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Where Have All the Sex Scenes Gone?

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Re: Where Have All the Sex Scenes Gone?

#91

Post by monkeyodeath »

Zababa wrote: post #89
monkeyodeath wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What, pray tell, constitutes "necessary" in art? People act like the only point of narrative work is to tell a story and advance a plot, forgetting that some of the greatest novels, plays, and movies of all time have creaky plots and barely-there stories, and plenty of "unnecessary" stuff.

I don't think the discussion is around "art", considering the examples given in the article. It's mostly about mass media.

True. I guess it's pretty much just product (or should I say "content") that we're discussing, despite all the lip service given to the idea that it's this really creative endeavor.

Re: Where Have All the Sex Scenes Gone?

#92

Post by Alex3917 »

Joeboy wrote: post #84
Alex3917 wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"It seems like this is you trying to promote your Hollywood startup" Not my startup, I don't have any connection to them other than via my co-founder. I do run FWD:Everyone though.

Apologies. It seems like your link is your co-founder trying to promote his Hollywood startup, rather than an accurate assessment of how things are currently done in Hollywood.

I mean he is promoting the startup, it's an investor pitch. I don't read what he's saying as being inaccurate though.

Re: Where Have All the Sex Scenes Gone?

#93

Post by Zababa »

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.

You're assuming that these films are made first for the USA. As an example, the last Fast & Furious made more money in China as compared to the USA, and that's with a Taiwan controversy: https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt5433138/

Re: Where Have All the Sex Scenes Gone?

#94

Post by MontyCarloHall »

d3nj4l wrote: post #83
theyx wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any data to back up the claim about zoomers? I am a zoomer and none of the people around my age I know are anti-sex. If anything, we are all for (safe) sex without the constraints of social pressure/puritan morality.

It’s a twitter thing, which probably points to sec negative zoom era being more vocal perhaps.

[flagged]

Re: Where Have All the Sex Scenes Gone?

#95

Post by Koshkin »

28736947 wrote: post #28
gfosco wrote: post #11

They've moved to TV shows... Hard to watch any (American) Netflix series without an unnecessary sex scene every 6-8 minutes.

We really are living in the New Puritan age. “Unnecessary sex scenes”? I’ve never needed a reason to see people having sex. When did everyone get so repressed?

In art, there’s always been a difference between the significance of “having sex” and that of “having breakfast.”

Re: Where Have All the Sex Scenes Gone?

#96

Post by Zababa »

ravenstine wrote: post #75
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…

That's a different point. People don't show "normal" sex in movies for the same reasons they don't show people eating, going to the toilet and that sort of stuff.

Re: Where Have All the Sex Scenes Gone?

#97

Post by Koshkin »

graycat wrote: post #74
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"?

I think they mean “paying too much attention, and giving too much significance, to non-essential details.”

Re: Where Have All the Sex Scenes Gone?

#98

Post by gmuslera »

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…

More than just blood or gore: killing. It is normalized all across genres and cultures.

Most times the "right" to kill comes from things that you can't possibly know, and you are the hero for doing so. And having a gun is a symbol of rightful power, like having money.

And is not just the good boys killing, the bad boys more efficient doing so are shown surrounded by desirable things, power, money, women, charisma.

Re: Where Have All the Sex Scenes Gone?

#99

Post by Zababa »

giorgioz wrote: post #36

Somehow we created a society where violence is acceptable to watch but sex is not. It's okay to watch a human being realistically murder another one YET a penis appearing on screen or a penis entering a vagina/rectum is somehow a mind-blowing event we can only handle in small and censored amounts. Mostly new life come out of sex while mostly death comes out of violence.

> It's okay to watch a human being realistically murder another one

Is it? Most movies are unrealistic with their plots. I wouldn't call most action movies "a human being realistically murder another one", they are stories, not real, so the violence is okay because it's not real.

> Mostly new life come out of sex while mostly death comes out of violence.

I think that's an oversimplification. You can use violence to protect people.

Re: Where Have All the Sex Scenes Gone?

#100

Post by monkeyodeath »

It's a good idea to target your product to the sensibilities of your consumer.

American Millenials and Gen Z are having less sex than the generations before them.

They've also grown up with frequent mass school shootings and the "tactical", "everyday carry", amateur-soldier, military worship culture that really got rolling after 9/11.

No wonder sex scenes squick them out -- it's a world that's distant, unfamiliar, and uncomfortable for them.

Violence, though? Pile it on. Now you're speaking their language.

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