The hyper-sexualisation of teenagers, starring Riverdale

Sexualisation in the media has only become more predominant as society progresses. With the constant theme of “sex sells” throughout advertisement; rappers making songs that degrade and objectify sexes; and having modern film, television and even video games sexualising characters, costuming and storylines; one must be curious and if not, alarmed, on the impact it may be provoking in society.

Riverdale is a modern Netflix series based off of the Archie comics that were founded in 1941. The show involves 5 protagonists who range between the ages of 16 to 18 years old. These characters all attend the same high school, Riverdale High, where they face common teenage drama and slight supernatural situations (Remmer, 2017). Sounds like your cliché teen drama, right? Well it is, except for the fact that the show includes somewhat pornographic scenes of characters who are definitely not 18 years old. For example, in one scene, a protagonist striptease’s down to her lingerie; in a bar in front of old bikers, her parents and some of her classmates. The costuming throughout the show is also concerning, as the amount of skin these characters are showing is not appropriate for the age they are representing.

The video above is the infamous striptease scene, make sure to watch; and remember how the character working the pole is supposed to be 16years old, to get a proper understanding of how inappropriate it truly is.

I am well aware of the fact that modern media has had an influx in cultural sexualisation; where society is less conservative as sexual imagery becomes mainstream. However, is the line not crossed when we push these ideologies and themes towards underage storylines and youthful audiences? I believe it can influence and set a form of precedent towards those who are consuming these tv shows. There is a greyscale towards the politics of sexualising teen shows and films. It is arguable that Riverdale has not only hyper-sexualised the female characters, it has also contributed to the hyper-masculinisation of males. This ideology of hyper-sexualisation of femininity in females and hyper-masculinisation of males comes from Dr Linda Papadopoulos, a profound UK psychologist who conducted a study on the sexualisation of young people. She explains that the sexualisation of culture is just exposing us to,

“stereotypes, sexism, sexual harassment; domestic violence; and categorised perceptions and behaviours towards the sexes” (Smith, C., & Attwood, F. 2011).

Thus, there should be a moral and ethical concern towards the teen tv series, as it is exposing these types of principles towards its consumers through characters who are representing the underage.

Media professionals should not be turning a blind eye towards the promiscuous nature of Riverdale. The sexual objectification and representation of the underage characters is not only being arguably paedophilic, as they are high schoolers, it is also harmful to the psychological welfare of the audience. Studies show that the premature exposer of sexualised media towards children has contributed to mental health issues in the youth. It can affect self-esteem, body image concerns and the development of maturity regarding relationships and sexuality (Newman, 2020). It is their responsibility to ensure that the media they are creating is not pushing harmful ideologies, inappropriate behaviours and outdated stereotypes.

Netflix has voiced its opinion on the topic before, as one of their Instagram posts received some backlash in the comments.

In the post, Netflix is praising the female actors who play the protagonist’s in Riverdale, thanking them for their support of young women and how each of them raises awareness. However, some of the audience disagreed with this statement. In one comment, a viewer pointed out the contradictions of their actions as they play characters in Riverdale who are over-sexualised, saying

“They use their platforms to speak on women’s issues but help in the sexualization of teen girls on their show constantly lmao ok”

Netflix quickly shutdown this comment, replying,

“I think they play three characters in charge of their sexuality, not three characters being used by or defined solely by their sexuality. Veronica is a badass businesswoman, Betty is a loyal friend and dedicated sleuth, Cheryl is a LGBTQ student body president icon. Young women shouldn’t feel shamed for being sexual humans, or for feeling confident or sexy in their bodies, and they certainly shouldn’t be reduced to just *that* when they have a multifaceted character expression.”

Now, I am all for confident women who are in charge of their sexuality. However, if these women are flaunting their sexuality under the legal age, shouldn’t there be some concern? A character who’s allegedly 16years old stripping in a bar to their lingerie seems a lot more inappropriate to me than empowering.

As a society, we have a responsibility to ensure that we are not subjecting our youth towards negative stereotypes and sexualised standards; as they have not developed the cognitive skills yet to separate the fictional storyline to real life. These shows that are prematurely introducing sexualised content towards teens are just exposing them to adulthood, where further issues can develop in regard to child pornography through sexting and possibly, in the drastic sense, teen pregnancy (Van, D. E., & Biltereyst, D., 2013).

Riverdale has not only successfully objectified women, the male characters are also sexualised through their costuming and storyline. One may consider the striptease to be much more of concern than shirtless boys, however neither are appropriate. Having toned, muscular actors playing teenager roles is simply just setting an image that is unachievable to meet for the average teen. This also then contributes to the mental health issues occurring in the young audience, as it is portraying unrealistic body standards for those who have barely hit puberty. Also, by Riverdale sexualising their characters, having them participate in adult activities, it is simply influencing its audience to do the same. We should not be allowing this form of sexualisation to occur in tv shows that are targeted towards adolescents. It is teaching them that sexualisation, objectification and stereotypes are okay; in regard to either sex.

