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If it does not serve a purpose for the plot, then it’s not needed. Simple as that.

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

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.

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".

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.

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.

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.

Well yeah, I think this is universal. No one wants to watch a sex scene with their parents

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.

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.

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.

The kids are right.

Team America World Police is the only movie that ever got the sex scene right.

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

Here is the actual study if anyone is interested.

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/633f0603fdaa7311ba384d21/t/6719a3a9660bed6cba2abf97/1729733553264/Teens+%26+Screens+2024+Report.pdf

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.

Sex, going to the bathroom, and puking.

All 3 can be easily inferred without actually showing it.

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

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 would have watched game of thrones without the porn.

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.