Recent movies have witnessed a marked decrease in explicit sex scenes. One may surmise this trend is related to Generation Z kids (known as „Zoomers”) becoming socially aware and politically active individuals less interested in portraying sexual content on screen.
There’s no denying the power of explicit sex in cinema when done well – films like Serviced, Into and Nymphomaniac are prime examples.
2. It’s awkward
No doubt some big screen sex scenes leave us all hot and bothered, from that explosive menage a trois in Wild Things or Halle Berry’s steamy scene in Monster’s Ball to more subtler acts such as that shown below. Not all steamy scripts, however, are created equal; indeed some look downright awkward in real life.
So it should come as no shock that Zoomers, those born between 1990 and 2000 who constitute the majority of moviegoers today, don’t enjoy movies with on-screen sex scenes. According to Longworth in his November 2021 BuzzFeed article, their antipathy towards this genre comes from their increased awareness of sexuality and consent issues; older erotic thrillers such as 80s romps or Lars von Trier’s Nymphomaniac can feel awkward as these stories don’t always work as intended.
3. It’s a distraction
Pornography, at its core, is a functional art form meant to entertain viewers through sexually related sights and sounds designed to stimulate pleasure centers of our brains. As such, its purpose shouldn’t extend any further; when dramas or thrillers attempt to invoke inappropriate material – like Nicolas Roeg’s Venice-set thriller Don’t Look Now with its did-they-or-didn’t-they ambiguity, or The Canyons and Lovelace with its nude climaxes – in order to titillate viewers – these attempts ultimately fail; instead taking viewers out of immersion while making them spectators rather than participants in these tales at best.
4. It’s not healthy
Though watching pornography may be entertaining, it should never be seen as healthy. Instead, it can actually damage sexual gratification and self-esteem by depicting unrealistic images that lead men and women alike to believe they will never match up with those they see onscreen; this can cause lack of intimacy as well as sexually transmitted diseases in some cases.
Psychiatrist Ravi Shah told Heathline that pornography fosters low self-esteem among young people and leads them to use sexual encounters as a means to increase their sexual esteem, rather than simply enjoying them. This can have lasting repercussions for women as the lack of climax in porn films often prompts masturbation, drug use, and domestic abuse – leading to further issues and unhealthy cycles in which masturbation, drug use and domestic abuse occur in an unhealthy cycle.
No doubt it should come as no surprise that Gen Z or Zoomers, otherwise known as Millennials, don’t enjoy watching sex scenes onscreen either. According to BuzzFeed in November 2021, mainstream movies no longer featured such scenes, instead opting more frequently for movies with violence, profanity or gore than nude bodies and sexual content.