Sexualised behaviour on TV: Kavos and Magaluf

There have been a number of TV shows recently that have shown some horrific and degrading sexual behaviour, that made me wonder whether I was alone in feeling so shocked and concerned for the welfare of some of the people shown. I'm talking about the 'shock' documentaries about young people (late teens/ early twenties) holidaying in some of the more notable resorts. I'm talking about shows like

• What happens in Kavos on Channel 4
• The Truth about Magaluf: Stacey Dooley investigates on BBC3
And finally,

• Sun, Sex and Suspicious Parents also on BBC3

Watching the TV shows, online, the first thing that struck me was the huge quantities of alcohol being consumed. The fact that as one bar worker talking to Dooley states they pour free-hand, meaning people buying drinks mostly likely won't have a clue how much they have really drunk. With the alcohol comes a lack of inhibitions, and so the sex games begin.
This was the part that both shocked and upset me. Watching it I felt that so many of the contestants seemed vulnerable due to the amount of alcohol that was freely available. If we then consider the TV shows individually

Starting with 'The Truth about Magaluf', at about 11 minutes into the documentary Dooley is talking to two bar crawl organisers about the sex-games that she has just witnessed. One act that drew a large crowd in the bar was the 'Erection Challenge', the purpose of this 'game' was for the women to give the men erections within 3 minutes. The host of the game told the women that they could use any means to do this. Dooley was clearly shocked by this, as I was and as I assume most viewers would be, and spoke to the men who had organised the bar crawl and 'activities'. The men reasoned that they would not include someone who was too drunk but they then say that the aim of the bar crawl is to get the participants 'wasted'. Dooley is still visibly shocked by this, and asks if this is a common event. The response she gets simply does not seem to take in the seriousness or degrading nature of the games by simple stating that this is Magaluf and you know the reputation. They follow this up by reasoning that they simply encourage the games. The fact that so much alcohol is involved, with some of the bars being 'free' as you pay 25-30 euros to enter makes these games seem all the more seedy. My fear is that women, and men, are getting themselves drunk and feeling that they need to prove themselves in 'games' like this. I question whether a sober individual would, or would want to, take part in a game that involved them performing a sex act whilst partially dressed in public. The fact that for the crowd and organisers this seemed like a normal event made it all the more worrying.

To move on to the other show on offer from the BBC: Sun, Sex and... again there was one particular section that stood out and offended. It involved a booze cruise, now my understanding of the term booze cruise was people travelling to France or Belgium to bring back cheap alcohol. However, on the holiday shown the term booze cruise refers to people paying to go out on a pleasure boat, drink a lot and then take part or watch sex-games. Again, my objections relate to the degrading nature of the games and the sexualised objectifying environment that they create. The 'host' welcomes the young people onto the boat and asks the assembled people to raise a hand if they are a virgin. My first thought was 'how childish' and then 'what is the point?' in such a question. However, it was the response of the host that annoyed me the most. When a woman raised her hand the host responded by shouting at her that she was a 'lying f*****g b***h', cue laughter from the boat (and the woman involved I think). The next segment shows the hosts telling a group of assembled naked men (I don't know why or how this happened, either) to run around the boat slapping their willies in the face of women. Personally, a stranger running up to slap me in the face with their penis would disgust me and I would term it an assault if this happened. The next 'game' involved women being told to give a 10 second love-bite on the body part chosen by the male partner, this led to one man waving his penis around and then having the love-bite administered to it. These games seem to serve no other purpose than to degrade those involved. In *my opinion*, having watched these 'games', I felt many were designed to degrade women. I question whether the women involved would have taken part in these games had they been sober and not in an environment that is encouraging and egging on this behaviour.

Finally, the Channel 4 show, What happens in...., followed round both workers and holiday-makers. Some of the more disturbing details from the show:

• Workers devised a punishment involving downing a shot of urine, the reason for this punishment? If a worker had slept with another worker 3 times.
• Sex-'games' involving a cucumbers placed between men's legs, with female partners simulating oral sex to eat them.
• Women placing tomatoes between their legs for the men to eat, again simulating oral sex in front of a large audience
• The seemingly obligatory sexual positions games; what I am struggling to understand (ignoring the obvious - why? or why anyone would want to take part) is why the women always seem to have to be topless in the games?
• The group of young men discussing the scoring system they had devised for the holiday, with ugly women being worth more points.

My concerns about these three programmes relate to the sexualised environment they create. I feel there is a sexist edge to the attitude and behaviour shown. The 'erection challenge' for example: if the man doesn't get an erection I wonder what the response to the woman would be? Would she be blamed for not being attractive enough for him? Would she be blamed for not doing it 'right'? This is all of course speculation. I dislike the encouragement for people to take part in these games, particularly when so much alcohol is involved. At what stage do we judge that those taking part have had too much to drink, and are the hosts of these events qualified to judge that? Again, these are merely my opinions having watched the programmes. I found myself shocked by the way people were encouraged to strip off and perform sex acts on strangers in public. Alcohol, being away from home (and presumably away from the potential for people to recognise you) and in the company of people egging you on I worry about the vulnerable individuals taking part. The programmes did not show the aftermath of these sex-acts/'games' on the individuals involved, when they sober up. How will they feel when they sober up and reflect upon what happened the night before? Trying to discourage people from visiting and giving money to these bars and cruises is not going to achieve much, I fear. However, trying to empower young men and women to respect each other might hold a lot more value.

This is where I will end this post, on the notion of respect. Teaching respect must not be confined to schools. It should be present in the media, in our music, our homes, our businesses and our politics. We need to see true equality in order to see proper respect between individuals. With respect there might not be the pressure to engage and conform with these sexualised games.