornstar, suggest many Americans are not only comfortable with pornography’s presence in mainstream culture, but are entertained by it.
Most porn scholars, including Kinnick, attribute much of the mainstreaming of pornography to the Internet. “The Internet has taken porn out of adult bookstores and video stores in seedy parts of town and made it accessible to anyone with a computer,” said Kinnick in an interview. “Accessing porn used to be something that people had to go to much more effort to do and had to be much for cautious about in order to avoid being seen by others purchasing porn. The internet has made access to porn literally just a click away and anonymous, and that encourages use.”
In fact, one in 10 websites features pornographic material, according to The Observer. A study published in the journal, Pediatrics, showed that approximately 40 percent of teens visit sexually websites either intentionally or because their “Googling” brings up sites they were not expecting.
So, what does this abundance of pornography mean for the “Digital Generation”? Few debates seem more polarized, yet relatively silent in public dialogue than that over the ethics and classification of pornography.
Some scholars view porn as a “normal part of growing up,” while others view it as harmful smut. Some view pornography as empowering to women while others, like Kinnick, view it as degrading.
“Porn objectifies women when it reduces them to body parts, detached from hearts, minds and souls. Porn culture tells [women] they must lead with their sexuality to get noticed,” said Kinnick.
However, Kinnick says women are not the only victims of pornography. “Porn may be harmful to men by giving them unrealistic expectations about what sex will be like, potentially harming their relationships with the women in their lives if they believe the women aren’t performing the way they want them to, based on expectations set up by the porn.”
Pornography was reported in 2005 to be a $20 billion a year industry in the United States alone. So, whether you consider porn to be art or obscenity, high culture or low, objectifying or empowering, porn scholars agree it is important to recognize the industry’s ubiquity and prevalence in the media in order to be (or not to be) informed consumers of pornography.
Teens hunt jobs in recovering economy
April 10, 2011
Martin Hogan, 19, a student food services worker at the University of Georgia, in his employee uniform.
By Nicholas Sobrilsky
aThEENs staff
Kaeli Jones knows about persistence. The 19-year-old said she started looking for retail jobs at age 16 but found no open positions for two years. She enrolled in a business class, in which she built a resume and practiced interview techniques. But her applications were rejected three times for her lack of work experience, and in one afternoon, she drove to three different businesses for interviews.
“You can get really frustrated,” she said.
With an unemployment rate in Georgia of more than 10 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and competition from adults laid off during the recession, teenagers in Athens face strong difficulties finding a job. Knowing how to approach the job search as a teenager will help teens gain the work experience they need for future jobs.
Roy Adams, 51, co-owner of the Adairsville, Ga. thrift store Heavenly Hand Me Downs, receives 10 to 12 job applications from teenagers each semester. He said that a teenager applicant’s knowledge is less important than their willingness to learn and put forth effort.
“You can usually tell if they’re lazy,” he said.
Adams expects his workers both to be dependable and responsible and to provide their own transportation. Teenagers who do not show genuine interest in the position will often not get work, he said, and they should not anticipate high salary jobs while still in high school.
“They’re not going to get rich on the first job,” he said.
Some Clarke Central High School students have not only found work but must work so many hours that they have trouble keeping up with their studies. Sam Hicks, department chair of counseling at Clarke Central High School, said teachers will often send those students to his office for advice on balancing school and work.
“There are a lot of kids here [at the school] who have to work 30, 40 hours to support their family,” he said.
Students who want to work but have a less dire need, Hicks said, should fill out applications to many businesses, form networks with peers and possible employers, and show persistence with possible workplaces.
Jones said teenagers should “find a place that will go along with your schedule.”
Clarke Central students who want more personal guidance through the job search, application and interview processes can visit the school’s career center. But even with school aid, Hicks said, persistence might not be enough.
“Since the economy went south three years ago, those jobs for kids aren’t there anymore,” he said.
As for Jones, one of her interviews finally paid off. In April 2010, she found employment with Smoothie King, a smoothie and health food retailer. She later joined a law firm in her hometown of Macon, Ga. – Anderson, Walker and Reichert, where she has been working as a filer and office runner since May of the same year.
“I never stopped looking,” she said.
Eating Disorders and the Average Teenager
April 9, 2011
Mallory Williams, Rebecca Jones and Katie Smith, all 13-year old students at Clarke Middle School in Athens, sit in the cafeteria with their daily lunches.
Smith pushes her almost finished sandwich aside. “I feel confident when I look in the mirror because I know that I was made the way I’m supposed to look,” she says.
Jones agrees with Smith saying, “ I don’t really feel any pressure from people. I like my weight the way it is.”
After the other girls distract themselves with their brown bag lunches and school books, Williams is left at the table. When asked if she would change something about her body she hesitates for a moment, looks up, and admits, “I am who I am, but maybe I might change my size a little.
In a culture that is saturated with the fascination of beauty and self-image, adolescents can often find themselves wondering how they fit into society’s predetermined ideals of body image.
