I recently had the pleasure of doing a Q&A with Nayantara Dutta of JWT Intelligence, J. Walter Thompson’s futurism and innovation site about advertising, marketing, branding, and design. She asked some great questions about how attitudes on sex are changing, and what that means for media coverage of the subject. Some excerpts below:
What’s changing in cultural conversations about sex that might make consumers more responsive to this type of site?
Despite living in a sex-negative culture, there are segments of the population that are changing their views. Younger generations are increasingly proponents of same-sex marriage and gay and transgender rights; people are challenging traditional views of women’s sexuality and desire; and there are a growing number of entrepreneurs who are looking to both capitalize on this shift toward openness, and to speed it up. We aren’t quite there yet, but my hope is that soon we’ll have a perfect storm of demographic change, Internet-enabled education and market forces that will open consumers up.
How do you think that sex coverage will change in the future?
With any luck, we’ll see a normalizing of more objective ways to discuss sex. I hope to see more of a balance in terms of coverage of sex beyond trafficking and pedophilia, or celebrity gossip and fear-mongering. I would hope to see media outlets resist the temptation to fuel stigma when covering sexually-transmitted infections, or sexual behaviors that lie outside of what is traditionally accepted to be “normal.”
In entertainment media, I see a growing number of people standing up to public shaming, whether because of so-called “sluttiness” or for self-identified straight men enjoying anal play. I hope that, as those criticisms gain traction, coverage of those topics will become more objective.
Read more here.
IMAGE SOURCE: Bill Burris (modified)
