Teens Want Less Sex in Movies and TV Shows, Study Finds
Teens Want Less Sex in Movies and TV Shows, Study Finds
variety.com
Teens Want Less Sex in Movies and TV Shows, Study Finds
I am not a teen.
228 comments
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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.
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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.
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Dude, there's a difference between romance and full-on extended sex scenes. Fade to black and get on with the plot.
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Do you characters take big stinky poops? Because that’s a real thing too. Do they pop pimples on their body or on their partners? The list goes on. There’s an audience for everything, but it’s pretty obvious sex isn’t as much of a driver for movies anymore.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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C'mon, didn't you wanna see Oppenheimer reach criticality?
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Soft coreHard coreDemon core
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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.
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And no one is laughing or having a good time. It's always some serious ass business.
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ass business
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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".
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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.
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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.
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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".
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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.
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Stargate SG1 did it as well or evem better than WH13 in my opinion. Sure Jack and Sam have some sort of romance but Teal'C, Sam, and Daniel are great friends. Atlantis did it even better with Ronon and Teyla.
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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.
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If you haven't seen it. Ted Lasso is a great one for this.
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I want to believe.
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Sherlock sorta did it. I don't think those two ever got together?
Edit: I did very much mean Elementary
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Twilight really fucked up the romance genre, huh? Lol
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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.
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Any art house film trying to portray reality.
Basic instinct interview
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Disagree, if it's in a romance movie it's sometimes a necessary addition
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Off the top of my head, scenes in:
Poor Things
Nymphomaniac
Antichrist
Requiem for a Dream
Saltburn
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Blue is the warmest color.
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The Room
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Sounds like someone has never seen MacGruber! Pointless and awkward absolutely but the value added was immeasurable.
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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
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The McGruber movie had a good one
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American Pie
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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,
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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.
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Team America World Police
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Long shot
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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.
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Watching softcore porn with your friends and family is kind of undesirable.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Yeah "sex sells" only works when society is not constantly exposed to more extreme content.
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So what, we're gonna remove gore and action scenes too? I'm not saying sex scenes inherently have more "value" than any other scene, I'm not even arguing they have any "value", but there are a lot of movies out there that are 90% "unnecessary titillation" in one way, shape, or form.
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Dunno. There are better sources too look for sex. Watching a movie with your mates is just awkward.
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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.
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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.
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I saw... killing joke? Whatever movie was made off of that. The Batman Batgirl Makeout was completely unnecessary and more than a bit disturbing.
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I thought they added romance to action movies for the female viewers. Lack of creativity turned romance into mostly sex.
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The kids are right.
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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.
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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.
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Team America World Police is the only movie that ever got the sex scene right.
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MacGruber?
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I promise. I’ll never die.
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Here is the actual study if anyone is interested.
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21, century of the fantasy, watch out antique civilisations!
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Makes me want Cosmere movies even more than I already did
"Uplifting fantasy about characters that 'beat the odds'" is like
The entire thing.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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I would have watched game of thrones without the porn.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Sex, going to the bathroom, and puking.
All 3 can be easily inferred without actually showing it.
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Counterpoint: showing the sex and the puking in graphic detail in Team America were both important parts of the movie.
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Also in Guesthouse Paradiso. It was vital to show how problematic it could be to eat radioactive fish.
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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.
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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?
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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 😱👎.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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…
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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They have to hook and tag them early or they can't cash in on the nostalgia later.
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it's at an all time low. idk how less it could get.
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Just do like, a sexy handshake, and move on.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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“Social media is the most authentic?”
GenZ is fucked. Although not literally
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One refreshing take in kdramas is the lack of sex.
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I absolutely despise media that relies on sex for the plot. It just ruins it for me. I'm also not a teen.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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My right hand starts pressing right arrow button automatically when the scene starts
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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.
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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?
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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.
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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.
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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.
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I always thought there should be more going to the restroom scenes.
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Immediately thinking of Pulp Fiction
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When I watched the 24 series I really wanted it to cut to Jack Bauer at least washing his hands afterwards.
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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.
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It always hit me kind of weird that getting a sci-fi novel without sex required me to read YA
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I also noticed hollywood often depict a woman cheating on the man and the man forgiving it.
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Do you have any examples?
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ITT I found out that Satan was right.
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228 comments
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.
Yeah because everyone in media needs to be straight, white, and Christian. 🙄
Representation matters.
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.
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.