Content Warning: Discussions of Sex, Sexuality, Brief Mentions of Sexual Violence
You ever noticed how weird people are about sex, especially when it comes to movies? I swear, every time a movie with a sex scene hits theaters I see people talking about how “sex doesn’t advance the plot” or “it isn’t necessary to the movie”. To me, there’s something super upsetting about statements like these, especially when they come from people on the left, as I often find they do. I think this attitude is a symptom of the decline in the idea of movies as art in favor of them being products, but that’s a topic for another day. Here’s my best try to communicate why sex in movies is important, and why people who think the opposite cause me catastrophic mental torment.
Sex, nudity, or anything in the realm of sexuality is not new in movies, far from it. From early trailblazing movies like Wings, to the exploitation movies of the 70s and 80s to the erotic thrillers of recent memory, sex has been around. But for a while, it was incredibly rare to find sex in movies. Around the 1930s, conservative weirdos began to force filmmakers into rigid boxes to make sure that films aligned with societal standards. Will Hays, a particularly militant opponent of sexuality in movies, established the Motion Picture Production Code (also Hays Code as its commonly known now), censoring any ideas that were considered “detrimental to society” . It goes unsaid that any depictions of sexuality outside of white heterosexuality were not allowed to be produced during the reign of the Hays Code, and even then, depictions were still forced to be extremely subdued, with even kissing being seen as potentially code breaking. Any portrayals of queer or minority love and sexuality was all but expressly prohibited. Watch just about any movie from before the 60’s and the influence of the Hays Code is apparent. The only movies that were not affected, at least not directly were so called “nudies” which typically featured incredibly violent depictions of sex, and were closer to modern day porn films than a typical feature film. So, in this day, the options for depictions of sexuality were violent pornos, or nothing. It wasn’t great.
The Post-Code, Pre-Y2K Disaster era of film contains some really interesting stuff, as mainstream filmmakers worked to make up for lost time in incorporating sexuality into their art. A particularly interesting work from immediately after the Code Era is The Graduate, an examination of a recent college graduate’s sexual journey as he has relations with a middle-aged woman and later, her daughter, a graduate student. The Graduate is an interesting look into how messy sexual relationships can be, and both the beautiful and ugly sides of romance are. I won’t spoil it here, but the ending of the film is truly phenomenal, and would not be nearly as impactful if not for the explicit sexuality earlier in the film. You should go watch it, it’s cool.
Still, until the change of Millennium ruined all our technology, sex in movies tended to focus on the heterosexual male perspective, with few examples of queer or woman-facing stories. With the introduction of directors like Steven Soderbergh, Ang Lee and Sofia Coppola to broader American audiences, we started to see more diverse depictions of sexuality, with homosexuality and the sexual desires of women being at the forefront of some of the biggest movies for the first time. There is a whole treasure trove of ways to approach sex and it seems that mainstream movies have barely touched the surface. This, along with the fact that racial minority representation in movies has been so low, explorations of how those groups experience sexuality are virtually untapped in mainstream cinema, aside from rare films like Moonlight. Many underrepresented communities are just beginning to see themselves represented in a positive light on screen, and we must continue allowing them to be seen.
If the establishment of conservative ideals is what we’re against, we must encourage sex to be in movies. We need to allow art to challenge the ideas of sexuality that have been made standard by strange weirdos who think anything other than missionary between a man and a woman is “deviant”. Sex scenes and nudity are good, not only because they allow for broader artistic expression, but because they can also serve as a tool in the fight against fascistic forces. Whether as cautionary tales of problematic sexual expression or as unapologetic expressions of identity, sex greatly expands the limits of what art can be. To deny sex in movies is to deny art, and that’s what fascists do. So let’s not. As an asexual, I know how uncomfortable a sex scene can be, believe me. But they’re worth it. Go watch No Hard Feelings, it was fun. Go watch Oppenheimer, there’s a truly hilarious sex scene. Go watch Bottoms when it comes out, it looks great. Let’s not let conservative weirdos limit our expression and experiences.
History information gathered in part from:
https://nebula.tv/unrated
List of movies that informed this:
https://boxd.it/omSp6
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