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Not only Gen Z, me too (I'm 50). I find it such a waste of time; it so rarely it adds anything outside cheap film minutes. When it does, you don't notice it (wh

Not only Gen Z, me too (I'm 50). I find it such a waste of time; it so rarely it adds anything outside cheap film minutes. When it does, you don't notice it (which is obviously how it should be; an integral part). Now I often just press forward to get through pointless scenes with wet dildo's etc that are not porn, but something i'm supposed to watch with the (albeit) adult family. If it would add something to the story then sure, but it's just filler.

MrBuddyCasino 3y ago
Same here (Millenial), the scenes are usually just dishonest and uncomfortable padding of runtime, adding nothing to the plot or the vibe. There must be some market research that prompts its inclusion, I can't understand why they do it.
kbenson 3y ago
I feel the same way, and I'm in my mid-40's. I always end up wondering why am I watching this stylized sexual encounter (which doesn't match almost anyone's experience almost any time) and often with people I don't really want to watch it with (teenage and adult children). If some light foreplay shows something about the characters, that's fine, or if something actually happened during the act that was important, that's also fine, but otherwise it's just gratuitous and annoying. If I want to watch porn, I'll watch porn, I'm sure as hell not going to opt for some scene in a regular movie. Then again, maybe it's for people that refuse to watch porn for one reason or another and this is as close as they get?
- amelius 3y ago
  > and often with people I don't really want to watch it with (teenage and adult children) This is the true reason why violence is allowed on TV, whereas sex is always problematic and often censored. You can watch violence with just about anybody (kids, parents, etc.) and it doesn't feel awkward.
  - acdha 3y ago
    You can watch it with anyone who has been desensitized. That’s a cultural choice: we train our kids to be weird about sex but okay with hardcore violence.
    - amelius 3y ago
      Are you sure it is a cultural choice? Do you know of any cultures where it is reversed?
      - acdha 3y ago
        The religious community I grew up in treated them both the same, to the point that kids would be teased in school for reacting to movie violence because they were reacting appropriately to an image of someone being killed or mutilated.
    - surgical_fire 3y ago
      Nothing to do with being disensitized. Most people can handle very violent movies while they would be extremely disturbed to see the same events in real life. It's typically made very clear to everyone that violence is wrong, and what you are watching on a movie or series is fictional violence. In other words, you are watching something that no one would like to go through. Sex is fundamentally different. As it is not only desirable in many senses, but it is also a basic human function, but at the same time it is something extremely intimate, not something you share with any random person.
      - acdha 3y ago
        > Sex is fundamentally different. As it is not only desirable in many senses, but it is also a basic human function, but at the same time it is something extremely intimate, not something you share with any random person. That’s cultural - our reactions to violence are pretty fundamental, too, with roots deep in our brains. It’s natural to feel empathy for someone being hurt, to appreciate the implications of them being hurt or killed, etc. The difference is that our culture says that’s okay to show children, so most of us are at least partially desensitized during childhood.
- acdha 3y ago
  > If I want to watch porn, I'll watch porn, I'm sure as hell not going to opt for some scene in a regular movie. I think you’re on the right track here. In the 90s, teenagers would watch objectively terrible TV and movies for the handful of scenes where someone hot was as close to naked as allowed. Sports Illustrated sold a ton of swimsuit issues to guys who didn’t want to be seen buying Playboy, etc. Now that anyone looking for that can get unlimited quantities of any type of erotic material they can imagine online, anyone looking for entertainment is going to skip anything which isn’t very good - no more trying to make up for bad writing and concepts by tossing in a gratuitous shower scene or having your heroine inexplicably choosing to fight in a bikini. The other thing which has been developing for a while, and really ramped up with #MeToo was the realization that a lot of the guys making decisions about what goes into movies were pretty sleazy. It’s not a new observation that there were some pretty screwed up decisions about sexualizing things like rape or other violence, but I think a lot of people decided to stop watching it even if it was in a popular film or show, not to mention some very influential Hollywood types having their careers reconsidered in light of harassment claims, and I’d bet some of that factors into the results of this survey, too.