A recent poll done on advertising in America reported that the public is bombarded with nearly 5, 000 advertisements daily, whether consciously or unconsciously. These advertisements often show thin models and promote body images that are often not typical of the average person.
Maggie Grady, a 19-year-old student at the University of Georgia, has felt the pressures of these kind of media ideals first hand. “Yeah I always see celebrities with perfect bodies and I think I want to look like them. I’ve considered skipping meals and I usually say I’m on a diet,” she admits.
Along with this media scrutiny, school, family, friends, sports, clubs, and other activities, teenagers are faced with certain expectations of body image, according to the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA). All of these factors can take a toll on the stress and pressures adolescents face in their daily lives.
NEDA also states that while the mainstream media does seem to play a large role in teen body perceptions, reasons for these disorders still vary from person to person. Teens may develop them as a reaction to the demands of adolescence or pressure to fit in and be accepted by their peers. When life gets stressful, some tend to use food as a way to feel like they’re gaining some form of control.
Connie Crawley, a health and diet expert at the University of Georgia, agrees with these reasonings. “Some people have control issues with their parents or a chaotic home environment and find that food and exercise are the only things they can control. Some people use food as a way to deal with stress and cope with the ambiguities of becoming an adult,” she says.
A recent study from the Archives of General Psychiatry surveyed more than 10, 000 adolescents ranging in age from 13 to 18. The results of the study turned out to be much higher than expected.
Nearly .3 percent of those surveyed were anorexic, .9 percent bulimic, and 1.3 percent had a binge-eating disorder of some kind.
The study also revealed that those surveyed with disorders were much more likely to have problems with alcohol and were more inclined to suffer from some form of social phobia. Researchers say the numbers of this survey may be even higher, as many teens are ashamed of their disorders and choose to remain silent about their condition.
“People with anorexia definitely isolate themselves from others and social situations so they are less tempted to eat,” Crawley explains. “All people with eating disorders feel a sense of failure and shame that can interfere with their social interactions.”
The health consequences of eating disorders can have both short term and long term mental and physical effects.
Some effects of anorexia can include a slowed pulse, muscle and hair loss, yellowing of skin, and thinning of bones. Bulimia holds consequences similar to anorexia, but this specific disorder can also cause severe intestinal problems and major throat issues.
Treatment for these disorders is often difficult to implement, but is a necessary means to provide healthy counsel to those affected. Exact treatments may vary from person to person and can often be a struggle.
Crawley recommends that family and friends show compassion and support for those they know who are affected. “It is a disease that just takes time for recovery. They need to understand that this is not an eating disorder. It is a stress and poor coping skills disorder that has the symptoms of disordered eating. It is treated by helping the person to learn new coping skills and methods for reducing stress.”
*Editor’s note: Some names in this article have been changed.
Pilates: A Balance of Mind and Body
April 9, 2011
In a serene, white-walled room, a group of focused students appear to defy gravity. They carefully move their bodies across a strange, wooden contraption. Their defined legs fly upward, over their heads, and back down with poise. Elastic bands are stretched to their furthest lengths, positioned from the heels of the students’ feet to the backs of the wooden equipment. A soft, non-distinct melody glides around the room.
A slim, young woman calls out instructions for the class in a comforting, soft voice. Amanda Martin, the teacher at Balance, a local Pilates and wellness studio here in Athens, instructs her classes with enthusiasm and positivity. After the students follow her lead, the soothing quiet resumes and a series of steady inhales and exhales float through the air of the classroom.
Pilates is a well-known fitness method that has been catching on for decades all across the country. Celebrities from Jennifer Aniston to Madonna to Gwyneth Paltrow all swear by it. It’s done in studios all around the world and today teenagers around in Athens are beginning to catch on to the Pilates trend as well.
When Maggie Swindle, a 19-year old student at the University of Georgia, tried the fitness method a year ago at a local health club she was instantly hooked. “I think it’s very effective and fun. It definitely helped my core and general muscle tone.” After going alone for a few months, Maggie also began encouraging some of her friends to try Pilates with her.
Mary Rabun, also a 19-year old student at UGA, was skeptical of the unconventional exercise at first, but agreed to accompany Maggie to a few classes. “I didn’t feel noticeably more toned at first, I mainly felt more limber. But the focus on breathing did make me feel more relaxed.”
Another 19-year old UGA student, Elizabeth Karam, agrees. Karam began doing Pilates her sophomore year of high school at her local gym. “I prefer it because it doesn’t feel like I’m doing a strenuous workout that I would typically dread. Instead it just makes me feel stronger and more relaxed after.”
Rabun and Swindle now tend to focus on a less intense approach that doesn’t involve the typical Pilates apparatus. They opt for mat-based exercises and classes that are just as easy to do at home. “It’s a really convenient way to keep up with your stretches at home” Rabun says.
Pilates was first developed by the German born physical trainer, Joseph Pilates. As a child growing up with health problems, Joseph was always interested in improving health and personal fitness. After drawing from a variety of Eastern fitness techniques and even Zen Bhuddism, he began to emphasis the importance of breathing during his sessions. When he moved to New York City, his method continued to attract followers.
