MovieChat Forums > United States of Tara (2009) Discussion > Is the Gregson family too open about sex...

Is the Gregson family too open about sex?

posted 11 years ago by lana111
8 replies | jump to latest

I know Tara freaked out when she first found out her daughter was having sex, but apart from that one instance, Tara (and Charmaine) seem very open about discussing sexual matters with Kate and making sexual jokes/references. When I was 15 my mom took away my computer once because a friend had emailed me a naughty joke! Is it normal nowadays for teenagers to be so open about sex with their parents/ siblings? Or this part of the Gregsons being so different from "normal" people?

[–] SnappyK 11 years ago

My family was always completely comfortable discussing sex and sexuality with me when I was growing up. It's maybe not the norm, but there's also nothing wrong with it.

[–] draugwenL 11 years ago

Sex is a normal human action and shouldn't be treated like it's dirty, wrong, or shameful. No one ever was like "oh let's go have orgies," it was all very normal.

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[–] shante-baker 10 years ago

No, actually I think the Gregsons let their kids get away with a lot. Kate was basically a sex addict in the pilot, when she was only 15, and everyone seemed to know about it but her parents didn't gripe about it much. In fact, other than the pilot, Tara never seemed to have much of a problem with her daughter having sex and partying all the time - in fact, they joked about it together.

Even Marshall was pretty open about sex. He was having threesomes by season 3, cheated on his boyfriend, attempted to meet strange men in parks, etc. I guess you can say Tara and Max didn't know about all this, but that makes them pretty inattentive, wouldn't you say? If I walked in on my 16 year old daughter constantly dressed in a somewhat risque outfit with an open laptop, I would have guessed something was up (referring to Kate's internet porn fiasco).

Secondly, why did Kate get away with dating such older guys all the time? The goth kid in the pilot was the only person she dated throughout the series that was her age - every guy after was in their late twenties or older - and SHE WAS 15. Both Marshall and Kate mouthed off and did a LOT of things that I never would have gotten away with at that age (and I'm currently only 19), and you only hear mention of getting grounded once or twice.

[–] rockethulsey 8 years ago

It shows the landscape of rearing a child in the 21st century. They also were probably so engulfed in Tara's illness to really parent stricter. Especially for that part of the USA.

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[–] Eva_Marrie 8 years ago

I'd say that this would be the norm in much of Europe.

My family was even more open than the one portrayed - I had the basics of sex ed drilled into me by the time I was 6-7 years old and no one ever tried to censor anything sex-related. In fact, they were ENCOURAGING me to get laid in order to deal with emotional problems as a teen 😕

[–] lrdcharlton 7 years ago

Omg. Im sorry to hear that. Did you not like how open your family was about sex? In my household it was considered indecent to say a women was pregnant, it was she was expecting. But some of it was on my part to uphold an image so I could get away with more.

[–] 7 years ago

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[–] Seveneleven (25) 7 years ago

It isn't the norm.