Teens Want Less Sex in Movies and TV Shows, Study Finds
Teens Want Less Sex in Movies and TV Shows, Study Finds
Teens prefer movies and shows about friendship and don't feel that entertainment needs so much sex, according to a UCLA report.
I am not a teen.
If it does not serve a purpose for the plot, then it’s not needed. Simple as that.
As I said here:
Why does it have to further the plot?! Why does sex/nudity have to justify itself when tons of movies have gratuitous action scenes and violence that add nothing to the plot? 90% of John Wick is gratuitous violence that added nothing to the story (but I still love it). Our culture celebrates violence and we’ll watch people get tortured to death without batting an eye - but if some tits show up on screen then suddenly everyone becomes a critic analyzing whether the story REALLY needed it or not.
It’s disturbing to me that we’re culturally encouraged to find fun in violence but sex needs to be cordoned off to a containment genre and excised from mainstream art. I’m not saying it needs to be in every movie - but its been obvious for a while they’re going out of their way to avoid it, even in places where it would make sense or be fun. I want art to stop awkwardly excluding a major part of life. I want out of this “Everyone is beautiful and no one is horny” Twilight Zone multiverse that all our modern movies seem to take place in.
Sex is too important to be left to porn.
The point of John Wick is the gratuitous violence. The plot of John Wick is in service to delivering gratuitous violence. The name for a movie whose plot is in service to delivering gratuitous sex is "pornography." Tasteful, artistic nudity is one thing. Even sex, in service to the plot or purpose of the movie, is another thing. But sex just to sell the movie or check a box is not a thing: we're now talking smut. Cheap, common, vulgar smut.
"Everyone is ugly and everyone is fucking" is just real life. If you want "Everyone is beautiful and everyone is fucking," good news- that's called porn already, and there's so much of it. I like smut, and porn. Which is why I can recognize softcore in movies when I see it. Stop me if you've heard this one before, but if I wanted to watch porn I'd go home and masturbate.
I congratulate you on your personal sexual liberation. Please keep your jollies to yourself- in private- while we pitiful repressed twilight zone voyeurs awkwardly exclude sex from our public lives.
Its very simple. Sex is boring to look at. Even porn. Whats the longest you watched a porn movie? 5 minutes? 15? Let's top it off at 30 minutes. Just to be safe.
Violence is not boring. Stuff like John Wick grabs you by the ass and puts you on a roller coaster.
Want proof? Look at gaming. How big are the dating sims? Now compare that with call of duty/etc.
So, me? Yeah, stop with the xxl steamy sex scenes in movies. Very rarely do they add anything more then an interlude. A time to get coffee. To look at your notifications. At best.
To be clear: I love sex. My sex.
Character development? It might not directly impact the plot or move the story forward, but how a character relates to sex can tell us (the audience) a lot about them.
Exactly this. A lot of media is atrocious about shoehorning in things even if they are jarring and dont make sense. Token characters (race, sexuality), token ideologies (veganism, feminism, religion, etc), stereotypes, you name it.
Edit: and famous celebrities for no apparent reason. Surprise! Your favorite character from the book this movie is based on is now played by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.
People downvoting as a reactionary for making them feel bad, but I agree.
Having a stereotype as a character for the sake of "representation" is not representing anything good and is not doing justice to anyone who would be more than a single note character.
I'm tired of bad writing and gimmicks to get people to have a reaction to an otherwise bad story, but that doesn't mean I want movies with none of the topics in it, I just want it to mean something when it's there.
Actual no holds barred sex of every sort you wish to see, as often as you wish to see it, a click away on the interwebz, the titillation found by past generations in R rated movies and late night Television, no longer computes, and is wholly unnecessary
Yea that was my thought too. When I was a teen we had one PC and it was in a shared room. Had to rely on the TV for jerk off material. These days everyone has the whole internet in their pocket. TV is for watching good stories, they can skip the sex scenes.
As I said here:
The fact that you only equate sex/nudity to porn reveals a problem. People today can’t associate sex/nudity on a screen as art, or even just fun, anymore - because in their minds sex/nudity is inextricably tied to porn. The reality is sex/nudity can be fun, dramatic, scary, or funny depending on the context. It can have a place in many kinds of stories, and comparing it to porn is like saying “we have war documentaries so we don’t need war movies.” They are completely different things!!
It’s disturbing to me that we’re culturally encouraged to find fun in violence but sex needs to be cordoned off to a containment genre and excised from mainstream art.
Sex is too important to be left to porn.
Writing a story and having to make my characters not want to have sex because of the existence of an unrelated industry outside the context of their universe.
Striking out any gambling references in my stories because of the rise of online gambling.
Then I realize I've stupidly written scenes where my characters eat, having forgotten like a stupid hack how many restaurants there are in the real world.
If that's an example of your writing, you've got much larger problems, my friend
I'm not a teen (far from it), but I'm with the kids on this one. The vast majority of sex scenes in movies are awful. They're awkward and totally unrealistic. It completely takes you out of the movie. Most sex scenes are not engrossing or engaging, they don't immerse you in the story, they push you out of it.