  - tomjen3 3y ago
    It wasn't guys who made fifty shades of grey the only modern franchise to compete in sales numbers with Harry Potter, so I don't buy the idea that men were those who sexualized things like rape and violence.
    - acdha 3y ago
      Slow down, I wasn’t saying all guys but referring specifically to a handful of people like Weinstein. There’s always been back and forth about sex in movies but a lot of people reconsidered how much certain things bothered them after learning that actresses were only doing them under duress or that the same guys making decisions about what was included and dismissing criticism as prudery were also harassers or rapists. There’s another big misconception here: kink isn’t rape. 50 shades had some criticism but it was generally understood that boundaries were being pushed voluntarily. That’s not perfect - there are a million essays on that - but it’s very different from criminal violence. What I was referring to was the way rape is portrayed as sexy in a way which doesn’t happen for other acts of violence in mainstream media. It’s become a lazy screenwriting trope complete with the soft lighting and prolonged focus on how attractive the victim’s body is in a way you’d never see for, say, a man getting stabbed even though both of them are having the worst days of their lives.
martopix 3y ago
I remember reading an article on how movies and TV today are not quite able to make meaningful and interesting sex scenes that are actually well made and add to the story. I think this was specifically for western movies. But I can't find it now.
soco 3y ago
One thing my SO noticed first and I could only agree: every comedy MUST have a puke scene. I guess like the sex, some big data guy noticed a slight increase in audience at sex and puking scenes (not together, luckily) so the producers mandate them now everywhere. I also feel the average movie has gotten way bloodier over time but last time I mentioned this it didn't go down well with this crowd.
- smcg 3y ago
  "average" is a very debatable metric. IMO, movies with practical effects are more shocking than the CGI that is common now.
- karmakurtisaani 3y ago
  Also, the puking is always fake as hell. A mouthful of some watery liquid spat out with horrible overacting. Nothing like the real life horror that's a proper five-fold stream of that foul greenish brown mess filled with what was supposed to be your lunch. Family guy did some hilarious puking scenes back in the day by showing it as horrible as it really is. The Hollywood vomit-lite is just embarrassing at this point.
denton-scratch 3y ago
I find it worse than a waste of time; I find it distracts from the plot. I'm no prude, and I have no problem with porn. But for the most part, I find the mandatory sex scene is a huge distraction from the plot. Why not hint at it, like they used to? I re-watched Don't Look Back the other night; the sex scene in that movie is fine, because it really is part of the plot. But chucking in a long, sweaty sex scene just because you've cast a pretty actress is stupid. I treat it like an ad-break - I either fast-forward, or I go to make a cup of tea.
- hulitu 3y ago
  > I find the mandatory sex scene is a huge distraction from the plot. Then watch some european movies. Unlike Hollywood, the sex scenes have a meaning in the whole construct. ( Meaning of life by Monthy Python for example ;) )
drcongo 3y ago
Totally agree. I've been thinking about this a lot for several years, so I pay attention to how often it's actually at all useful to the plot - I'd guess one in a hundred.
Gibbon1 3y ago
My theory is the wide availability of porn makes cheesecake in mainstream movies much less interesting than it was back when porn was heavily suppressed. An example of how suppressed it was a friend told me her first husband (1960's) was a sleazy truck driver that made extra cash on the side transporting 16mm porn movies. Same way other more sleazy truckers transported drugs.
exsomet 3y ago
This is how I feel, but I also find that it’s overused as a device to inject manufactured gravity. Some stand up comics use something similar. It’s easier to make someone laugh because they’re uncomfortable than it is to make them laugh by being funny, so some comics will be obscene and get their laughs that way. In the same vein, it’s easier to make a story feel serious by putting in a sex scene than it is to write an engaging plot.
moribvndvs 3y ago
Good, I’m not alone. Even in my youth sex scenes annoyed the hell out of me. It’s essentially dead air and bad clichés, bringing momentum of the movie to a screeching halt. Heavens help us if there are multiple sex scenes in one film.

