to anyone who sees this comment: go read the essay "everyone is beautiful and no one is horny" by raquel benedict if you haven't already. i think it does a good job examining the same question this video asks, though from a more opinion-based perspective
I want to add a point that wasn't necessarily covered here. UCLA recently undertook a study asking this question and found out that millennials and Gen Z don't want sex scenes in movies from a consumer research POV. However, these two groups do want more intimacy and platonic relationships between characters.
Personally I suspect this topic ties rather directly into the normalizing of online pornography et al. That raises the bar for when and how to use romance and sex in other formats. If the romantic plot and sexual scene makes sense and lifts the rest of the story its perfectly fine, and people still want that, but if it is gratuitous and superfluous people will reject it more in a post-pornographic world. The tldr is if there is better context writing in a pizzaguy porn scene, than in your avatar pseudo sex scene, you are in bad writing territory. Recently I watched Lioness from Taylor Sheridan, and it actually had an above average amount of sex themed scenes and plots, but they fitted the overall story and the subplots. I strongly doubt the modern audience reject romance and eroticism, even if the vocal commentary online often will lead one to believe so. I think its just that the barrier of accepted usage has been massively raised. As a small experiment one could do a similar comparison with say explosions in movies. I will hypothesize that its way down compared to say the 80ies and 90ies, when ever car that hit a ditch exploded and Molotov cocktails worked like tomahawk missiles.
I think if you're a teen it's fine if you don't like sex scenes in movies and tv! There are a lot of bad and contrived sex scenes/sexuality in teen media and I think that tends to push teens and young adults to reject sex in media when they get older. It's also that so much sex in media these days is stiff and sterile and not hot :/ it doesn't feel human or erotic at all and oftentimes feels voyeuristic and even misogynistic. So my solution is a greater diversity of better, less exploitative sex that's tailor-made for the stories they're in and a critical examination of whether certain stories utilize sex appropriately (as opposed to just shock value and cheap titillation).
I've been thinking about this myself lately, as well. It's interesting that audiences no longer want as much sex in their movies as before. Whether this is because of saturation or some return to puritanism, I don't know. People are still all right with reckless violence in movies, they're still obviously all right with porn, but a sex scene in a movie might make them lose their minds -- over an activity that nearly everyone everywhere has always taken part in. People are much more explicitly sexual than they are explicitly violent, but it's easier to pretend otherwise. Anyway, great editing man, I like your style. Also great analogy with McDonald's. Thanks for this.
@@NotableStories It's unfortunately behind a paywall (and in Finnish lol) but it's called "Miksi emme enää halua katsoa elokuvien seksikohtauksia?", which translates to "Why do we no longer want to watch sex scenes in movies?" Here's the part where your video was mentioned copied from the article: "Tubettaja nimeltä Notable kävi läpi suosituimpien yhdysvaltalaiselokuvien sisältöä ja laski, että 1990-luvulla kärkiteoksissa seksikohtaukset olivat yleisempiä kuin viime vuosina. Seksikohtausten määrä on laskenut alemmas kuin 1970-luvulla, jolloin eroottisuuden esittäminen valkokankaalla alkoi vasta vapautua." Roughly translated: "The RUclipsr Notable went through the most popular American movies' contents and counted that in the 1990's sex scenes were more popular than in the last years. The number of sex scenes had fallen to less than there were in the 1970's, which is when the portrayal of eroticism on the silver screen had just started to become more free."
To be honest, as an asexual person I'm glad sex scenes are disappearing. There's (in my opinion) almost nothing that you can't portray using a sex scene, that you cannot convey any other way. Even that the characters have a sexual relationship. You can just imply it.
I disagree as someone who is also asexual but is unbothered by sex. Every tool in an artist's toolbox should be available and at their disposal, if you're personally uncomfortable seeing a sex scene you can either watch something else or choose to engage with it on its terms. It's not just about sex, really, a lot of film releases have to play it safe on every front to be seen as profitable. This kind of creative climate means that you won't get much sex but you won't get any cool queer rep, either.
