TeenNick, which targets younger audiences with sex-filled, high-school dramas, has taken a flying leap over what is appropriate with the new season of “Degrassi.” The headliner of the mid-season premiere featured a stepbrother and stepsister making out and debating if they should begin a sexual relationship.
The predecessor to the upcoming season “Degrassi: The Boiling Point,” has a long history, and none of it is something parents should want their teens watching. Despite its “PG rating,” the previous season suggested young girls should lose their virginity on impulse and showcased a variety of characters sexting naked photos of themselves to their friends-with-benefits partners. The gay agenda is also shoved on viewers as one of the main characters, Adam Torres, is a female-to-male transgender who previously had a relationship with alcoholic socialite turned lesbian Fiona Coyne, a character famous for kissing her brother while in a drunken and drug-induced stupor.
The February 20 episode appropriately titled “Underneath It All” begins with two characters, Clare and Jake, on their way to school, with their father. Jake received a text message from Clare which read, “Dying to kiss you.” and later we find out the two are stepbrother and stepsister. As soon as their father’s car pulled away Clare declared the ride to school as the “longest car ride ever,” and proceeded to kiss her boyfriend/stepbrother.
“Degrassi” kept dialing up the sex and skeaze factor as the majority of the episode focused on the couple’s decision to take their relationship to the next level physically. Bawdy locker-room-esque banter ensues between Jake’s friends as they debate his living arrangement with Clare, making light of how many rooms Clare and Jake “do it” in.
“Degrassi” has a history of mocking traditional values, especially when it comes to sex. This was clearly shown when Clare determined if she was emotionally ready to commit incest by merely taking a quiz out of a magazine.
Casual sex between teens is a recurring theme in each season of “Degrassi,” and feeding this type of message to young adults can only have detrimental outcomes. Those were, ironically showcased in previous episodes as almost all “Degrassi” characters struggled with depression, binge-drinking, drug use and teen pregnancy because of broken relationships and pre-marital sex.
“Underneath It All” contained usual instances of promoting the gay agenda as Fiona Coyne proclaimed herself a “Lipstick Lesbian.” Other female characters lavishly praised her revelation stating “there is enough competition for the limited male talent” at their school. In the same scene, Imogen, the typical quirky loser/in-crowd wannabe and Fiona’s love interest, voiced that perhaps the best way to become popular was to go to rehab like Fiona.
