Chapter 4 Sexual Content in Soap Operas - Leicester Research ...

Types of Sexual
Behaviour
N
Sex and Sexuality: A Content Analysis of Soap Operas
TV seasons
1997-1998 season 2001-2002 season 2004-2005 season
Percentage of
cases of sexual
behaviour
N
Percentage of cases
of sexual behaviour
N
Percentage of cases
of sexual behaviour
Physical Flirting 154 26% 167 15% 206 19%
Passionate Kiss 297 50% 613 54% 583 53%
Intimate Touch 39 7% 149 13% 144 13%
Intercourse Implied 71 12% 165 14% 117 11%
Intercourse depicted 17 3% 35 3% 30 3%
Other 15 3% 5 0% 11 1%
Total 593 100% 1134 100% 1091 100%
Table 2-1 Frequency of types of sexual behaviours shown on major US television networks
across three TV seasons (Source: Kunkel et al., 1999, 2003 and 2005)
Types of Talk about sex
N
TV seasons
1997-1998 season 2001-2002 season 2004-2005 season
Percentage of cases
of Talk about sex
N
Percentage of cases
of Talk about sex
N
Percentage of cases
of Talk about sex
Comments about
own/other’s interests 1356 66% 2024 75% 2627 70%
Sex-related crimes 188 9% 275 10% 591 16%
Sexual intercourse 312 15% 190 7% 178 5%
Talks toward sex 48% 4% 61 2% 76 2%
Expert advice/Technical
information 49 2% 14 1% 24 1%
Other 78 4% 142 5% 240 6%
Total 2067 100% 2706 100% 3736 100%
Table 2-2 Frequency of types of ‗talk about sex‘ shown on major US television networks across
three TV seasons (Source: Kunkel et al., 1999, 2003 and 2005)
As for the prime-time sample, Kunkel at al. found that the amount of sexual
content on network prime-time programming demonstrated patterns of increases
akin to those found across the overall television landscape between the 1997-98 and
2004-05 television seasons, and found that prime-time network programming was a
major contributor to the pattern of increases over time observed in the sexual
messages conveyed across the television landscape.
The prime-time programmes findings showed that (a) the percentage of
programmes that included sexual content rose from 67% of all analysed
programmes in 1997-98 to 77% in 2004-05, (b) the percentage of programmes
depicting sexual behaviours increased from 24% to 38%, and (c) the average
number of scenes per hour with sexual content also increased from 5.3 scenes per
hour in 1997-98 to 5.9 scenes per hour in 2004-05.
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