“Sometimes the image of men and women shown in the media
subtly and incorrectly influences our perception of sexuality. Seldom does the
media present a balanced, mature, loving marital relationship. Men are often
presented as strong, dashing heroes with little commitment and only one
desire—sex. Women are portrayed as hopelessly romantic, pragmatically
businesslike, or silly, who in any case have one function—that of satisfying
man’s one desire. Both of these narrow views deny the individuality of men and
women. They ignore the fact that both are children of God, each with his or her
own hopes, desires, talents, and emotions. When a husband and wife forget this
truth and see the other as an object, sexuality can do little or nothing to promote
intimacy.”
–Brent A. Barlow, September 1986 Ensign, They Twain Shall Be One: Thoughts on
Intimacy in Marriage
Embarrassingly, I had never really picked up on this truth,
until very recently. It is amazing at how many disturbing and prevalent truths
you pick up on when that media portrayal is seen or heard by your daughter!
Television shows that I would watch and would have before considered “basically
appropriate,” become much less “appropriate” when my nine-year-old daughter is
watching it with me! But why? Why have I always deemed it ok for my own soul,
but like a light switch in her presence, it is suddenly barbaric?
When I think of my sweet little girl, I don’t ever want her
to even once consider her sexual purity as silly. I never want her to feel like
real and spiritual love is for hopeless romantics. I can not handle the thought
of her living a life of promiscuity, or of her believing that physical and sexual
relations are expected from her before marriage. I mean, this is my daughter
people!
Since I am so offended by this thought, I must have made
many precautions to avoid it, right? I taught her about modesty, about dating, and
about safe internet practices. We talked about love within marriage, and I make
sure she knows she can always come to me for questions and help. I thought I
was doing pretty good! But as I was reading today, I realized that I have
willingly been letting examples of infidelity, promiscuity, immodesty and inappropriate
language into my home. I have used my very own television remote to expose her
to the exact lifestyles that I never wanted her to consider leading. I did
that! Her own mother! And you know what? It wasn’t even through terribly bad
shows- it happens on children channels, too.
It makes me ill to think about. But what feels worse, is
knowing that I have exposed that same ugliness into my marriage. Netflix has
made it so easy for us to unwind at night with a show—all while we subject ourselves
to things that are offensive to the Lord and to the Spirit. We have done so
much in our marriage to protect ourselves and our home from Satan, but we
invite him in willingly with our media choices. My purity is of no less worth
than my daughter’s—so why hasn’t it offended me or my spirit before?
Going forward, things in our marriage, in our home and in
our parenting will need to change. If we want to have a home that invites the
Spirit, then we need to make sure we are allowing the Spirit to be happy here.
If my marriage is to represent everything that we say we believe in, then we
should be upholding every one of those values in the media choices we allow.
What is inappropriate for my child, will most definitely be inappropriate for
my marriage, and for myself!