Remote Control Sex-Ed
Walter Kirn: “The most powerful lesson about sex that TV teaches, of course, is that everyone's having more of it than you are -- and they're having it with more attractive partners than you can ever hope to meet.”
Kirn is generally positive about the prospect of sexual education on happening primarily on TV as compared to the classroom. The article talks about how mechanical sex is as taught in the classroom (a gripe I had about it: sure, it taught important stuff like how babies are made, but not the really important part which is how to get someone in the sack), but also about some of the implications for letting TV be the sole educator: there are “dozens of other lessons, many of them not so helpful, that teenagers absorb from watching shows like ''Friends.'' For example: the ideal weight for full-grown women is between 95 and 98 pounds. Or this one: the best route to true romantic fulfillment is to seduce your closest buddy's girlfriend.” Overall, though, Kirn sides with TV as an effective medium for burrowing into the crowded teenage brain, even if the message isn't as good as it could be.