I get your point, and I am terribly sorry if sex scenes make you genuinely gross out because of your orientation. But just the fact that there are other ways to communicate something doesn't mean that it shouldn't be used at all. Book adaptations come to mind: Assuming the book you are adapting was already good on it's own, anything that you add on top of it (cinematography, acting, music) is not really necessary for communicating what the book already did. And yet few would argue that you shouldn't adapt any book in general, because adding new and diverse elements to an already complete work has the ability to add on dept. I'd further say that sex is a pretty unique element to use on your work, if only because it is intense. Even if it is an element you personally can't empathise with you have to acknowledge that sex is one of the most extreme experiences a human being can have and therefore lends itself well for expressing all sorts of ideas and feelings, depending on how it unfolds and how you frame it. 'There's (in my opinion) almost nothing that you can't portray using a sex scene, that you cannot convey any other way'. And what can you convey in a more intense way without sex? This is not me telling you that you should enjoy something that you simply do not, or me invalidating you for liking a movie better because it does not have a sex scene. I know that this is not a direct parallel, but I am too sensitive to harm and body horror to enjoy many great films that other people do. It is frustrating to miss out on them, but I can not expect other people to miss out on an element they value about a piece of art. If you want my advice, I would quickly go over to a website like IMDb and check it's content guide before watching any +16 or +18 films. It is what I do anyway. Good luck!
@@signodeinterrogacion8361 Of course sex is a natural part of most humans' lives, and I'm not arguing you should never use sex scenes, I'm more talking about directors who add sex scenes simply to add sex scenes, or when it would make more sense (to me) to use a different kind of scene. And thanks for the tip! But because most (older) movies, especially action films have some sort of random sex scene in there purely for appeal to the male gaze, there would be a lot of movies I'm not able to watch. Now I just use them as snackbreaks, since I rarely go to theaters anyway.
@@Noel-mn1be Yeah, fair point. It can certainly be overused, although I would argue that some of these 'pointless' sex scenes can have their meaning and impact, just like any other out of place scene can in some movies with a good enough direction to pull out tricks like that. Snack breaks are honestly quite a cool part about watching movies, beyond just the actual reason you do them. Maybe you could use RunPee or something like that to know before hand when an unnecessary sex scene comes on. Not the intended purpose, but hey, it works.
to anyone who sees this comment: go read the essay "everyone is beautiful and no one is horny" by raquel benedict if you haven't already. i think it does a good job examining the same question this video asks, though from a more opinion-based perspective
I want to add a point that wasn't necessarily covered here. UCLA recently undertook a study asking this question and found out that millennials and Gen Z don't want sex scenes in movies from a consumer research POV. However, these two groups do want more intimacy and platonic relationships between characters.
Please pet your dog for me and tell him he's a good boy, thanks
Personally I suspect this topic ties rather directly into the normalizing of online pornography et al. That raises the bar for when and how to use romance and sex in other formats. If the romantic plot and sexual scene makes sense and lifts the rest of the story its perfectly fine, and people still want that, but if it is gratuitous and superfluous people will reject it more in a post-pornographic world. The tldr is if there is better context writing in a pizzaguy porn scene, than in your avatar pseudo sex scene, you are in bad writing territory. Recently I watched Lioness from Taylor Sheridan, and it actually had an above average amount of sex themed scenes and plots, but they fitted the overall story and the subplots. I strongly doubt the modern audience reject romance and eroticism, even if the vocal commentary online often will lead one to believe so. I think its just that the barrier of accepted usage has been massively raised. As a small experiment one could do a similar comparison with say explosions in movies. I will hypothesize that its way down compared to say the 80ies and 90ies, when ever car that hit a ditch exploded and Molotov cocktails worked like tomahawk missiles.
I think if you're a teen it's fine if you don't like sex scenes in movies and tv! There are a lot of bad and contrived sex scenes/sexuality in teen media and I think that tends to push teens and young adults to reject sex in media when they get older. It's also that so much sex in media these days is stiff and sterile and not hot :/ it doesn't feel human or erotic at all and oftentimes feels voyeuristic and even misogynistic. So my solution is a greater diversity of better, less exploitative sex that's tailor-made for the stories they're in and a critical examination of whether certain stories utilize sex appropriately (as opposed to just shock value and cheap titillation).
I've been thinking about this myself lately, as well. It's interesting that audiences no longer want as much sex in their movies as before. Whether this is because of saturation or some return to puritanism, I don't know. People are still all right with reckless violence in movies, they're still obviously all right with porn, but a sex scene in a movie might make them lose their minds -- over an activity that nearly everyone everywhere has always taken part in. People are much more explicitly sexual than they are explicitly violent, but it's easier to pretend otherwise.
Anyway, great editing man, I like your style. Also great analogy with McDonald's. Thanks for this.
