I do think a lot of 'sex in media discourse' in 2024 comes from a misguided authorial philosophy about depiction of sex. If the only reason for including sex in a work of media is to establish that it happened, or to reposition characters in a sexual context and then extend it outside of the sexual context and into a larger narrative, the depiction itself can and probably should reflect the utilitarian vision, the same way any scene functions. Show as much as you need to, inform the following reintegration of theme/subject, move on. The vast and numerous exceptions, in which sex merits extensive narrative depiction and analysis, are largely governed by 'is there something else interesting and either story-continuous or story-reframing to be gleaned from the specifics of the sexual dynamic as depicted more extensively'.
In cat and mouse sexual-thrillers, the vicissitudes of how seduction operates and is acted on matter a lot to the overarching plot. In romance novels, the sex itself often is the crux of the plot in some way - how it works, how it 'pays off' and then reestablishes new tension, etc. There are limitless genres and setups in which the specifics provide either payoff or setup or context or any other purpose that expands on or complicates the 'meaning' of the work-in-continuity.
The trick to this is that the sex scene is exactly the same kind of narrative button-pushing as the tearjerker scene or the shootout scene. Showing two characters fucking is exactly the same as showing a dog shivering outside of the door of a master who the audience knows won't come home, or a widow weeping at a grave, or a knock-down drag-out fight between the protagonist and rival. All of these can be done in a way that is specific and relevant to the story, or in a way that feels 'cheap' and 'unjustified'. We have to look at the artistry of any sort of scene as well as its overall contextualization in the piece of art it occupies. Depending on the work, showing less can be both more efficient and more genuine. We don't have to see every battle - sometimes the aftermath is more 'effective', sometimes the scene where the widow hears about it is more than enough, and sometimes it is most precise to know it is about to happen, and reflect, through not-knowing, when the screen cuts to black, on both the ambiguity and the inevitability of what follows a call to violence.
Not everyone is great at expressing this sort of thing, and I have a lot of sympathy for people who kind of haplessly stab at 'THIS sex scene is erotic and meaningful, but THIS sex scene is hollow and sexual and unerotic' when it is much more useful to examine our reactions to any sort of scene in the context of the work. 'THIS sex scene dwells on the bodies of the actors luxuriously, which feels unwarranted because outside of this context their courtship doesn't seem to turn on like, wanton physicality, they mostly quip at each other, so it doesn't pay off on that verbal tension very well and also leaves me feeling kind of embarrassed to watch, like something that happened and got recorded by accident and doesn't track well with their behavior before and after' expresses this sort of sentiment, usually directed at the sexuality or lack thereof of the Marvelstyle USAmerican Blockbuster, without the very thorny implications of 'some Sex Art is erotic and some is Sterile/Base/Whatever Sexuality and thus Less Art'.
Both artists and critics could stand to think of sex-in-art from the perspective of Art as much as Sex more often. Using sex as a button-push for an audience payoff (I've heard a lot of authors who start out writing explicit material lament that now they can't write without a sex scene, or no one will want to read their stuff - see also 'is there spiiiiiice in Dostoyevsky?') is not evil or bad or wrong or even inherently poor practice any more than including a laser-guided heartstring-pull scene in which a dog lays down and dies at its master's feet is any of those things. But watch out! Because there's not just story before and after any scene in isolation. It's in there, too. Stepping away from story-continuity in any given scene creates dissonance - and narrative incoherence is a perfectly good tool, but one that requires a careful hand to wield effectively.
jacobvanloon
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dededos
andulkaphoto
tangentwithtanner
germansingergirl
stormborns
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titsay
2087
theartofmadeline