Most every sex scene feels like it was made by someone who's never had sex. Every angle is the right angle, every thrust is ecstasy, it's nonsense. It's like someone who thinks the covers of romance novels are depictions of real life.
There are a lot of intimate moments that can be portrayed convincingly enough on film, but sex is rarely one of them. And it's just not necessary. Let the audience infer, let us use our imaginations.
I have a friend who's dated a bit but has never really had a boyfriend. I think she gives up too soon because she expects a Hallmark movie where everything's perfect and every kiss is magical.
I don’t know if that’s necessarily a bad thing, I kind of wish my standards had been higher when I was younger. I dated a lot of people longer than I should have, thinking that that was as good as it got. The fact that she is going on dates is a good thing- it means she’s at least getting an idea of how she fits with different types of people and she’s socially active.
Obviously she might overdo it, but as long as she’s content alone as well, she’s not really hurting herself. I guess it’s a function of how regretful a person she is and her age.
C'mon, didn't you wanna see Oppenheimer reach criticality?
Soft coreHard coreDemon core
There's a really good BBC miniseries about Oppenheimer made back in the 80s with Sam Waterston in the lead role.
On the one hand, it doesn't have mind-blowing special effects.
On the other hand, there's no sex scenes in a show about the scientist who helped make the atom bomb because why would watch a TV show about him and hope to see him fucking?
I wouldn't even want sex scenes in a Feynman movie and he was fucking every woman who was willing. It's just not a necessary thing to tell his story. You can show he was a horndog and not show him fucking.
Anyway, here's the miniseries.
I agree, every sex scene looks like something that is not how people have sex. Except for the guy in office space https://youtu.be/JNVqMgCAHmk. That sex was real.
And no one is laughing or having a good time. It's always some serious ass business.
ass business
I'm sorry, but this take feels out of touch. Every shot in a movie is at the right angle. Of course they're unrealistic. Movies are unrealistic. Sure, some try to take a more gritty, grounded approach but in general art is trying to capture the highest and lowest points of life. Obviously it's going to be unrealistic.
I think they're probably referring to films that were otherwise meant to be realistic, then there is this terrible, unrealistic sex scene that is just a distraction
Fair enough, though calling this stuff art is a bit much. Most TV shows and movies are better described as visual junk food than art. I think a bare minimum standard is for the work to stick with you longer than 5 minutes after you finish watching it.
Fair enough, but when you're trying to recreate something as intimate and vulnerable as sex, it just stands out more. Of course when I'm watching a movie I consciously know that what I'm seeing on the screen isn't real, but when it's done right I'm so immersed that that part of my brain turns off and I'm able to get completely lost in the story or spectacle. But more often than not, when there's a sex scene I get completely taken out of it and instead of seeing characters having sex, I see actors engaged in an awkward simulation.
It's just boring, and defeats the purpose of good story telling IMO. It's either uninteresting showing very little, or it's like porn, and when I watch a movie, I'm generally not in the mood for porn.
If they had great sex, it may not mean the same to everybody. But if you show them at a later point, like breakfast or something, and they are glowing and smiling bigly to each other, we all know what happened, and how it went.As I said here:
By that logic you could make arguments against a lot of different genres and classic story elements. I don’t like the argument that because media these days sucks at doing something they should avoid it altogether. I think they should just do better. Movies in the past proved it can be done.
It’s disturbing to me that we’re culturally encouraged to find fun in violence but sex needs to be cordoned off to a containment genre and excised from mainstream art. I’m not saying it needs to be in every movie - but its been obvious for a while they’re going out of their way to avoid it, even in places where it would make sense or be fun. I want art to stop awkwardly excluding a major part of life. I want out of this “Everyone is beautiful and no one is horny” Twilight Zone multiverse that all our modern movies seem to take place in.
Sex is too important to be left to porn.
I want out of this “Everyone is beautiful and no one is horny” Twilight Zone multiverse that all our modern movies seem to take place in.
I'm not saying no character should ever be allowed to be horny, or sexual in any way. My point isn't that we should pretend that human sexuality doesn't exist, I just don't think it's always necessary to see it simulated (usually poorly) on screen.
One point to disagree on: less teens than ever are having sex, and with no actual experience, their imaginations are based on porn. No wonder they're terrified of it, if their first impression is what comes up when you Google "boy girl have sex".
Too many parents are not open with their kids about sex. I made sure my daughter understood that there's nothing shameful about watching porn or masturbating, but she should not expect actual sex to be like what she sees in porn and she will enjoy it a lot more if she won't have those sort of expectations.
It's not enough to just tell kids where babies come from. You need to tell them all sorts of things that they really need to know about sex because otherwise they'll learn bullshit from the internet and other kids. Tell them about the things I mentioned and also about things like contraception and consent and even about kinks and why you shouldn't feel shame or be worried if your kink involves consent all around.
