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Where Have All the Sex Scenes Gone?

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Re: Where Have All the Sex Scenes Gone?

#71

Post by Jedd »

powersnail wrote: post #47

Aren't there plenty of sex scenes in TV shows these days? So much that I frequently want to fast-forward. So much that I wonder if "sex" has become the ultimate plot device. Strangers? One-night stand, and they are best buddies ever. Angry at each other? Rage sex, and all the animosity gone. Not thinking clearly? Sex with your partner calms you down. Thinking clearly? Sex with a seductive villain dazzles your mind. S…

> Aren't there plenty of sex scenes in TV shows these days?

Very probably.

TFA does not include the string 'TV' or 'television', but has 16 occurrences of 'movie', so perhaps you're arguing against a point that's not being asserted.

> I don't understand sentences like these.

And that's okay.

As TFA points out, China (and elsewhere) are significant markets with specific and (to western culture) peculiar requirements in terms of being culturally palatable.

The question is cogent, concise, and valid -- if you're a movie maker (motivated by money/fame/whatever) why would you try to contend with complex and difficult material if you could instead, as they author asks, more easily rake in billions by having two asexual fictional character punch aliens.

> Superhero movies are more successful due to many reasons: big budget, proven formulaic plots, fan base, etc. but definitely not because they are less bothersome to produce.

It's not so much bothersomeness that's the key criteria, but I'd suggest that big budgets don't guarantee a film's success anymore than a proven formulae (there's only 7 after all) or a large fan base (plenty of fan bases are both enormous and enormously unsatisfied).

Read some of the literature on why Marvel has been so popular in the China market for some context here -- for example this piece (but there's an abundance) : https://variety.com/2019/film/news/avengers-endgame-marvel-u...

Re: Where Have All the Sex Scenes Gone?

#72

Post by Koshkin »

What looks eerie to me is that watching TV series becomes more and more like simply watching others people live their lives: them having sex; sleeping; talking while in bed; having breakfast; brushing their teeth; sitting on a toilet… (And, these days, all of that without letting the phones out of their hands, of course.)

Re: Where Have All the Sex Scenes Gone?

#73

Post by sexscenes »

elzbardico wrote: post #27

Maybe I am strange, but while I am a heavily sexual person IRL, I never quite got the point of those long sex scenes in movies. On the contrary, always found it gratuitous and slightly annoying.

I always assumed that sex scenes were there to help couples have sex especially when they are older.

We are in our 40s, it takes a lot to get in mood for sex. We don't watch porn or actually look for ways to get in the mood. We plan to have sex after date nights but those are rare with young kids in the house.

Over last few years, most of sex happened when we were watching a "real" movie with a good sex scene/s. I understand why superhero movie should not have sex scenes but we need more adult movies with a good stories. There is demand for it. My wife's book club even recommends steamy movies to watch with your partner, unfortunately, some of those are really cheesy like 365 Days.

Re: Where Have All the Sex Scenes Gone?

#74

Post by graycat »

DanielBMarkham wrote: post #25

The overseas market, specifically China, probably plays a much bigger role in self-censoring cinema than most people are comfortable admitting. Nobody wants good cinema, movies that dig into and challenge the human condition. They want money. In the last 20-30 years, we have seen the strip-mall-ization of the movie theater. Every city has at least one, they all look the same, and drop in at any time and you'll see th…

Clarify your meaning of "reductionist"?

Re: Where Have All the Sex Scenes Gone?

#75

Post by ravenstine »

stared wrote: post #35

It saddens me that we live in a culture in which movies showing violence (including torture and murder) are acceptable, whereas ones showing consensual, non-pornographic intercourse - aren’t. You might argue that on Netflix every second movie have a lot of sex scenes. Yes, must mostly with partial or implied nudity (think of all of these scenes with sex with bra on, waking up clothed, or L-shaped sheets). At the same…

And when we do show sex, it's in ways where it's always "complicated". Sex, according to the mainstream, must involve some sort of transgressive participation. You must be committing adultery, or be "in the closet", or committing incest, or doing it with total disregard for responsibilities, or doing it in inappropriate circumstances, or by committing rape. Unless you're watching a deliberately romantic film, I don't know how anyone can get a positive impression of sex or even associate sex with love by watching what's on streaming services.