Excellent production quality, looking forward to see what you make on this channel! Cheers!
Great video! Fun fact: I found your channel because a major Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat cited this video in their article on the subject
That's how I found this too :D
Apparently their journalists have a good taste in youtube and watch super small channels.
@@kapelski104 That, or they googled it :D
That's wild! Could you send me the name of the article? I'd love to see it!
@@NotableStories It's unfortunately behind a paywall (and in Finnish lol) but it's called "Miksi emme enää halua katsoa elokuvien seksikohtauksia?", which translates to "Why do we no longer want to watch sex scenes in movies?"
Here's the part where your video was mentioned copied from the article:
"Tubettaja nimeltä Notable kävi läpi suosituimpien yhdysvaltalaiselokuvien sisältöä ja laski, että 1990-luvulla kärkiteoksissa seksikohtaukset olivat yleisempiä kuin viime vuosina. Seksikohtausten määrä on laskenut alemmas kuin 1970-luvulla, jolloin eroottisuuden esittäminen valkokankaalla alkoi vasta vapautua."
Roughly translated: "The RUclipsr Notable went through the most popular American movies' contents and counted that in the 1990's sex scenes were more popular than in the last years. The number of sex scenes had fallen to less than there were in the 1970's, which is when the portrayal of eroticism on the silver screen had just started to become more free."
Thanks so much for sharing! I appreciate it!
To be honest, as an asexual person I'm glad sex scenes are disappearing. There's (in my opinion) almost nothing that you can't portray using a sex scene, that you cannot convey any other way. Even that the characters have a sexual relationship. You can just imply it.
Fair point!
I disagree as someone who is also asexual but is unbothered by sex. Every tool in an artist's toolbox should be available and at their disposal, if you're personally uncomfortable seeing a sex scene you can either watch something else or choose to engage with it on its terms. It's not just about sex, really, a lot of film releases have to play it safe on every front to be seen as profitable. This kind of creative climate means that you won't get much sex but you won't get any cool queer rep, either.
I get your point, and I am terribly sorry if sex scenes make you genuinely gross out because of your orientation. But just the fact that there are other ways to communicate something doesn't mean that it shouldn't be used at all. Book adaptations come to mind: Assuming the book you are adapting was already good on it's own, anything that you add on top of it (cinematography, acting, music) is not really necessary for communicating what the book already did. And yet few would argue that you shouldn't adapt any book in general, because adding new and diverse elements to an already complete work has the ability to add on dept.
I'd further say that sex is a pretty unique element to use on your work, if only because it is intense. Even if it is an element you personally can't empathise with you have to acknowledge that sex is one of the most extreme experiences a human being can have and therefore lends itself well for expressing all sorts of ideas and feelings, depending on how it unfolds and how you frame it. 'There's (in my opinion) almost nothing that you can't portray using a sex scene, that you cannot convey any other way'. And what can you convey in a more intense way without sex?
This is not me telling you that you should enjoy something that you simply do not, or me invalidating you for liking a movie better because it does not have a sex scene. I know that this is not a direct parallel, but I am too sensitive to harm and body horror to enjoy many great films that other people do. It is frustrating to miss out on them, but I can not expect other people to miss out on an element they value about a piece of art. If you want my advice, I would quickly go over to a website like IMDb and check it's content guide before watching any +16 or +18 films. It is what I do anyway.
Good luck!
@@signodeinterrogacion8361 Of course sex is a natural part of most humans' lives, and I'm not arguing you should never use sex scenes, I'm more talking about directors who add sex scenes simply to add sex scenes, or when it would make more sense (to me) to use a different kind of scene.
And thanks for the tip! But because most (older) movies, especially action films have some sort of random sex scene in there purely for appeal to the male gaze, there would be a lot of movies I'm not able to watch. Now I just use them as snackbreaks, since I rarely go to theaters anyway.
@@Noel-mn1be Yeah, fair point. It can certainly be overused, although I would argue that some of these 'pointless' sex scenes can have their meaning and impact, just like any other out of place scene can in some movies with a good enough direction to pull out tricks like that.
Snack breaks are honestly quite a cool part about watching movies, beyond just the actual reason you do them. Maybe you could use RunPee or something like that to know before hand when an unnecessary sex scene comes on. Not the intended purpose, but hey, it works.
Thanks for the vid. You covered tried like it was a thesis study😂❤. Whether sex scenes are necessary? For me, they’re not, but character intimacy is.