It's the stupid toxic "romance" that I want rid of. It gets so boring and tedious to watch. If it's important to the story, then fine. But otherwise can we just normalize friendship between opposite gendered people without the need for bad relationship drama, jealousy, and normalizing the idea that when someone says no, they're actually just "playing hard to get".
can we just normalize friendship between opposite gendered people
Great idea. I would love a prominent TV show to have main characters of the opposite sex that are good friends and a romance is never shoehorned into it at any point.
Warehouse 13 got sooooo close.
Honestly, Law & Order is good for this imo. Especially Benson and Stabler from SVU, and some of Criminal Intent with Vincent D'Onofrio and Kathryn Erba.
I want to believe.
Twilight really fucked up the romance genre, huh? Lol
I have strong feelings about this because I miss horny comedies like American Pie, and sexy thrillers like Wild Things. I miss stuff like Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Boogie Nights, Office Space, Eyes Wide Shut, True Lies. They all had sex/nudity in a way that furthered the plot, or was just plain fun. All of the criticisms I see here sadden me:
• "It doesn't further the plot!!!"
It can absolutely be an important part of the story. See the examples above. Look at most of our ancient mythologies. On top of that I pose the question: Why does it have to further the plot?! Why does sex/nudity have to justify itself when tons of movies have gratuitous action scenes and violence that add nothing to the plot? 90% of John Wick is gratuitous violence that added nothing to the story (but I still love it). Our culture celebrates violence and we'll watch people get tortured to death without batting an eye - but if some tits show up on screen then suddenly everyone becomes a critic analyzing whether the story REALLY needed it or not.
• "I don't want to watch that with my kids/parents/coworkers/etc"
I agree. So don't. Some of my favorite movies are raunchy comedies or sexy thrillers that I would never want to watch in polite company. That doesn't mean they shouldn't exist! If art were constrained by what you wanted to display in front of your kids/parents/coworkers then our artistic & cultural landscape would be a much bleaker place.
• "We have easy access to porn, I don't need porn in my movies!"
The fact that you only equate sex/nudity to porn reveals a problem. Kids today can’t associate sex/nudity on a screen as art, or even just fun, anymore - because in their minds sex/nudity is inextricably tied to porn. The reality is sex/nudity can be fun, dramatic, scary, or funny depending on the context. It can have a place in many kinds of stories, and comparing it to porn is like saying "we have war documentaries so we don't need war movies." They are completely different things!!
• "It's usually cringey & not done well."
By that logic you could make arguments against a lot of different genres and classic story elements. I don't like the argument that because media these days sucks at doing something they should avoid it altogether. I think they should just do better. Movies in the 80s and 90s proved it can be done.
It’s disturbing to me that we’re culturally encouraged to find fun in violence but sex needs to be cordoned off to a containment genre and excised from mainstream art. I’m not saying it needs to be in every movie - but its been obvious for a while they’re going out of their way to avoid it, even in places where it would make sense or be fun. I want art to stop awkwardly excluding a major part of life. I want out of this "Everyone is beautiful and no one is horny" Twilight Zone multiverse that all our modern movies seem to take place in.
Sex is too important to be left to porn.
Oh man, I wish I could give you more than one upvote. Thank you for this well reasoned defense of sex in movies.
Yes. Yes, yes, yes. I was having this exact conversation in another thread in c/movies not three days ago. The fear of sex is just astounding to me. And it being equated only to porn was more than a little troubling.
If violence doesn't further the plot then it shouldn't be in there either.
Nobody is saying you can't have sexy comedies. We're just tired of stupid shit like the mid-life threatening event romance scene. The timer on the bomb is literally counting down and they take the time to profess their love and it's not a comedy so I'm the asshole for laughing in the theater.
It's been ridiculous for decades and we're tired of it.
If violence doesn’t further the plot then it shouldn’t be in there either.
A lot of action movies would be very short. My poor kung fu movies would need to be cut down to about 15 minutes. Why can't we sometimes just have gratuitous things for the fun of it? Not everything needs to be high art.
We’re just tired of stupid shit like the mid-life threatening event romance scene. The timer on the bomb is literally counting down and they take the time to profess their love and it’s not a comedy so I’m the asshole for laughing in the theater.
I don't think that's an inherent problem with sex/nudity/romance, the problem is just bad filmmaking. With good writing/acting/directing/editing that exact cliche' scenario you describe could be done in such a way as to be genuinely funny, or touching, or sexy.
I would appreciate less violence too. It feels like since GoT they have to put some gory violence and some sex scenes into everything that is targeted at an adult audience.
The point really is not about fundamental opposition. It is about being oversaturated and hence tired of it. That is why it is annoying when it doesn't further the plot, is done cringey or well, seems like an attempt at being porn of some sort. That stuff worked in the 80s and 90s, when people still had to rent VHS. People being addicted to porn and harming themselves with their overconsumption but being in denial about it probably also adds in here.
