This article could asses the ways teen films inform, it’s primarly teenage audience, about the social and emotional ways of dealing with sex. Given this is never addressed in the clinical and scientific approach schools take towards sexual education, its reasonable to assume that most people would understand the other elements of sexual education through alternative mediums. Teen films are a great example as they often focus around the sex quest for boys i.e. Superbad, the Inbetweeners movie, Sex Drive, American Pie etc. Its could be said these films often create a gender disparity in dealing with sex as there is barely any female representation aside from the, older and sexually intimidating character
This is an interesting topic as it would be worth looking at the impact also of the genre of the film on the presentation of sex in such films. For instance the role in comedy is often to amuse and this can be used to soften the awkwardness of such sexual encounters and exploration. However, some of this does also normalise and champion the pursuit of sex as a rite of passage, which can send a negative portrayal of sex. The presence of sex in horror films is perhaps one of the most disturbing as often there are undertones of rape, force and abuse, 'Cherry Falls' is a concerning one. Then the issue of teen romance films can both have a positive and negative portrayal of sexual relations, 'Girl Next Door' and '100 Girls' are two interesting and frank films that deal with unusual portrayals of the emotional connection related to sex. I think this could be an intriguing topic to discuss. – SaraiMW7 years ago
I would add that there could also be strong critique involved. The teen dramas also facilitate an idealization of sexual engagement and often promote problematic images of women. – Jonathan Judd7 years ago
YES! I'd be interested to know how newer films tackle this idea, too. – Emily Esten7 years ago