Nowadays, teenage relationships are commonly oversexualized. The oversexualing of relationships, both between the partners and from outside perspectives, is the reason why many high school relationships don’t work out.

If you look deep into the reason a relationship doesn’t work out, oftentimes I’ve noticed that it’s because teens focus on sexual and physical connections too often. There is almost no balance with communication and basic relationship needs since the focus is sometimes solely physical.

“It depends on what relationship [someone] get[s] into,” shared one student interviewed anonymously by The Mav. They said there appears to be “a lot of sexual things going on” in comparison to vital relationship elements like communication and compromise in the high school relationships they’ve seen.

If the people in a high school relationship are mature enough to do so, they will be able to find a good medium between what they’re both comfortable with and want to do. But many teenagers in relationships are underestimated — it seems we can’t work for emotional connections a lot of the time.

Even with that, oversexualization of relationships remains dangerous territory because someone in the relationship could get wrong ideas with poor communication. This disconnect stretches far beyond physical attraction and can impact how the people view each other’s character.

I’ve learned that scenarios such as these are unfortunately much too common. If someone, teenager or not, is in a committed relationship, all people involved need to fully be ready to talk about issues and hear their partner(s) through on their opinions and feelings.

Another anonymous student said, “I think all teenagers care about now is [sexual attraction].”

For those new to relationships or even experienced in relationships, fully coming to terms with what you deeply care about with you partner is critical to a healthy partnership. Do you want sex or is it something else?

“Be open, be honest. Talk to each other. Dont hide anything, just be truthful,” advised an interviewed student.

Another student added, “A lot of times people think it’s gonna be like it is in movies and TV shows where it’s all easy — but it’s not. There’s always going to be a fight. There’s always going to be something going on, but [the strength of the relationship] depends on how you react to it and how you work through it.”