To be fair game of thrones turned out to be a scam. At the time we thought there was plot reasons for literally everything.
I can't even get 15 minutes through episode one now before the plot utterly collapses and I have to stop.
Great points! Personally for me I can do with less gorey violence. What I'm most interested in is good action sequences.
Even in kids movies I get questions like "does the goomba die when Mario smashes it?"
Thats maybe an absurd example but I think it highlights how we see stories where characters often solve their problems with violence, even as a first choice.
Sometimes the tone is wildly off too, like watching the good guy kill multiple people and then everyone is jovial about it.
Statistically, there's a lot more violence and a lot less sex for people under the age of 30. So it just kind of reflects the experiences of young people I guess.
If there's a 1 minute sex scene in a 90 minute movie, you're guaranteed to have your parents walk in during that one sex scene.
Watching softcore porn with your friends and family is kind of undesirable.
I can't think of a single sex scene in a movie that added value to it. They're pointless and akward to both the audience and actors.
Other poster had a
goodonly example.Team America world police
Any art house film trying to portray reality.
Basic instinct interview
Off the top of my head, scenes in:
Poor Things
Nymphomaniac
Antichrist
Requiem for a Dream
Saltburn
Blue is the warmest color.
The Room
Disagree, if it's in a romance movie it's sometimes a necessary addition
Sounds like someone has never seen MacGruber! Pointless and awkward absolutely but the value added was immeasurable.
Debbie does Dallas would've been a rather mediocre high school drama without the sex scenes.
Euro trip
Black Swan
Brokeback Mountain
Eyes Wide Shut
Poor Things (which even makes it an important plot about finding your own power through sexuality while it also being a tool that can be used to take advantage of you)
Oh forgot TEETH very different movie if there was no sex
Long shot
The McGruber movie had a good one
American Pie
That's a pretty blanket statement on it being awkward for actors when We Live in Time is in theaters right now and this is a story about a sex scene in it. https://www.bustle.com/entertainment/andrew-garfield-florence-pugh-we-live-in-time-sex-scene,
LOL I love the camera man hiding in the corner cause he can't leave but wants to give them some privacy if they are having a moment.
Team America World Police
Most of the (supposed) younger generation people I interact with online seem even more prudish and conservative about sex than my very religious parents were growing up. It's super weird to be the older person who's ok with sexual content. I don't really get it.
And yes, I know people will claim it's because it's only when it's not done right or when it feels shoved in, but honestly from the way they talk about anything dealing with sex, it feels like that's just an acceptable excuse and they really just don't want the content to exist at all, even if 'done right'. It's like a huge chunk of the generation is asexual or something.
I'm with you, and I'm worried about it because I see this sexual puritanism as both counter to good efforts of the sexual liberation movement and frankly as a trojan horse for future conservatism to take root.
I'm of the radical acceptance, not abstaining from the topic mindset on this topic, personally.
I think a huge part of the problem that not enough people are talking about are these kids grew up in heavily corporate controlled spaces and have begun to confuse advertiser-friendliness for social acceptability, and I think that is a huge problem.
I think it has less to do with their attitude on sex, and more to do with the availability of actual porn. I'm an older millenial, and even I'm of the opinion that full on sex scenes very rarely add anything to the plot. Implied sex is often more than enough to do the required plot advancement. If I wanted the sex specifically, I'd just go watch porn.
I tended to get the impression that implied sex (such as fade to black scenes) were also not appreciated. That effectively they just didn't want their media to include references to sex pretty much at all.
Maybe most people are reasonable about it, but online at least it feels a bit like the old Tumblr days, except now these people are super anti sex everything and want to erase all mention of it.
I get it. Our generation was over exposed and so were they by proxy. They've also been listening to us telling them about stds, unwanted pregnancies and all the baggage that comes with sex. They also have so much other stuff to do, we didn't have as many choices so we got bored, got underage drunk and boned. The younger people also see that it did to us and they don't want to be like us I guess. A lot more pressure and stress these days to succeed and survive, they're too busy trying to get educated or just survive
Not jusr sex. Most romance can be deleted from series and movies and they would not lose any plot. It is virtually always shoehorned in.
Yeah that annoys me actually more. You often already see in the beginning what kind of (predictable) romance is developing, which just distracts from the main and more interesting plot, adding some kind of annoying drama that is just not necessary.
The issue isn't sex itself. It's putting a sex scene in most movies meant for adult audiences. Imagine if there had to be a shootout or extended martial arts fight in every romance movie or Hollywood just wouldn't fund it.
Use it where it makes sense, and leave it in the tool box when it doesn't.
It's fucking crazy to me that this is a hot take these days. I just want movies to be good. Throwing unnecessary sex scenes into a movie to drive ratings up usually does not achieve that.
Edit: And by unnecessary, I don't even mean just not plot relevant. Only that they should add to, not detract from, the characterization, tone, or plot/story. Fucking loved Challengers (check it out, it's great) and that had a sex scene like every 5 minutes. I just wanna watch some good fucking movies. If I wanted to watch good fucking-movies, I'd just find those online.