Originally called “contrology”, the Pilates method was also used by many dancers to strengthen their core and increase their flexibility. Special resistance devices are used to ensure a full-body workout that stretches muscles and improves overall posture. Joseph Pilates described his method as “Complete coordination of body, mind, and spirit.”
At a her small studio on Tracy Street in Athens, classrooms of students are getting into shape without the suffering and sweat, thanks to Amanda Martin. Martin’s calm instruction and support ensures an atmosphere that promotes a healthier attitude towards life.
When asked how the method can attribute to this healthier lifestyle, Martin replies, “Awareness, breath, flow, concentration, control, efficiency, harmony – you can apply this to all aspects of your life. It’s not just a resolution but a way of moving that teaches you about your body – a learning process that lasts a lifetime.”
To this day, Pilates maintains the same strong group of advocates as it did in its founding days. Followers still use the same spring resistant exercise devices to tone and strengthen, but now the mat exercises have also become popular.
As with most exercise, Pilates increases energy and promotes balance. The focus on breathing further connects your mind and your body. Maggie and Mary both claim that Pilates has been beneficial in helping them achieve an overall healthier lifestyle, especially with the stresses of school. “It definitely increased my self-esteem and decreased my stress level”, Maggie says.
At the Balance studio, Martin stays true to Joseph Pilates promotion of body, mind and spirit. “Teaching Pilates goes beyond the exercises, it will give you the tools to make healthier choices outside the studio where the real transformation begins. It relaxes you, educates you, gives you energy, self-confidence and an awareness about your body that is immeasurable.”
aThEENs Frozen Yogurt
April 6, 2011By Keir Bridges
aThEENs staff
Thirteen-year-old Ivy Hitchcock’s favorite order at Yoforia: Original with pineapple, strawberries, blueberries, and kiwi. (Photo: Keir Bridges: kbrid88@uga.edu)
Major newspapers and food and health blogs nationwide have been noting the rise in frozen yogurt’s popularity as a dessert, often citing health benefits as opposed to other frozen desserts as the cause. The increase in national chains, such as Pinkberry, has been a subject of discussion as well.
With the opening of Yoforia and the continued popularity of Yoguri, frozen yogurt shops are also on the rise in Athens.
Local teenagers have different opinions on the reasons for frozen yogurt’s recent surge.
“The health aspect. People think it’s okay to indulge in that since it’s supposedly better for you than ice cream,” said Audrey Smith, a 15-year-old Cedar Shoals High School freshman, while browsing at the Athens-Clarke County Library.
Ivy Hitchcock, a 13-year-old who is homeschooled in Athens, had a different take. Shaking her head, she said, “Tastes good. I don’t think we [teenagers] really care if it’s healthy. The healthy part’s a bonus.”
“A little of both. I think that since it’s a relatively new phenomenon many people are still trying it out, and the ones who do try it often love it,” said University of Georgia freshman and Athens Academy graduate Rose Dasher, 18, an employee of Yoguri. “It’s sort of a novelty. People like to experience new things. Also, we do often get people who come in for the health benefits. It’s hard to find a treat like that that’s actually good for you.”
Smith and Hitchcock agreed that frozen yogurt is popular among teenagers.
“Definitely, yeah,” said Smith.
“Very,” said Hitchcock.
Dasher said the price can be a factor in the number of teenagers they see. “Since it can be pricey, I think it’s often a matter of who can afford it. So if there is a high school kid who gets money from their parents, then they’re going to be able to come in pretty often,” she said.
Price can also affect a teen’s decision about which yogurt shop to visit.
At Yoguri, a small, plain yogurt with the customer’s choice of two toppings costs $3.95, while at Yoforia, customers receive a tub they may fill with multiple flavors and toppings for 39 cents per ounce.
“I think Yoguri has better tasting yogurt,” Smith, who has frequented both shops, said, “but Yoforia is cheaper, and you get more, and there’s better variety of flavors.”
For Yoguri, its College Avenue location in downtown Athens could also affect its customers.
“It’s pretty popular with both [teenagers and college students], but in this town it’s often the college kids we see the most. There is also quite a large group of adults who come in on a regular basis, especially earlier in the day before the college kids get out of bed,” said Dasher.
As for the most popular type of yogurt ordered “It’s so hard to say,” said Dasher. “There are huge fans of all of the flavors. Original is probably ordered the most, but many people are dedicated to one flavor in particular. Taro [a root vegetable] has been one of our biggest hits. Many people have never tried anything taro-flavored before and are intrigued because it tastes so different from anything else. It offers a new experience.”
Hitchcock said she prefers the original topped with a variety of fruits such as kiwi, strawberries, pineapple, and blueberries.
“I really like their mango in either place,” said Smith.
Dasher said she enjoys working in the yogurt shop, because “It’s really fun to see all the different types of people. I love meeting new people and I get to do that a lot there. I especially love when our regular costumers come in. A lot of them are very nice and fun to talk to.”