Re: Where Have All the Sex Scenes Gone?

#76

Post by dragonwriter »

moogly wrote: post #40
DanielBMarkham wrote: post #25

The overseas market, specifically China, probably plays a much bigger role in self-censoring cinema than most people are comfortable admitting. Nobody wants good cinema, movies that dig into and challenge the human condition. They want money. In the last 20-30 years, we have seen the strip-mall-ization of the movie theater. Every city has at least one, they all look the same, and drop in at any time and you'll see th…

On the China thing: Why don't we let the ones who want to censor movies just do it on their own instead of precensoring them? This used to happen a lot. Is it really that expensive to cut out a few shots or use compositing to obscure things? I believe it's still done for so-called in-flight entertainment.

> On the China thing: Why don't we let the ones who want to censor movies just do it on their own instead of precensoring them?

Because its more cost effective to consider the whole market when making the movie to start with.

> I believe it's still done for so-called in-flight entertainment

In-flight entertainment isn't way down the list of money drivers. “Chinese first-run sales” is a lot higher. So the power of the latter on how movies are initially crafted is big, while the former is negligible.

Re: Where Have All the Sex Scenes Gone?

#77

Post by JohnJamesRambo »

Waterluvian wrote: post #24
JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #14

I was watching The Beastmaster on Prime and commented this to my girlfriend as we watched it. It’s a great movie from the 80s that of course has some sex and nudity. Hollywood is completely terrified of sex and nudity now. It alters people’s brains in ways we don’t understand I think. We still hold what we see on the silver screen as a cultural reference point. There’s nothing dirty or wrong about the human body or s…

I had suspected it was the opposite: sex is boring now that it’s more normalized than ever. Once you get a series of BDSM-themed books and a movie that are socially accepted in regular discourse, a sex scene in a movie is just less risqué.

I see it as two different things pulling on the human mind in opposite directions, you can find all manner of porn if you try on the internet, yet you never see the "normal" people do it or be nude in a movie anymore. I think this can cause some issues.

Even the 50 Shades sex scenes in the movies were bizarrely tame and Puritan. Like if a pre-teen imagined what sex was like but had never really actually done the deed.

Re: Where Have All the Sex Scenes Gone?

#78

Post by Hnrobert42 »

powersnail wrote: post #47

Aren't there plenty of sex scenes in TV shows these days? So much that I frequently want to fast-forward. So much that I wonder if "sex" has become the ultimate plot device. Strangers? One-night stand, and they are best buddies ever. Angry at each other? Rage sex, and all the animosity gone. Not thinking clearly? Sex with your partner calms you down. Thinking clearly? Sex with a seductive villain dazzles your mind. S…

I didn’t read the “why bother” question as an either-or between erotic films and superhero movies. I saw it as an either-or between including a sex scene in a superhero movie or another action sequence.

Considering that choice, a sex scene is more bother because of the two reasons the author offers – commercial and cultural.

Re: Where Have All the Sex Scenes Gone?

#79

Post by rajin444 »

mellavora wrote: post #43
JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #14

I was watching The Beastmaster on Prime and commented this to my girlfriend as we watched it. It’s a great movie from the 80s that of course has some sex and nudity. Hollywood is completely terrified of sex and nudity now. It alters people’s brains in ways we don’t understand I think. We still hold what we see on the silver screen as a cultural reference point. There’s nothing dirty or wrong about the human body or s…

Fortunately we still have lots of violence, death, and torture. Because those are totally ok and normal things to be thinking about. Ug! Sex and love. that stuff is just too dangerous to let into the public imagination.

I don't think it's repressed because it's dangerous or immoral. Constant casual sex devalues a monogamous relationship. Many in our culture still place a lot of value on a monogamous relationship, so you see it reflected in media.

I'm not religious and do not care at all about how other's live their lives. But I see value in a monogamous relationship, and see attitudes toward casual sex as a decent indicator in helping me select a partner with the same values. This is not a moral judgement by any means. This is also not saying a monogamous relationship is better or worse.

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