MrBuddyCasino 3y ago

Same here (Millenial), the scenes are usually just dishonest and uncomfortable padding of runtime, adding nothing to the plot or the vibe. There must be some market research that prompts its inclusion, I can't understand why they do it.

kbenson 3y ago

I feel the same way, and I'm in my mid-40's. I always end up wondering why am I watching this stylized sexual encounter (which doesn't match almost anyone's experience almost any time) and often with people I don't really want to watch it with (teenage and adult children). If some light foreplay shows something about the characters, that's fine, or if something actually happened during the act that was important, that's also fine, but otherwise it's just gratuitous and annoying. If I want to watch porn, I'll watch porn, I'm sure as hell not going to opt for some scene in a regular movie. Then again, maybe it's for people that refuse to watch porn for one reason or another and this is as close as they get?

amelius 3y ago
> and often with people I don't really want to watch it with (teenage and adult children) This is the true reason why violence is allowed on TV, whereas sex is always problematic and often censored. You can watch violence with just about anybody (kids, parents, etc.) and it doesn't feel awkward.
- acdha 3y ago
  You can watch it with anyone who has been desensitized. That’s a cultural choice: we train our kids to be weird about sex but okay with hardcore violence.
  - amelius 3y ago
    Are you sure it is a cultural choice? Do you know of any cultures where it is reversed?
    - acdha 3y ago
      The religious community I grew up in treated them both the same, to the point that kids would be teased in school for reacting to movie violence because they were reacting appropriately to an image of someone being killed or mutilated.
  - surgical_fire 3y ago
    Nothing to do with being disensitized. Most people can handle very violent movies while they would be extremely disturbed to see the same events in real life. It's typically made very clear to everyone that violence is wrong, and what you are watching on a movie or series is fictional violence. In other words, you are watching something that no one would like to go through. Sex is fundamentally different. As it is not only desirable in many senses, but it is also a basic human function, but at the same time it is something extremely intimate, not something you share with any random person.
    - acdha 3y ago
      > Sex is fundamentally different. As it is not only desirable in many senses, but it is also a basic human function, but at the same time it is something extremely intimate, not something you share with any random person. That’s cultural - our reactions to violence are pretty fundamental, too, with roots deep in our brains. It’s natural to feel empathy for someone being hurt, to appreciate the implications of them being hurt or killed, etc. The difference is that our culture says that’s okay to show children, so most of us are at least partially desensitized during childhood.
acdha 3y ago
> If I want to watch porn, I'll watch porn, I'm sure as hell not going to opt for some scene in a regular movie. I think you’re on the right track here. In the 90s, teenagers would watch objectively terrible TV and movies for the handful of scenes where someone hot was as close to naked as allowed. Sports Illustrated sold a ton of swimsuit issues to guys who didn’t want to be seen buying Playboy, etc. Now that anyone looking for that can get unlimited quantities of any type of erotic material they can imagine online, anyone looking for entertainment is going to skip anything which isn’t very good - no more trying to make up for bad writing and concepts by tossing in a gratuitous shower scene or having your heroine inexplicably choosing to fight in a bikini. The other thing which has been developing for a while, and really ramped up with #MeToo was the realization that a lot of the guys making decisions about what goes into movies were pretty sleazy. It’s not a new observation that there were some pretty screwed up decisions about sexualizing things like rape or other violence, but I think a lot of people decided to stop watching it even if it was in a popular film or show, not to mention some very influential Hollywood types having their careers reconsidered in light of harassment claims, and I’d bet some of that factors into the results of this survey, too.
- tomjen3 3y ago
  It wasn't guys who made fifty shades of grey the only modern franchise to compete in sales numbers with Harry Potter, so I don't buy the idea that men were those who sexualized things like rape and violence.
  - acdha 3y ago
    Slow down, I wasn’t saying all guys but referring specifically to a handful of people like Weinstein. There’s always been back and forth about sex in movies but a lot of people reconsidered how much certain things bothered them after learning that actresses were only doing them under duress or that the same guys making decisions about what was included and dismissing criticism as prudery were also harassers or rapists. There’s another big misconception here: kink isn’t rape. 50 shades had some criticism but it was generally understood that boundaries were being pushed voluntarily. That’s not perfect - there are a million essays on that - but it’s very different from criminal violence. What I was referring to was the way rape is portrayed as sexy in a way which doesn’t happen for other acts of violence in mainstream media. It’s become a lazy screenwriting trope complete with the soft lighting and prolonged focus on how attractive the victim’s body is in a way you’d never see for, say, a man getting stabbed even though both of them are having the worst days of their lives.

