[BurleyBulletin] August 14, 2006: Volunteers needed tomorrow!

[Shelley Payne]

The Burley Bulletin
August 14, 2006

Inside This Issue

*        Volunteers Needed
*        Sexual Lyrics Prompt Teens to Have Sex
*        Mark Your Calendar...
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Volunteers Needed to Stuff First Day Packets
The PTO is looking for a few volunteers to help stuff the first day packets
starting tomorrow, Tuesday, August 15.  If you can help just stop by the
school and check in with Mrs. Bressan at the school office, she’ll get you
set up.  The school has 600 packets to create (they make extras just in case
new students register or packets get lost) and they need as much help as
they can get!!
Sexual Lyrics Prompt Teens to Have Sex
August 7, 2006
CHICAGO (AP) -- Teens whose iPods are full of music with raunchy, sexual
lyrics start having sex sooner than those who prefer other songs, a study
found.
Whether it's hip-hop, rap, pop or rock, much of popular music aimed at teens
contains sexual overtones. Its influence on their behavior appears to depend
on how the sex is portrayed, researchers found.
Songs depicting men as "sex-driven studs," women as sex objects and with
explicit references to sex acts are more likely to trigger early sexual
behavior than those where sexual references are more veiled and
relationships appear more committed, the study found.
Teens who said they listened to lots of music with degrading sexual messages
were almost twice as likely to start having intercourse or other sexual
activities within the following two years as were teens who listened to
little or no sexually degrading music.
Among heavy listeners, 51 percent started having sex within two years,
versus 29 percent of those who said they listened to little or no sexually
degrading music.
Exposure to lots of sexually degrading music "gives them a specific message
about sex," said lead author Steven Martino, a researcher for Rand Corp. in
Pittsburgh. Boys learn they should be relentless in pursuit of women and
girls learn to view themselves as sex objects, he said.
"We think that really lowers kids' inhibitions and makes them less
thoughtful" about sexual decisions and may influence them to make decisions
they regret, he said.
The study, based on telephone interviews with 1,461 participants aged 12 to
17, appears in the August issue of Pediatrics, being released Monday.
Most participants were virgins when they were first questioned in 2001.
Follow-up interviews were done in 2002 and 2004 to see if music choice had
influenced subsequent behavior.
Natasha Ramsey, a 17-year-old from New Brunswick, N.J., said she and other
teens sometimes listen to sexually explicit songs because they like the
beat.
"I won't really realize that the person is talking about having sex or
raping a girl," she said. Even so, the message "is being beaten into the
teens' heads," she said. "We don't even really realize how much."
"A lot of teens think that's the way they're supposed to be, they think
that's the cool thing to do. Because it's so common, it's accepted," said
Ramsey, a teen editor for Sexetc.org, a teen sexual health Web site produced
at Rutgers University.
"Teens will try to deny it, they'll say 'No, it's not the music,' but it IS
the music. That has one of the biggest impacts on our lives," Ramsey said.
The Recording Industry Association of America, which represents the U.S.
recording industry, declined to comment on the findings.
Benjamin Chavis, chief executive officer of the Hip-Hip Summit Action
Network, a coalition of hip-hop musicians and recording industry executives,
said explicit music lyrics are a cultural expression that reflect "social
and economic realities."
"We caution rushing to judgment that music more than any other factor is a
causative factor" for teens initiating sex, Chavis said.
Martino said the researchers tried to account for other factors that could
affect teens' sexual behavior, including parental permissiveness, and still
found explicit lyrics had a strong influence.
However, Yvonne K. Fulbright, a New York-based sex researcher and author,
said factors including peer pressure, self-esteem and home environment are
probably more influential than the research suggests.
"It's a little dangerous to just pinpoint one thing. You have to look at
everything that's going on in a young person's life," she said. "When
somebody has a healthy sense of themselves, they don't take these lyrics too
seriously."
David Walsh, a psychologist who heads the National Institute on Media and
the Family, said the results make sense, and echo research on the influence
of videos and other visual media.
The brain's impulse-control center undergoes "major construction" during the
teen years at the same time that an interest in sex starts to blossom, he
said.
Add sexually arousing lyrics and "it's not that surprising that a kid with a
heavier diet of that ... would be at greater risk for sexual behavior,"
Walsh said.
Martino said parents, educators and teens themselves need to think more
critically about messages in music lyrics.
Fulbright agreed.
"A healthy home atmosphere is one that allows a child to investigate what
pop culture has to offer and at the same time say 'I know this is a fun song
but you know that it's not right to treat women this way or this isn't a
good person to have as a role model,'" she said.
Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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Mark Your Calendar...
*         Wednesday, August 16, New Student Orientation, 7:00 P.M. (Tours
will be from 6:00 – 6:45 P.M.)
*         Monday, August 21, First Day of School
*         Wednesday, September 6, Back to School Night, 7:00 P.M.
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