Parents Group Is In A Tizzy Over The “Gossip Girl” Threesome Episode
Posted by: Annika Harris
Filed in:
entertainment
4:00PM, Friday November 6th 2009
The Parents Television Council has asked CW affiliates not to air the much-anticipated threesome episode of “Gossip Girl” because airing the teen menage a trois would be “reckless and irresponsible,” said the group’s president Tim Winter in a statement Wednesday. The group says on its website that “the show conveys the message that sex is a tool used to manipulate people.” Although the promos for the “3SOME” don’t say who will be involved, some suspect that it will be the show’s top schemers, Blair Waldorf and Chuck Bass, with another major character. The median viewer age is 27 years old, according to a CW spokesperson, a claim Winter said in his statement “doesn’t even pass the ‘laugh test.’” He said “Gossip Girl” is “expressly targeted to impressionable teenagers.”
I can’t refute that claim. I doubt the show and its fashion would be so popular if teens weren’t watching. How many adult women were running around in pleated mini skirts with knee-high socks à la Blair and her crew? But what Winter fails to realize is that many teenagers today already engage in sexual acts that parents think belong only in adult films. Teens are into experimentation, and I’m sure the upcoming episode of “Gossip Girl” will not be the first time they’ve heard of a threesome (or saw one). This show is one of The CW’s top earners, so it’s ludicrous for the Parents Television Group to try to get affiliates not to air the episode. It ain’t happening. But I have a more novel approach to the situation: turn the TV off if you don’t want your teen to watch and let the 27-year-olds have their soft-core porn fun. Will you watch “Gossip Girl” when the threesome episode airs this Monday, Nov. 9? [Us Weekly]
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koshka
wrote on November 6 2009 @ 04:07 pm: [report]
boy do i love a good tizzy!
Christinaval
wrote on November 6 2009 @ 04:54 pm: [report]
I think it’s pretty risque…considering how many teenagers watch this show. I guess it’s the parents responsibility to keep them from watching it.
MuchoMacho
wrote on November 6 2009 @ 04:59 pm: [report]
as long as the guy ends up masturbating on a chair in the corner while watching, the kids will get a pretty realistic idea of what to expect from threesomes in their futures…
ohheyitssophia
wrote on November 6 2009 @ 06:35 pm: [report]
I absolutely won’t be watching that and if I’ve said it once I’ve said it 1000 times- I am never having and raising kids in this society.
Maybe I’m old fashioned for a 21 year old but jeez, I hate modern pop “culture” in America.
Jessica Young
wrote on November 6 2009 @ 10:11 pm: [report]
I don’t watch gossip girl but the last comment just made my day… I am 21 too and am not a fan at ALL of our “culture.” Its really made my day to learn that I’m not the only one!
ooi0katzy0ioo
wrote on November 7 2009 @ 12:09 am: [report]
I’m 26 and I love watching this show. It’s up to the parents to keep their kids (and I do emphasize the word KIDS) from watching this show. It would be risque if the characters were portraying high school kids but they are in college now as in over 18. If you, as a parent don’t want your underage teens and tweens watching this show then DON’T LET THEM WATCH IT! Simple as that…
christinax4
wrote on November 7 2009 @ 12:57 am: [report]
...so don’t let them watch it. They can either
-tivo it
-watch it on you tube or any of the other gazillion websites they will have it posted almost immediately
-watch it off any of their friends cell phone cameras the next day at school
alexadean
wrote on November 7 2009 @ 02:28 am: [report]
oh america. a few centuries later, and we’re still a bunch of puritans.
i know it’s easy for me to say since i’m not a parent, but i believe there is a point where parents have to take responsibility and either (a) just turn off the tv ... or (b)trust that they raised their children well enough to know how to make smart decisions and identify when they’re engaging in high-risk behavior.
cheekachu
wrote on November 7 2009 @ 11:31 am: [report]
I’m sad to say that I love Gossip Girl, but I definitely wouldn’t let my hypothetical kids watch it unless they were 16+. It’s up to the parents to control their children’s viewing habits and quite honestly if kids need to be told that threesomes are stupid ideas, then the kids really should be watching GG to begin with.
Also, I think threesomes are disgusting and will probably watch this episode through my hands.
Jill
wrote on November 7 2009 @ 11:53 am: [report]
@ooi0katzy0ioo:
i completely agree! The characters are in college, no longer is it a show of nothing but high school kids having sex. What’s so wrong about of age people having sex?
Also it most definitely is the parents responsibility to keep the kid from watching the show. I’m so tired of parents expecting the media to do their job for them.
Jill
wrote on November 7 2009 @ 11:57 am: [report]
@ christinax4 :
By that logic, kids could watch hard core pornography on the internet, on their friends cells, etc. The whole controversy is that gossip girl airs on during the time the FCC has said Indecency and profanity can air, between 6am-10pm. If gossip girl was to air when the skinamax shows are on, like 1am, the parents wouldn’t have a leg to stand on.
Jill
wrote on November 7 2009 @ 11:58 am: [report]
I definitely meant to say “during the time the FCC has said Indecency and Profanity CAN’T air” oops.
christinax4
wrote on November 8 2009 @ 12:00 am: [report]
jill my point is that they’ll find a way to watch… parents make those things more desireable when they are taboo.
christinax4
wrote on November 8 2009 @ 01:06 am: [report]
use it as a teaching moment, open the dialogue about safe sex practices
Steph9668
wrote on November 8 2009 @ 02:16 am: [report]
@MuchoMacho ...awesome. hahaa…
As for the article - I have no idea about this show… don’t care. But what a great lesson people are teaching their kids by try to get the episode pulled. So, basically, other people are to blame for our screw ups? We don’t need to monitor ourselves or our kids then.. and it’s someone else’s responsibility if they make horrible mistakes… great. How about not raising idiots? Parenting in general seems to be pretty pathetic nowadays.
We also encourage shows like My Sweet 16 (or whatever it’s called) and need people like Super Nanny… so… it’s all pretty scary.
palomadoe
wrote on November 8 2009 @ 07:26 pm: [report]
News Flash! The things they do on Gossip Girl are comparable to the backstabbing every day life of any high school student, especially in private catholic schools. If you think your children are more sheltered from the bad in a private school, you’re horribly mistaken.
TotallyRidiculous
wrote on November 9 2009 @ 09:37 am: [report]
I"m pretty sure plenty of teenagers watch porn online. They are really good at using the internet, better than most adults. If they want to watch it, they will find it. Besides, we don’t even know the context. They are assuming that the characters have a threesome and it’s awesome. That doesn’t sound like a very good plot element. Probably they will have a threesome, or attempt to, and it will ruin their relationship.
whatshesays
wrote on November 11 2009 @ 01:06 am: [report]
palomadoe- agreed. when I was in high school, everyone read the gossip girl books (before the show, thank GOD that wasn’t out when I was in school…) and emulated the teenagers on Laguna Beach. This brings back some horrible memories.