SEX! It's everywhere! (our blog intro)

"Let's talk about sex baby, let's talk about you and me" - Salt N Pepper

"You shook me all night long, yeah, yeah, you...shook me all night long" - AC/DC

"Don't have sex, because you will get pregnant. And die. Don't have sex in the missionary position, don't have sex standing up, just don't do it, OK? Promise? OK, now everybody take some rubbers." - "Mean Girls"

Ummm....50 Shades of Gray, anyone?

Above are just some of the many examples of sex in music, movies, and books.  Let's be honest, we all love sex.  Sex sells.  That's why we are constantly surrounded by sex.  However, sex has evolved so much over the years.  From the original sex goddess, Marilyn Monroe who once said that "the body is meant to be shown, not all covered up", to sex goddesses Angelina Jolie and Jessica Alba.  Not to mention the men went from wearing crisp suits to low rise jeans and tight fitting t-shirts with at least one shirtless scene in any movie.  I think every women in the United States saw "Magic Mike" in 2012, witnessing much more than half naked men dancing as strippers.

However, sex is not the only thing that has changed over time.  The gender roles in movies, music, and books have changed over time.  Women are taking on more leading roles in movies for example in the new Disney movie "Brave", the princess saves herself unlike the many Disney princess movies I grew up watching such as "Cinderella" and "the Little Mermaid" where the prince saves the princess.  Women are not just playing the doting housewife, although their sexual appeal has not died down despite taking on new roles.

In Fiction, the changes are a little more subtle, but not a lot of people think books when they think sex.  For years, "romance" novels that were more sex than more romance have been published but reading these books wasn't something you advertised.  However, it seems more recently that more and more people are becoming comfortable talking about sex.  Below is a clip from the popular film, "Pitch Perfect", as an example about how comfortable our culture is with sex.

Not just sex, but also sexual orientation  we are slowly seeing more and more lesbian and gay representation in  music, film, and novels.  In Fox's TV hit, Glee, there is a popular gay couple and lesbian couple on the show.  While our culture is becoming more and more accepting, the more our popular culture can push the limits. 

Our blog writers are Aleshia Goins who is covering hip hop, Myisha Gresham will be discussing rock and roll, Shayla Weems is talking about film, and Elizabeth Harrison will be conversing popular fiction. We hope you enjoy reading our blog while learning something new.  We will do our best to cover all of the topics and issue presented to us by pop culture, gender and sexuality.

Until next time!