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VIRTUE ETHICS, SEX, AND REALITY TV: IF ARISTOTLE HAD WATCHED SNOOKI

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 September 2016

Bertha Alvarez Manninen
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Abstract

Television, like other forms of art and media, functions as a moral educator. In his Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle places great emphasis on the role of the moral tutor for guiding children in their moral development, and in his Politics and Poetics, he (as did his mentor Plato) argued that the arts importantly functioned as moral tutors. In this paper, I will present an Aristotelian analysis of the effects exposure to highly sexualized media (with an emphasis on television) can have on the character of children and adolescents, who are in vitally formative years when it comes to their sexuality. Particularly, I am concerned that our youth is being habituated into a kind of sexual ethic that is based on treating their sexual partners as mere means and objects to sexual pleasure, rather than as intrinsically valuable persons with whom one can uniquely share sexual experiences.

Type
Research Article
Information
Think , Volume 15 , Issue 44 , Autumn 2016 , pp. 47 - 68
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Philosophy 2016 

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References

Notes

1 Strasburger, Victor C.. ‘Adolescent Sexuality and the Media’, Pediatric Clinics of North America, 36:3 (1989), 747–773 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed, page 754.

2 Strasburger, Victor C. and Donnerstein, Edward. ‘Children, Adolescents, and the Media: Issues and Solutions’, Pediatrics 103 (1999), 129–139 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

3 See, for example: Brown, Jane and Newcomer, Susan. ‘Television Viewing and Adolescent's Sexual Behavior’, Journal of Homosexuality 21 (1991), 99–91CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 Aristotle. Nicomachean Ethics. Terence Irwin (trans.). Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 1107a.

5 Ibid., 1098a5

6 Ibid., 1103a15–1103b.

7 Ibid., 1098b30–1099a6.

8 McDonough, Kevin. ‘The Importance of Examples for Moral Education: An Aristotelian Perspective’, Studies in Philosophy and Education 14 (1994), 77–103 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, page 87.

9 Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, 1103a20.

10 Steutal, Jan and Spiecker, Ben. ‘Cultivating Sentimental Dispositions Through Aristotelian Habituation’, Journal of Philosophy of Education 38:4 (2004), 532–549 Google Scholar, page 536.

11 Ibid., 2004, p. 545.

12 Plato. The Republic. In The Collected Dialogues of Plato. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 606b.

13 Ibid., 606c.

14 Ibid., 607b.

15 Ibid., 607b.

16 Ibid., 377c.

17 Aristotle. Poetics. In Aristotle: Selections. Terence Irwin and Gail Fine (trans.) Indianapolis: Hackett, 1452a.

18 Penwell, Derek. ‘Education in the Virtues: Tragic Emotions and the Artistic Imagination’, The Journal of Aesthetic Education 43:4 (2009), 9–31 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, page 21.

19 Ibid.

20 Steutal, Jan and Spiecker, Ben. ‘Cultivating Sentimental Dispositions Through Aristotelian Habituation’, Journal of Philosophy of Education 38:4 (2004), 533 Google Scholar.

21 Aristotle. Politics, 1340b10.

22 Aristotle, Politics, 1341a1.

23 Aristotle, Politics, 1342b10.

24 Aristotle, Politics, 1336a30.

25 McDonough, Kevin. ‘The Importance of Examples for Moral Education: An Aristotelian Perspective’, Studies in Philosophy and Education 14 (1994), 88 Google Scholar.

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27 For a video of the study, see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXbS4Uaaiww

28 See, for example: Anderson, Craig, Berkowitz, Leonard, et al. ‘The Influence of Media Violence on Youth’, Psychological Science in the Public Interest 4:3 (2003), 81–110 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

29 Denis, Lara. ‘Sex and the Virtuous Agent’, in Sex and Ethics: Essays on Sexuality, Virtue, and the Good Life. Halwani, Raja (ed.) (New York: Palgrave MacMillan Publishers, 2007), 37–47 Google Scholar, page 47.

30 Ibid., 46.

31 Ruddick, Sarah. ‘Better Sex’, in Analyzing Moral Issues. Boss, Judith (ed.) (New York: McGraw Hill, 1975), 371 Google Scholar.

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33 Todd Huffman. February 2008. ‘Sexuality in Modern Media: How if it Affecting Our Children’, Eugene Register Guard.

34 Villani, Susan. ‘Impact of Media on Children and Adolescents: A 10-Year Review of the Research’, Research Update Review (2000), 395 Google Scholar.

35 Ibid.

36 Escobar-Chaves, S. Liliana, Tortolero, Susan R., Markham, Christine M., Low, Barbara J., Eitel, Patricia, and Thickstun, Patricia. ‘Impact of the Media on Adolescent Sexual Attitudes and Behaviors’, Pediatrics 116 (2005), 303–324 Google ScholarPubMed.

37 Strasburger, Victor C. and Donnerstein, Edward. ‘Children, Adolescents, and the Media: Issues and Solutions’, Pediatrics 103 (1999), 131 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

38 Ibid.

39 Ibid.

40 Ibid.

41 Escobar-Chaves, S. Liliana, Tortolero, Susan R., Markham, Christine M., Low, Barbara J., Eitel, Patricia, and Thickstun, Patricia. ‘Impact of the Media on Adolescent Sexual Attitudes and Behaviors.’ Pediatrics 116 (2005), 304–5Google ScholarPubMed.

42 Ibid., 313.

43 Strasburger, Victor C. and Donnerstein, Edward. ‘Children, Adolescents, and the Media: Issues and Solutions’, Pediatrics 103 (1999), 755 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

44 Wyk, Robert van. ‘The Morality of Teenage Sex and its Implications for Sex Education’, in Sex, Love, and Friendship. McEvoy, Adrianne Leigh (ed.) (New York: Rodopi Publishers, 2011), 46 Google Scholar.

45 Villani, Susan. ‘Impact of Media on Children and Adolescents: A 10-Year Review of the Research’, Research Update Review (2000), 400 Google Scholar.

46 Jane Brown and Sarah Keller. ‘Can the Mass Media Be Healthy Sex Educators?’ (2000) http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/journals/3225500.html Accessed on August 13, 2012.

47 Strasburger, Victor C. and Donnerstein, Edward. ‘Children, Adolescents, and the Media: Issues and Solutions’, Pediatrics 103 (1999), 135 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

48 Jane Brown and Sarah Keller. ‘Can the Mass Media Be Healthy Sex Educators?’ (2000), 256.

49 Strasburger, Victor C. and Donnerstein, Edward. ‘Children, Adolescents, and the Media: Issues and Solutions’, Pediatrics 103 (1999), 133 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

50 Ibid., 134.

51 Ibid., 136.

52 Ibid., 136.

53 Ibid., 137.

54 Aristotle, Politics, 1336b20.