"American Psycho" and its possible effects on viewers.

Whenever I watch a scary movie I always tell myself, "This isn't real! This could never happen in real life." While these thoughts are comforting during the movie, there have been cases that link the violence and mediated sex in movies to similar crimes in real life. For some reason scary movies always have sexual material strewn throughout the movie. Maybe the producers feel if  the audience is mature enough to watch a scary movie they are probably mature enough to handle mediated sex. The movie I content analyzed was "American Psycho". This movie was by far the worst and offensive movie I've ever seen. I can't imagine how someone prone to sexual violence would react after seeing this movie.
The movie's main character, Patrick Bateman, is a serial killer that loves to sleep with his women before he kills them. Not only do I feel that the theories we learned in class can relate to viewers of the movie, I believe that they also relate to Bateman throughout the movie. The modeling theory relates to Bateman because throughout the movie he is either watching pornography or viewing it in magazines. Later in the movie, Bateman is videotaping two girls and telling them certain sexual acts to do. He was modeling his video with the girls after the pornography he had viewed. The desensitization theory relates to Bateman because he shows no remorse after having sex with someone and then killing them. After watching his violent pornography, he has become desensitized to the idea of participating in the act. It's scary to think how these theories and this movie could affect people in real life. Could someone be drawn to do such horrendous deeds as Bateman by watching this movie? Below is the information on mediated sexuality that I found throughout the movie.

	Sexual Innuendos	Sexual Talk	Obscenity	Dehumanization	Indecency	Psychotic
“Don’t wear the skirt again. Wear a dress or skirt. You’re prettier than that. Wear high heels too.”		Bateman talking to one prostitute, “Bend over so she can see your a******.” Talking to the other prostitute, “Now eat it.”	Has porn on television.	Bateman kills  homeless man and his dog just because he wanted to.	The woman that Bateman is having an affair with is addicted to drugs. He controls her when she is in that state.	“I simply am not all there.”
The prostitute tells Bateman, “I had to go to the Emergency Room after last time.”		Bateman tells two women, “I would like to see the two of you get it on.”	Has porn magazines in his office.	Bateman gets his business partner drunk, takes him to his apartment, and kills him. Smokes a cigar after like it wasn’t a big deal.	Bateman doesn’t listen to anything his fiancé says, he kisses her to shut her up.	“I want to stab you to death and play with your blood, you’re a f****** ugly b****.”
Bateman takes a girl home from the club. The scene flashes to the next morning with him in his office with a lock of her hair.		Bateman talking to a prostitute, “clean your (women’s private area).”	Keeps a journal of his drawings of girls he has killed.	Bateman and his business partner talk about how they feel no woman has a good personality, the only ones that do are ugly.	Bateman drugs his dates to get them to perform sexual acts and then usually kills them.	“If you don’t shut your f****** mouth I will kill you.”
“You might want to change before you go out.”		Bateman and his colleagues are at dinner. One says they have a bad table because Bateman wouldn’t give the maître de oral sex.	He watches scary movies of women being killed when he exercises.			“I have all the characteristics of a human being… but not a single identifiable emotion.”
			The movie shows most sex scenes.			“I like to dissect girls, did you know I’m utterly insane?”
			Makes women participate in sexual actions while he videotapes it.			“I don’t think I can control myself, if you stay something bad might happen. I might hurt you.”
			Bateman starts to kill one woman while he is having sex with her.			“I think two things when I walk down the street and see a woman, I’d like to take her out to a nice dinner and what her head would look like on a stick.”
						Starts a conversation with a girl he is about to kill by talking about Ted Bundy.
						He has a woman’s head in the freezer and the dead bodies of women all around his apartment.
						Bateman thinks the atm is telling him to feed it a stray cat. He shoots a woman who tries to stop him.

I would be scared for a child or even a teenager to watch this movie. The sex scenes are very graphic and the movie is very violent. The movie never talks about safe sex or the risks of having sex. Bateman makes it seem like it is alright to hire a prostitute every night and not have to worry about consequences. The women in the movie are also seen as enjoying the sexual actions. Even though most of them were convinced by Bateman to participate in the sexual act, they show that they enjoy it during the act. I'm also scared if certain people would think this behavior is acceptable because it is in a movie. The replication of the material in this movie would be absolutely devastating.
It was interesting that Bateman brought up Ted Bundy. In class we saw Bundy's final statement and saw how he felt violent pornography turned him into the horrible person he had become. Bateman followed in the same exact footsteps by watching violent pornography and then participating in the act. The uses and gratifications theory applies to Bateman in this situation. He chose and sought out violent and pornographic media. He then used the ideas from this media in his own sick and twisted way.
While many children or teenagers may not watch this particular movie, they will still experience mediated sex while watching television. Television shows such as Gossip Girl and 90210 are giving teenagers the idea that having sex with multiple partners and without protection is acceptable. They make it seem as if you aren't "cool" unless you are having sex. The FCC needs to encourage more television shows to incorporate the use of safe sex.