Only a few more days, and it’s Super Bowl Sunday. Will you watch the game? How about the half-time show?

Although I like football, I rarely watch the biggest game of the year. The incredible amount of human trafficking behind the scenes is too disturbing. However, last year while staying in a beach cabin on Whidby Island to write The Windblown Girl, I turned on the halftime show.

Enticing Lust

That extravaganza bewildered me as does much of media. Powerful women, well-known role models, claim to want respect for all women. Yet Shakira and Jennifer Lopez objectified not only their own bodies, but also encouraged a multitude of young girls to exploit their sexuality. These girls included J-Lo’s 11-year-old daughter. Yet, I suppose that shouldn’t be surprising considering how movies, videos, and television have increasingly normalized lust without relationship.

In a dramatic scene from television’s “Chicago Fire’s season 5, blonde paramedic Sylvie Brett knocks at police detective Antonio’s door. Wearing a trench coat, she enters his apartment, then starts telling him she’s a good girl. Never even kissed until she was 17. When she mentions sex, he interrupts, thinking he understands: “Waiting until you get married?”

In response, Brett opens her trench coat to reveal sexy black lingerie enhancing her near-perfect body. “No chance in hell,” she said, inferring that even good girls use their bodies for instant gratification. Of course, Antonio takes advantage. No need to treat her to dinner; they have cheap sex.

Unrealistic Expectations

While interviewing young women from Duke University, Laura Sessions Stepp, author of Unhooked: How Young Women Pursue Sex, Delay Love and Lose at Both, asked for definitions of “hooking up.” Comments included: “A physical encounter of affection.” “Third base and beyond.” Immediate gratification.” and “Fast food.”

When Stepp dug deeper, the college students lamented:

“No relationship.” “Lack of communication.” “Increases cynicism.” “No emotional fulfillment.” “Doesn’t teach intimacy” and “Postpones marriage” p. 21.

Inquiring how many of those gals wanted to get married someday, Stepp said “Virtually all hands went up.” However, when the professor asked how they intended to go from hooking up to wedding vows, “not a hand went up,” p. 22. Such cheap sex is not the so-called satisfying romantic tryst often portrayed and encouraged by media.

Alarming Directives

Some of those Hollywood messages even cultivate extremely dangerous behaviors. On an episode of “All Rise,” court reporter Sarah Castillo met a guy in a bar and took him home to spend the night. The next day, she’s all smiles while mentioning their sexual encounter to her roommate. But once Sarah goes to work, she hears his last name and realizes that he’s Judge Brenner’s son. The man she entrusted with her body could just as easily have been a rapist or mass murderer. Anyone can pretend for a few hours while their true character remains hidden.

So, why do we encourage such Hollywood scripts? Perhaps it’s because our minds get caught up in stories that pander to our prurient interests. But sex was never intended to be used for entertainment. The Bible’s book of Romans, verses 1:18-25 describe the consequences of a culture that elevates and pursues the erotic.

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.

Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen [emphasis mine].

The romanticizing of cheap sex that degrades, objectifies, and victimizes women should spark moral outrage by all women as well as by the men who care about them. Our Creator intended sex to be an intimate experience shared by two people within the context of a lifelong commitment. And in that context, sex can culminate a relationship in ways that exceed all expectations. Anything less blinds the participant to one of God’s most remarkable gifts.

Resources:

Redeeming the Feminine Soul: God’s Surprising Vision for Womanhood by Julie Roys

Love Thy Body: Answering Hard Questions about Life and Sexuality by Nancy Pearcey