martopix 3y ago

I remember reading an article on how movies and TV today are not quite able to make meaningful and interesting sex scenes that are actually well made and add to the story. I think this was specifically for western movies. But I can't find it now.

soco 3y ago

One thing my SO noticed first and I could only agree: every comedy MUST have a puke scene. I guess like the sex, some big data guy noticed a slight increase in audience at sex and puking scenes (not together, luckily) so the producers mandate them now everywhere. I also feel the average movie has gotten way bloodier over time but last time I mentioned this it didn't go down well with this crowd.

smcg 3y ago
"average" is a very debatable metric. IMO, movies with practical effects are more shocking than the CGI that is common now.
karmakurtisaani 3y ago
Also, the puking is always fake as hell. A mouthful of some watery liquid spat out with horrible overacting. Nothing like the real life horror that's a proper five-fold stream of that foul greenish brown mess filled with what was supposed to be your lunch. Family guy did some hilarious puking scenes back in the day by showing it as horrible as it really is. The Hollywood vomit-lite is just embarrassing at this point.

denton-scratch 3y ago

I find it worse than a waste of time; I find it distracts from the plot. I'm no prude, and I have no problem with porn. But for the most part, I find the mandatory sex scene is a huge distraction from the plot. Why not hint at it, like they used to? I re-watched Don't Look Back the other night; the sex scene in that movie is fine, because it really is part of the plot. But chucking in a long, sweaty sex scene just because you've cast a pretty actress is stupid. I treat it like an ad-break - I either fast-forward, or I go to make a cup of tea.

hulitu 3y ago
> I find the mandatory sex scene is a huge distraction from the plot. Then watch some european movies. Unlike Hollywood, the sex scenes have a meaning in the whole construct. ( Meaning of life by Monthy Python for example ;) )

drcongo 3y ago

Totally agree. I've been thinking about this a lot for several years, so I pay attention to how often it's actually at all useful to the plot - I'd guess one in a hundred.

Gibbon1 3y ago

My theory is the wide availability of porn makes cheesecake in mainstream movies much less interesting than it was back when porn was heavily suppressed. An example of how suppressed it was a friend told me her first husband (1960's) was a sleazy truck driver that made extra cash on the side transporting 16mm porn movies. Same way other more sleazy truckers transported drugs.

exsomet 3y ago

This is how I feel, but I also find that it’s overused as a device to inject manufactured gravity. Some stand up comics use something similar. It’s easier to make someone laugh because they’re uncomfortable than it is to make them laugh by being funny, so some comics will be obscene and get their laughs that way. In the same vein, it’s easier to make a story feel serious by putting in a sex scene than it is to write an engaging plot.

moribvndvs 3y ago

Good, I’m not alone. Even in my youth sex scenes annoyed the hell out of me. It’s essentially dead air and bad clichés, bringing momentum of the movie to a screeching halt. Heavens help us if there are multiple sex scenes in one film.