I saw... killing joke? Whatever movie was made off of that. The Batman Batgirl Makeout was completely unnecessary and more than a bit disturbing.
I thought they added romance to action movies for the female viewers. Lack of creativity turned romance into mostly sex.
Lol, If someone puts a gun against my head and says guess the most lied about thing in human history, honest to god I would say, Teens lying About sex.
For some reason I question the validity of this study.
There is porn now. Everyfuckingwhere. For free. So much porn. Niche porn. Hardcore porn. Fetish porn. You don't have to jerk off to a lingirie catalog like we did when we were kids. Or sneak National Geographic magazines to see boobs. Sex in movies is just sad, stupid, and often unnecessary tittilation.
It's this.
I remember walking to the video rental store in the 90s to hire VCR tapes. We always tried to get that ones rated 18+ because there would be some boob stuff. Usually the attendant wouldn't care.
Now, fuck. Filtering porn out of my social media feeds is a daily ordeal.
Yeah "sex sells" only works when society is not constantly exposed to more extreme content.
Dunno. There are better sources too look for sex. Watching a movie with your mates is just awkward.
The kids are right.
Team America World Police is the only movie that ever got the sex scene right.
MacGruber?
I promise. I’ll never die.
🎶 ONLY A WOMAN, IS ALLOWED TO TOUCH ME THERE🎶
I have argued this a bunch of times at this point, but movies should choose a target demographic and then go for it:
- Make family friendly movies without awkward implied sex under covers or while wearing underwear and such nonsense. Something that I can watch with family without it getting awkward
OR
- make adult, explicit movies where the actors are actually, explicitly, visibly fucking during sex scenes. Doesnt have to be straight up porn, just make sex scenes sex scenes.
TLDR: Make actual family friendly movies without, and actually adult and explicit movies with. The middle of the road stuff makes it awkward and/or unsatisfying for everyone present
Sex scenes peaked when Tommy Wiseau passionately made love to a belly button and you can't tell me differently.
I was praying for a reference to The Room in this thread.
Charlotte Gainsbourg cutting off her clit with a pair of scissors in Antichrist was the absolute depth of the valley of sex scenes.
Jesus fuck that movie was not sexy. But, the sex is what made that movie. A horrific, depressing, Lars von Trier trauma device.
On a lighter note: when I was working at a local film festival, I got to meet Greg Sestero and watch a showing of the room followed by a q&a.
Here is the actual study if anyone is interested.
21, century of the fantasy, watch out antique civilisations!
I have a few problems with this and first and foremost is that their study is about teens yet they surveyed ten to twentyfour year olds about it.
Secondly is that the infographic says that teens would prefer more friendships over romantic relationships but this doesn't account for the fact that there's been a trope for the last decade where there is always some stupid romantic relationship shoehorned into any fucking story even if it makes no sense or distracts from the main story. For all we know, teens and twenty-somethings could be tired of romance being injected into movies and TV when the story doesn't call for it but be otherwise fine with it when it enhances a story.
Teens,
They want to believe in a world that isn't terrible.
Want to have perfect friends they don't have.
Want social media to be real life.We are in the era of make believe and roleplay and we wonder why nothing is getting done in the real world.
Hopeful, uplifting content with people "beating the odds."
I don't only want that by any means, but it sure would be nice to have more positive stories. Even better, more shows and movies where not every character is horribly irredeemable.
I agree with the teens. We already live in a dystopia, no need to have that in our movies and books anymore.
There’s a reason cottage core exists. And how popular bridgerton is, and that’s not because of the sex in the series, but the escapism to a world where war barely gets mentioned. And where costumed balls are all the rage.
The number of sex scenes are down since 2000 of the movies coming out of Hollywood. But if you're willing to read subtitles, there's still a lot of horny videos coming out of Western Europe.
For me, make the sex relevant to the plot and make the sex they have congruent with the characters.
I have noticed over the years sex scenes usually add no value to the movie. If the sex scene was removed completely it wouldn’t change the story at all.
Yeah, while I do enjoy seeing occasional boobs (which most of the time aren't even showed), if I want to watch sex, I'll just put on some porn.
IMO, The Room is one of the few movies where the sex scenes added anything. And even then, they didn't add anything to the plot, they added to the meta plot, which was the story of a guy with a passionate vision but lacking the talent to pull off that vision, which IMO Wiseau does have talent doing, since he's been able to recreate that same feeling in other content, making me think he's playing a character (Tommy Wiseau the producer) he wants the audience to laugh at.
Sex, going to the bathroom, and puking.
All 3 can be easily inferred without actually showing it.
Counterpoint: showing the sex and the puking in graphic detail in Team America were both important parts of the movie.
Also in Guesthouse Paradiso. It was vital to show how problematic it could be to eat radioactive fish.
