Movies

Meanwhile, one of the most popular show recently was euphoria

Lots of people in here talking about how sex scenes suck, and they’re right. But I think we should also consider this: decades of focus on abstinence education and evolving parental and institutional surveillance has been successful at making young people have less sex. And now the olds, having achieved their mission, are confused about why the kids are having less sex and making less babies and the media they are creating and consuming is reflecting that.

Everyone is saying sex scenes aren't needed. I present my evidence that sex scenes are needed: Office Space

The sex scene shows that Peter is paranoid and deeply uncomfortable with the fact that his girlfriend, Joanna had sex with his boss. A fact that Peter heard as a rumour from a horny co-worker. Lumbergh would never talk about their sex life at work as that would inappropriate as a manager.

The scene also shows how Peter see Lumbergh as a person. It also sets up for the conflict between Peter and Joanna as Peter acts on his nightmare like a child.

Granted the scene is extremely soft core and played for laughs. However, I think the movie would be a little weaker if Peter had gone to to the office the next day and told everyone about the nightmare without showing it. Yes, you could cut out the scene as the party scene sets everything up for the future conflict. The sex scene shows how deeply uncomfortable Peter is with the situation. It's truly a scene that does "Show, Don't Tell".

I gave up on movies in like '09. No I do not want to see your 5,000th Marvel movie or remake of an 80s movie, regardless of sex scenes, thanks.

A-fucking-men. So boring.

How does Gen Z feel about nudity in films? Either nudity that fits the scene and feels logical or nudity just for fan service?

I'm cool if your just not a fan of shoe horned in and cringey sex scenes, but lots of younger folks come off as weirdly puritanically prudish to me. Why are we so much more comfortable with casual violence than casual nudity? That bothers me.

This seems unlikely considering the massive number of popular teen romance shows happening, such as Heartstopper. It's just that any sex scenes need to have actual depth behind them when they happen, not just random sex out of nowhere.

I just hate the wet noises that accompany it. Same thing with kissing scenes where they have a shotgun mic basically inside their mouths. It drives my sensory issues up a wall.

I’m gen y and I agree. Skip the shitty softcore.

I'd personally prefer that if they aren't allowed to show it they not bother. All this does is make watching with family uncomfortable or possibly if your aware of the scene beforehand prevent watching it with family at all.

Assuming i'm not trying to watch it with family I prefer my content uncensored, like they can say fuck if they want to or fuck if they want or actually be seen nude after a shower instead being censored in some form.

Even when I am watching things with family i'd prefer they just not did things they'd have to censor than taint it with censorship.

This is definitely a cultural prudishness emerging. But that's only part of it. There has also been a shift away from artistic filmmaking and toward high-grossing tentpole movies. Because nudity is a taboo in our society, you need an artistic purpose to the nudity (or sex scene) in the film or it won't serve any purpose to the film, and people will notice that it's out of place. If most of the movies you have are cookie-cutter concept movies with little to no artistic expression, you just can't make anything taboo work in them.

Obviously everyone has different taste in movies, but some films that made on-screen sex work really well are Basic Instinct, Blue Velvet, and Eyes Wide Shut. It also adds a lot to really campy movies. Nightmare on Elm Street comes to mind. Species became a cult classic because of its use of nudity and sex. For just plain nudity, It Follows used it well in the briefest of glimpses of the antagonist. It also added a lot to Ex Machina.

Those are just the movies off the top of my head that were made more impactful by sex and nudity.

Oh! Airplane also has a big laugh thanks to a scene of gratuitous nudity. Let's not forget the comedies!

As someone on the far older end of gen Z or the far younger end of millenial, depending on where you draw the line:

I hate sex scenes. I have some personal issues however that may affect my judgment. Trauma and such. Don't wanna see sex unless I was fully mentally prepared for it, which I just can't be if it's shoved into some random movie, regardless of if you warn me in advance.

It might seem odd, but I wonder if the almost unavoidable overexposure to porn from a very young age elicits a similar response in a lot of younger people. The fact that for a lot of your life, sex is a forbidden thing you have to sneak around to indulge in, and which the one form you have exposure to, porn, carries the risk of addiction. It seems like it'd leave an impression on your mind that it's a scary thing you have to hide, which I could see eliciting some kind of trauma response when suddenly it's everywhere and you're still stuck feeling like you have to hide it.

Out of all movies with sex scenes in it, I only like the one in Crank.

Gen x, i think, here. Sex alone does nothing for me. Nudity does nothing. I'm attracted more to people, subtlety, long, slow seductions.

Most sex I see in tv, movies, is ridiculous. Like, 2 people have been flirting for weeks. One day, chance meeting, they kiss. RIGHT THEN, right after the first kiss, they immediately start taking their clothes off.

Seriously, who does that?

Some of the best sex can be if you have your clothes on.

Also, too many fantasy TV shows have characters who can't touch other people cuz demon in them, physically touching someone means they'll lose control, whatever. So they go around miserable, horny, unrequited love and all that. Which to me shows failure of imagination. Sex can be imaginative, creative, so much variety, possibility. Phone sex, mutual self masturbation, why not work those options into the plot?

But no, in movies and TV, its almost always: kiss, clothes come right off, completely naked, always in a bed, orgasm in 5 minutes. Real life is way more complex than that.

I have a standing wager with my friends that there has never been a filmed or written sex scene that needed to be included in the media. Talk about it, allude to it, show the ramifications of it, but there has never been one that needed to be there. Sex scenes are there to sell TnA, not to move the plot forward.

For an example of a close call. In A History of Violence, Viggo rapes his wife. This is about as close as you could come to a needed scene because it shows a wild character development, but if you were to cut the scene out entirely, you'd still get all of the character development that he gets from the scene, anyway, rendering it useless.

Sounds good to me and I'm a couple letters behind Gen Z. Either the scenes don't do anything for me, in which case they're boring, or they do something for me, in which case...what do I do when it's over? Do I pause and go take care of it, or sit there all hot and bothered while somebody talks about business stuff or getting the bad guys or whatever? Either way it's annoying. And I'm no prude, it's just, if I want to see sex I'll just watch porn. But I'm not watching porn, I'm trying to watch a story. IDK. It's like if the mall decided every store needed a stripper pole.

I don't watch nothing without sex scenes