The influence of these subsequent judgements towards either sex can cause uneducated opinions and outdated mindsets in the audience. It is important to understand why stereotypes and over-sexualisation of teens can be so damaging and impactful. It creates a parallel effect, where if someone views the same form of behaviour consistently over time, it will start occurring in that individual as they adapt the same behaviour (Murphy, S,1998). Thus, if you are exposed to counter-stereotypic behaviour, you are less likely to have a narrow mindset as it hasn’t been portrayed to you. Also, a healthy sexuality is crucial to an individual’s physical and psychological health and wellbeing. However, the exposer of hyper-sexualisation before the individual has developed the cognitive and emotive capability to understand what is occurring can be impactful in regard to internal beliefs on appearance, sexuality, identity and mindset (Enson, S.2017). These impacts involve the ones mentioned early, being mental health and inappropriate behaviours. Therefore, it is important to understand the seriousness involving the harm from stereotypes and sexualisation, as they can cause detrimental impacts on an individual which can affect society as a whole.

Riverdale’s sexualisation of its underage characters has been a controversial topic on social media for quite some time now. Members of the public have been sharing their opinions on the show’s behaviour from as early as 2017, as Twitter shows,

It a shared opinion that the sexualisation of these high school characters is inappropriate, and they are rightly so. Yes, the characters may be played by adult actors, however they are representing an age group much younger which means they should act accordingly. The last photo explains, it could possibly influence a minor’s behaviour.

As mentioned early, this is possible. Studies have shown that the exposure to such activities, regarding pornography and other explicit behaviour, can influence and inspire the individual to do the same (Davis, E.S, 2018). Dr Lauren Rosewarne explained that because of how common sexualisation in the media truly is, it does impact individual’s behaviours as it has slowly integrated into all forms of media. Whether this be songs, advertisement, books, movies, tv series and in Riverdale’s case, Netflix series (2020, chapter 3.3). We are consistently exposed to these forms of behaviour, and if they are being pushed onto those who are unaware of hyper-sexualisation and stereotypes, it will be quite damaging to the individual.

Some may argue that due to the comical inspiration on the tv series, the sexualisation shouldn’t matter as it is not uncommon for that genre. However, does this not question the individual’s ethical perspective? It is fair to say that two forms of ethics apply, being virtue and duty ethics. Virtue ethics is valued as someone’s moral principles (Virtue Ethics, 2014). They are often universal, as majority of people can comprehend what is right and what is wrong. The behaviour in Riverdale does not meet the moral standard of society, where underage sexualisation is wrong. Society is aware that underage sexualisation is wrong because of the fact that there are laws stopping adolescents to participate in these sexualised activities until they are 18 years of age. However, Riverdale performs these types of activities in characters who are representing the underage; which proves their lack of virtue ethics. This type of ethic is interconnected to duty ethics, where people have the duty to do the “good” thing, regardless of the consequence (Duty Ethics, 2014). It involves contemplating the action or choice and choosing the outcome which serves good on a larger scale. However, Riverdale is not acting for the greater good, as their content has proven to hold negative impacts on individuals rather than beneficial. They are pushing sexualised and stereotypical content to their audience. This then can have impacts on not only the individual, but society as a whole as it can create narrow mindsets and outdated opinions.

It is quite simple in how Netflix could respond to the issue at hand; by either making the storyline accurately represent the age they are portraying or progressing the story so that the characters are now in college, thus being the age appropriate for their current activities. By doing so, the consumers of this Netflix original series will be treated ethically as they are no longer faced with inappropriate, oversexualised content for the age bracket the series is representing. There will no longer be an agenda of stereotypes, sexualised teenagers, or the cause of mental health issues in the youth by portraying behaviours that should not occur in people under 18 years old. This will help manifest body positivity, respect and ethical behaviour in the audience and help inspire their cognitive response towards others.

Paul-Michel Foucault, a philosopher, explains how sexuality can be powerful and inspiring if used appropriately. He explains that sexuality is often misrepresented and can be repressive or constraining, like how Riverdale inappropriately portrays sexuality but claims the behaviour to be “empowering”. However, Foucault reiterates that if sexuality is properly understood; it can be powerful and subjective rather than roped into stereotypes (Armstrong, A., 2018). Thus, the altercations to the storyline if applied by Riverdale will follow Foucault’s philosopher on sexuality, as it will empower the characters and the consumers rather than constrain and stereotype. It will hopefully inspire the audience in their actions, decreasing the amount of stereotyping and sexualisation we see occurring in society.

Bibliography

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Davis, S. (2018). Objectification, Sexualization, and Misrepresentation: Social Media and the College Experience. Social Media + Society, 4(3). https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305118786727

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Newman, L. (2020). The impact on children of sexualisation in the media — Generation Next. https://www.generationnext.com.au/2010/04/the-impact-on-children-of-sexualisation-in-the-media/

Remmer, A. (2017). What is Riverdale? Everything you need to know about the new Netflix series. https://heatworld.com/entertainment/tv-movies/riverdale-everything-need-know/

Rosewarne, L. (2020). Chapter 3 — Effects of premature sexualisation on child development — Parliament of Australia. https://www.aph.gov.au/parliamentary_business/committees/senate/environment_and_communications/completed_inquiries/2008-10/sexualisationofchildren/report/c03

Smith, C., & Attwood, F. (2011). Lamenting Sexualization: Research, Rhetoric and the Story of Young People’s “Sexualization” in the UK Home Office Review. Sex Education: Sexuality, Society and Learning, 11(3), 327–337. http://search.proquest.com/docview/889927883/

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