I remember watching the wolf of wall street on opening day with my parents when I was a teen.
Based on that experience, I agree, that was so awkward lol
So, way back in the day, when Borat was released, basically my whole household loved it. Then, Bruno was announced! Another movie from the same guy, excellent!
Wrong.
I took my mom to go see it. In theaters. I don't think I can really put into words the awkwardness of sitting through that film.
Bud, imagine your parents taking you as a teen to see Species (1995) because we all thought it was just some sci-fi alien movie…
My mom did something similar and dragged 13 year old me and my two younger brothers to go see Saturday Night Fever in theaters because the commercials had dancing and music, so she thought it was a musical.
My issue is that it's almost always gratuitous now. I so rarely see a sex scene in a TV show or movie and think that it could have easily been skipped, but they felt the need to show an actress' breasts and have her simulate an orgasm.
I don't get titillated by it. I have porn if I need that.
I didn't get past the first episode of Game of Thrones because I found all the sex and nudity too gratuitous for my tastes.
I don't think I'm a prude. I have no problem with sex scenes and nudity in films where they make sense. Basic Instinct wouldn't make sense without them. Last Tango in Paris wouldn't make sense without them. They're both movies worth watching.
I think, at least in the GoT example, sexual situations can be used to communicate a lot about the attitudes and culture around sex and nudity in the universe of the show or movie. It's much more interesting than somebody saying, "Hey, person who already knows this: it's considered normal for men to use brothels, isn't it?"
It's much less interesting and necessary for something set in the "current" world, since the audience doesn't need as much education in the social mores. However, it can make the work have better instructive longevity if it's an accurate depiction of the time, since people fifty years in the future can watch and understand what was different.
But I do agree that overall there has been a lot of gratuitous nudity and sex, just the same with violence, etc.
You didn't think it made sense in game of thrones?
It's olden days in a hostile world. All there is to do is have sex and die. What felt inaccurate to life about that?
You should suffer through it. The series is pretty primo. Books are good too, but season one is less time investment than book one and they run pretty parallel. Book two and season two... Different story.
To be honest that particular sex scene is pretty central to their story and Bran's story. It could have been less gratuitous but the actual point of him catching them in the act drives the rest of their story lines.
I would have watched game of thrones without the porn.
I legit can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not, because it perfectly encapsulates the weird way america is so blase about depictions of graphic, gleeful violence while simultaneously being horrified at seeing a nipple.on tv.
What you didn't want to see a dude fuck his sister, a dude rape a teenager, or a little dude fuck a bunch of prostitutes?
For all the time GRRM spends describing sex, he really goes out of his way to make it as fucked up as possible.
I watched game of thrones and enjoyed the ride. I think this is more okay because you know what you’re getting into. I have to be in the mood for a bunch of crazy violence and sex and if I am would watch game of thrones. Probably the push back is jamming it into ever thing they possibly can.
It's because kids are staying home with mom and dad much later and you know how uncomfortable everyone in the room gets when there's a bang scene.
*The preceding statement was a joke, albeit a bad one. Any similarities to true events are purely coincidental and the author bears no responsibility for any implied or actual hurt feelings.
So I've noticed that there are a lot of streaming movies and TV shows that match a lot of these patterns:
- IP is announced. Adaptation of extremely popular series with existing fanbase
- IP is billed as "adult" with "mature themes"
- Producer/Director goes on a podcast and compares IP to "Game of Thrones" a few weeks before release. Said comparison treats GoT as an ideal to aspire to instead of a cautionary tale.
- Producer/Director also insults existing fanbase for some reason
- IP is previewed to critics, gets amazing reviews
- IP comes out, and gets high streaming numbers day one
- Writing ends up being terrible
- Plot ends up being surface level, with all the subtly of the original adaptation cut out. This somehow is true now matter how basic the source material may seem
- Acting is terrible. There is at least one race swapped character, who they also butcher from a writing perspective
- VFX is terrible, and expensive scenes are cut out
- Costumes are terrible to the point where everything looks like shitty cosplay
- There's a few violent scenes that are extremely gratuitous. VFX and writing are so bad that it's comical instead of jarring
- There are a few random sex scenes thrown in. The sex scenes detract from the pacing of the story, and are blatantly thrown in so producers can brag about them
- Sex scenes tend to focus on the female form. If men are involved, they all are hairless and look like boy band members
- If it is a gay sex scene, it blatantly written by women and for women with an extremely limited knowledge of men as a whole
- In a few days, the Internet erupts with needlessly vitriolic discourse about said IP.
- A year post release, the show is essentially forgotten.
In that context it's no surprise younger people don't like sex scenes. It's basically a canary for a low quality show and extreme toxicity.
The issue here isn't sex, its censorship. Texas already requires age verification for adult sites. They got that win. Fine. Now they want to go after TV and movies. Ok.
So then what's next?
They will then start going after anything "they" deem unfit. It's a slippery slope. Just look at them already banning books.
And here's the thing. We show it. We show all of it.
