In late adolescence, the pressures to have a complete sexual experience become more intense. Sex is used as a popular topic in entertainment and to sell a universal range of products. If advertisers can somehow find a way to make a product sexy, or associate it with a sexual image, it stands a better chance of enticing consumer interest, while sexual content is standard fare in shows, in print, and in songs. The media is filled with male and female sexual images illustrating or implying the power and pleasure of sexy appearance and sexual behavior.

Given this constant commercial assault since early childhood, how could adolescents not be preoccupied with sex as they grow up? Even more influential than the sexual images presented are the sexual roles that impressionable adolescents are groomed to play. Believe the images, and women are primarily supposed to be sexual attractors, trained to be preoccupied with their appearance to win male attention. Believe the images, and men are primarily supposed to be sexual aggressors, coached to act manly to win female admiration.

To see these images in action, just attend any high school football game where young women in form-fitting costumes cheer and dance, and young men bulk up in pads to show how hard they can play a collision sport. No wonder so many teenagers believe that emulating these images and acting out these roles are how they are meant to excite interest from the other sex.

So what are you, as a parent, supposed to do to help your teenager grow beyond the restrictive sexual stereotypes the culture sends? Send more humanizing messages of your own. Let your daughter know that her value as a person is not limited to how beautiful she looks, and let your son know that his value as a person is not limited to how toughly he competes. And when it comes to socializing with the other sex, recommend that they aim for friendship first. Good friends tend not to get good friends into trouble sexually.