A provocatively named event sought to crumble down the barriers inherent in discussions about sex and pornography among students at Ohio University.
Wednesday’s “Seduce Me” event was co-sponsored by Cru and the Senate Appropriations Committee to raise awareness of today’s sexually charged media as well as address what “seduces” people today.
Two speakers took the stage to address topics such as pornography and perceptions of self-worth.
Michael and Christine Leahy spoke to an almost full Baker University Center Ballroom about their personal experiences with being seduced by the media and sex. The Leahys founded Bravehearts, an organization that works to “restore sexual integrity” in churches and families, according to its website.
Media can be sexually explicit and can negatively effect the way men and women view themselves, said Ian Machir, a senior studying finance and economics, who helped organize the event.
“The media is very saturated, and we can stand against it,” he said. “(Through this event), men and women can see each other the way God sees them: with value.”
Michael Leahy shared his past addiction with pornography, which led to an affair and the eventual end of his first marriage.
“The reality is we’re seduced constantly in our culture,” he said. “We are seduced by the media, by marketing, by advertising. There are people seducing us who are family members who want us to believe something, and that is their picture, their vision of our hopes and dreams.”
He added that his pornography addiction skewed his perception of relationships.
“In the world of pornography, the man is viewed as a sexual conqueror, and they are dominant, the aggressor, and they sexualize women,” he said. “The woman values herself as having to have this particular body shape and size.”
The seduction the Leahys described targets young people as well, making them doubt their self-worth, said Christine Leahy, Michael Leahy’s wife and the founder of Women Stand Up!, an organization seeking to “see the hearts and minds of hurting women restored and repurposed,” according to its website.
“In a high-school time frame, I got into this (channel) called MTV, and little magazines called Cosmo and Glamour,” Christine Leahy said. “These magazines tell you these rules, the do’s and don’ts of dating. That you need a boyfriend and girlfriend. These magazines talk about sex tips that basically say love is sex and sex is love. You better be good at sex because you won’t get love.”
The media also lessens the severity and emotional attachment to illnesses that are personal to people. The media gives off a certain feeling that serious problems have simple fixes, Christine Leahy said.
“There are problems with depression and anxiety. I know you all (have) seen the advertisements for the (anti-depressants) on television, and they are easy to talk about,” she said. “But I’m talking about the anxiety where your throat closes up and you’re feeling like you’re choking 24 hours a day. I’m talking about depression where you can’t get up from bed and where everything you see is in different shades of gray. Or, when you’re driving and that’s when you want to ram the car into the van right in front of you or drive it off a cliff.”
Students were invited to ask the Leahys questions about the media and sex industry. The discussion was interesting, said Krista Mobley, a sophomore studying global studies.
“I feel like I agreed that the media is sexually saturated,” Mobley said. “The way women are viewed and portrayed in magazines doesn’t show the
substance (of the woman) beneath the surface but rather how we should be portrayed for men.”
It’s impossible to directly measure the effect of the Leahys’ message, but the event’s organizers look at success differently, Machir said.
“If it changed the life of one person who’s on the road to addiction, then I believe (the event) is 100 percent successful,” he added.
hy135010@ohiou.edu