Crime. Penetration. Crime. Full penetration. Crime, penetration.
And this goes on and on and back and forth for 90 or so minutes until the movie just sort of... ends.
No, it’s totally OK to shoot a fictional movie where you graphically depict an adult disemboweling a child and torturing them, but show an 18-year-old actor portraying a child who is having graphic sex suddenly becomes illegal. Maybe if they could just watch it on TV the priests and Republicans would stop fucking children in real life.
I've been saying this for so long. Don't get me wrong, some films do make sense to have sex scenes. But there are so many that either have hardcore (for TV) sex scenes or just random full nudity that makes it nearly impossible to watch with anyone other than my partner or close friends.
Like if I recommend a film or show to someone and completely forget that it had sex or even just nudity in it, it usually wasn't important to the story. On the other hand, it may have made sense to include in the film but it was so terribly done that I promptly blocked it out.
The other issue is that it has become increasingly difficult to find any shows that either don't include sex scenes, or don't have ridiculous levels of violence, or whatever else is difficult for me to deal with when I just want something easy to watch that's not a kid's movie (although kid's movies have their own set of issues).
Streaming services don't even make it easy to find something to watch - they show you the same stuff over and over, or they pretend that everything is in English when they include so many other languages in the selections. If I am unable to pay attention to the captions then I would prefer to have something in English without trying a bunch of different shows first. I mean I guess this is partly (mainly?) my fault since I've failed to learn another language despite years of studying. But I think it just irritates me that they lie about it more than anything.
Idk I am off topic now and this has turned into a really long comment that probably doesn't say anything that hasn't already been said in this thread.
“Social media is the most authentic?”
GenZ is fucked. Although not literally
it's at an all time low. idk how less it could get.
Just do like, a sexy handshake, and move on.
Right? That's my thought. We already have a record low of sex scenes in media but people are still complaining about it?
It's then not about the use but some other social issue, like say social stigmas against sex by a growing authoritarian right while being an act that is performed less and less by younger people on all sides say maybe by fears of the biological outcomes of unprotected sex?
I think it's just stress at the thought and an avoidance tactic.
lots of factors, I would say. I think the main thing is that it is still taboo which means you can't really enjoy something with sex scenes with your family and even friends. there's also the undeniable fact that lots of sex scenes have historically been gratuitous, obviously inserted to titillate rather than honestly add anything to the story. then again, there isn't the same kind of reaction against other types of gratuitous scenes, like violence or action.
I can understand that now that we have access to easy-direct--instant-proper porn that sex scenes are less appealing to the majority of people.
When I was a kid they would definitely include a sex scene just so that people looking to jerk off would be willing to watch or buy.
Yeah but, sex scenes in movies and sex in porn are hardly even the same thing. They're so wildly different, I don't see how one could be a replacement for the other.
True, but they can still get you (especially during Puberty) horny.
I think thats what these kids are actually complaining about. They're used to getting turned on and immediately being able to satisfy themselves on their phones. But during a movie they've got to wait another hour before they can releave themselves and that's frustrating for them.
When porn was less accessible they could definitely be in the realm. Now it's more often bad soft core or HBO style taking up too much of an episode without moving the plot.
Growing up my friend had a special VHS tape he'd rent movies and record the sex scenes to. He was pretty sheltered and just didn't have access to much else.
Not to pick on you or anything, but I just can't understand this perspective.
Like, imagine wanting less action in your Marvel movies because you can just youtube real fights in Denny's restaurants.
I guess it depends on the effects action could have on you.
If you're the type to get really pumped and hyped at action, something you do enjoy but maybe not all the time, then inserting it into a movie that you wanted to give you some other emotion would take away from the overall experience because it's hard to get out of the juiced up state of mind.
So if sex scenes make you horny, and maybe you're conditioned to get immediate relief from that feeling because of porn, then I can see why that could hinder your enjoyment of the overall movie.
More confirmation the world is right to see us as backwards. (US study)
So many sexual hangups. Makes sense considering we were founded by Puritans escaping to the new world to be more backwards and repressed.
Sex is a part of life. A massive part of the human condition. A part to be celebrated, not mourned or minimized. That's how we get pedophile priests and sexual education summed up in "do not do it because it does not exist and you're dirty for asking." It's not Gen Zs fault though, social media is designed to emphasize the darkest possible side of everything as it gets clicks, so sex as a concept is just a vector of potential trauma to them.
If only we had the same hangups about our violence boners our media gluts us on with abandon. Sports concussions, gory explosion movies, and our most celebrated exports tools of mass murder 😎👍. People giving one another physical pleasure 😱👎.
This would make sense if I could watch an adult show without a cringey sex scene shoehorned in for no apparent reason other than to show how macho the main man is.
We're not prudes, we just want good stories.
One refreshing take in kdramas is the lack of sex.
