For those of you who already know me, you know that I am a runner for the cross country and track teams.  You know that my mom is a religion teacher here at Hoban and that I am one of six siblings.  For those of you who don't know me, my name is Maura Bulgrin, and now you do.

The last few weeks of summer are characteristically marked with bonfires, picnics and parties.  It seems like everyone wants to cram one last bit of merrymaking in before it's back to the books.  I myself just recently received my license and was privileged in being able to attend many more social gatherings this summer.

On the way to such occasions, I love to turn on the radio and get into my party mode by singing loudly with the windows rolled down.  However, recently I have become quite astonished with the type of music some stations see fit to play.  More than once I have changed the station, feeling slightly sickened by the trash being blasted into my car.

It seems that the prime offenders of such raunchy lyrics are rap and hip-hop, but sometimes even some rock songs cross the line.  It isn't the language that bothers me, and aside from the occasional exception, most songs have a relatively catchy beat.  Nevertheless, no amount of rhythm can distract me from the way the music objectifies women and sex.

Some would argue that it is the artist's right under the First Amendment to sing whatever they want.  However, these lyrics are not a demonstration of free speech but rather a horribly inaccurate depiction of relationships and sex.

Men are sex-driven maniacs with no self-control and no respect for the opposite sex.  Women are fantasy objects to be sought after.  Love has been construed as a means of gratification.  Relationships have been replaced by one-night stands.

A recent study shown in the Akron Beacon Journal concluded that music with sexual overtones strongly affects the teens that listen to it regularly.  The study concluded "among heavy listeners, 51 percent started having sex within two years, versus 29 percent of those who said they listened to little or no sexually degrading music."

However, even more disconcerting is that this distorted portrayal is slowly being accepted as normal.  We are like a frog in a pot of water.  As entertainment producers slowly heat up the water, our body becomes used to the intensity of the heat.  Eventually we will boil to death and will have never made the attempt to escape from the pot.

I have often heard the phrase "sex sells" used by music artists and movie producers.  To me, this is the problem.  Teens are the primary consumers of music, movies and other forms of entertainment.  Were we to stop buying CDs containing songs with crude lyrics, artists would stop making them.

Girls deserve better than to have their gender portrayed as the objects of oversexed men.  Guys deserve better than to have their gender represented by men who treat their cars better than their women.  So maybe the next time you listen to a song by Ludacris or the Pussycat Dolls, listen to whom those songs are stereotyping and ask yourself if this is truly the way you want to be characterized.