My right hand starts pressing right arrow button automatically when the scene starts
I am an adult and I do this too, but not because sex bothers me, it's because the vast majority of sex in mainstream media is incredibly stilted and embarrassing to watch. Cinema has had over a century to try to portray and capture actual relationships between people and still hasn't even come close to accurately portraying attractive, affectionate chemistry between two people.
The fact that in mainstream programs and movies, the lead characters ALWAYS have to have this "enemies to lovers" dynamic makes me gag. It was funny once or twice, but that's not remotely how real people have real intimate relationships, so why does Hollywood lean in SO HARD to the same trope of the sassy female proving she's as tough as the rugged male anti-hero and they always have to have this weird battle-of-wills where they have separate goals and can't show affection openly to each other.
It's no longer interesting. I have seen porn with better, loving, attractive relationships.
It makes sense. Sex scenes were interesting when we didn't have on-hand porn streaming because it was something you didn't see often. Nudity and sex are now so readily available that they aren't exciting. As someone else said, just infer it.
Just have the screen go black at a sex scene.
“Pause here, go watch your favourite porn vid and come back. That’s what just happened.”
A choose your own adventure!
It doesn't make sense.
Is it more interesting to see your girlfriend or boyfriend naked or in a sensual situation or porn? How about just someone you know?
Extending this logic, it is more interesting to see someone you know in se(x/n)ual scenes from an acting perspective. Meaning, while it's may not help the plot of every movie, I would say having these elements added by your favorite actor gives some pupil dilating special sauce that horny longdong and bouncy jangletits hardcore adventure does not provide.
I absolutely despise media that relies on sex for the plot. It just ruins it for me. I'm also not a teen.
You would hate most Greek mythology
Why is that swan leering at me...
And some religious texts.
Greecy
No need for it as the internet is full of it….and whatever you want for free
The Center for Scholars & Storytellers (CSS), based in the Psychology Department at the University of California, Los Angeles, designed Teens and Screens to investigate American adolescents’ perspective about the media they engage with and consume. This yearly study aims to elevate the voices of adolescents, hoping to have an impact on the media landscape that’s a part of their daily lives. We are grateful to the Funders of Adolescent Science Translation (FAST), the Walt Disney Company, and Roblox for their support of this independent research.
Specifically, American teenagers.
Not a teen here but the amount of sex that show characters have seems crazy to me and I genuinely think it affected me because I couldn't keep up as an impressionable child. It's ok to have lots of sex but do we have to act like that's normal and that I should be suffering when I go more than a month without sex?
Sex is very normal though. Just to make an argument here: what if sex had been banned altogether in the media when you were an impressionable child. How would that have worked out for you?
My guess is not better.
Not better, but I am not advocating for the other extreme. I just think our media could stand to show more variety of what a healthy sex life can look like.
If I want to watch sex in a movie, I’ll watch a porno in my basement sex dungeon. If I want to watch something with family and friends without that weird awkward moment when SEX starts happening, I’ll watch a movie without a pointless sex scene in it.
Pandering to teenagers is how you end up with plotlines wrapping up like oh thankfully Wesley found a solution in the last five minutes
Teenagers should be touching grass, or hucking loogies at cars, go outside and dig a hole or something, log off
They have to hook and tag them early or they can't cash in on the nostalgia later.
In other news, the entertainment industry is run by soulless ghouls that will do anything they believe is necessary to increase revenue, including adding sex and violence that requires no language or subtlety to understand.
I always thought there should be more going to the restroom scenes.
Immediately thinking of Pulp Fiction
When I watched the 24 series I really wanted it to cut to Jack Bauer at least washing his hands afterwards.
It always hit me kind of weird that getting a sci-fi novel without sex required me to read YA
ITT I found out that Satan was right.
I also noticed hollywood often depict a woman cheating on the man and the man forgiving it.
Do you have any examples?
This new generation of kids is much more chill, educated and not sex crazed like we were. I feel like we were all boning young and being wild, getting drunk in high school. Now teens like to code, go on social media, game, etc. Going out to party and get wild is not attractive to them
I don't think that's entirely accurate, young people are definitely not "more chill" if anything they've just had to grow up faster in a world that bombards everyone with every adult concern as soon as they can read or pick up a phone.
There are some good things, like the massive drop in teen pregnancy and general decline of violence all around. But there's now an epidemic of loneliness and depression affecting people of all ages, starting early in life. People have largely retreated to personal safety of their own online lives, and the shift to online dating hasn't been good to people. Social media and scrolling is killing everyone's attention-spans and ability to compromise and socialize. Women still are in danger of assault. Men are still desperately lonely. Existing is still a massive challenge if you don't fall into the gender or sexuality binary and conservatism is on the rise among many young men because of sexual frustration and emotional vulnerabilities to the narratives of grifters. Definitely NOT chill shit going on and we have the dawning of technology that will make it even harder for people to connect. AI that can reliably fool people is going to throw a massive wrench into our entire culture. It's worth being concerned about but we also have to encourage each other and ourselves to actually do challenging things like going out and talking to live humans as much as possible.