The Asexual Revolution?

[MindControlBoxer]

46.7% were older adolescents (ages 18-24)

Those are not adolescents (ages 18-24) they're full grown adults.

Can't believe they had the balls to put "teens and screens" in the title when a good chunk of them aren't even teenagers.

 

[imnotdeadyet]

Those are not adolescents (ages 18-24) they're full grown adults.

Can't believe they had the balls to put "teens and screens" in the title when a good chunk of them aren't even teenagers.

They used to call em "young adults" but I guess that doesn't sound as good for the title

 

[Deckade]

Without being too weird about it, I think this ties into our modern surveillance state and fear of consequences. Freedom and fertility go hand in hand, 1984s protagonist called his partners tossing aside of her dress something along the lines of a beautiful act of rebellion, and people understandably get their most intimate when other people aren't watching or judging. We see the opposite now, even during sex people worry about maintaining status and persona, and videoing has become not uncommon. Our culture of fear really is the gift that keeps on giving I hope that things will change someday but I'm doubtful

 

[Antoine]

I am always reminded of that disgusting sex scene from Matrix Reloaded between Trinity and Neo, a lifeless interaction of two characters who have zero chemistry with each other, that results in one of the most uncomfortable moments of a film that is supposed to be about Gun Fu action scenes, all while a shitty rave music plays in the background.


View: https://youtu.be/UiocUhpnBmk?si=RvWdZbLapY3U8On5


From this, I gather that the current generation's issue with sex in film does not stem from a puritan morality (although I am sure many do, in a way), but rather it is because Hollywood and millenials can't write romance for shit, therefore their sex scenes are awkward to watch, because there is not a drop of chemistry between either character.

Reloaded is the best Matrix and there was never anything wrong with the Zion Rave sequence. You probably got this opinion from memes since nothing you're saying makes sense.

 

[turntableToothache]

Reloaded is the best Matrix and there was never anything wrong with the Zion Rave sequence. You probably got this opinion from memes since nothing you're saying makes sense.

We must have watched a different movie then, because the first time I watched the Zion Rave sequence I was genuinely questioning what the fuck I was watching. It was so out of place, and incredibly soft-core for an R-rated film.

 

[MindControlBoxer]

What is a good "Sex Scene"?

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxJReFQ2XLQ

 

[RisingThumb]

Those are not adolescents (ages 18-24) they're full grown adults.

I don't know... When you look at people aged 18-24 do they seem like full-grown adults to you? Or teenagers in adult bodies? I know that's rhetorical, but I'm underlining a shift in what is an adult, shifting from the 1950s to 2020s.

I'd be interested to know what the data portrays if you eliminate the 18-24 age group, as I suspect this age group is the most politically extreme and radical group.

 

[The Sylvia North Story]

Generational drugs of choice:
- Boomers: Booze; pot; coke
- Gen X: Heroin; ecstasy; Being Sober™
- Millennials: Research chems; adderall; psychedelics (to be better at their code monkey job)
- Zoomers: Endocrine disruptors; fake weed carts

I think we're just seeing the consequences of overstimulation and early exposure to sex coupled with the effects of endocrine disruptors. Sperm counts are dropping the world over

 

[containercore]

Sex is good, sure... but also... isn't it like... bad?

This made the rounds on twitter maybe a year or two ago. This is actually somewhat shocking to modern sensibilities (timestamped):


View: https://youtu.be/Hniw_87mA2U?t=48


What I'm talking about is, of course, the absolutely carefree, spontaneous, BRAZEN, but above all completely natural display of horniness. And remember, these women are fawning over Batdork Michael Keaton no less. This easy-going social attitude seems as quaint and dated as New Jack Swing. How could regular average folks just display such unfettered horniness on national TV?

And how did people in previous generations contend with their horniness? Well the boomers had a very straight forward solution:

View: https://youtu.be/wvUQcnfwUUM
"Have a drink, have a drive, go out and see what you can find..."
If ever boomer privilege was encapsulated in a single sentence.. but I digress...

The modern zoomlet, thoughever, finds his relation to horniness much more complicated, as evinced by memes (a format which, thanks to the squalid imaginations of millennials, now are a vehicle for cries for help, doomerisms and various coping mechanisms). Examples:

In the Permissive™, asexual society Horniness is a cross to bear. The implicit message one gets is whatever path it leads you down goes nowhere good. Unlike the permissive society of Mungo Jerry's day, we can't just simply have a drink, have a drive and go out and see what we can find.

In terms of official DOCTRINE, Sex-positivity is still the law of the day. We live in the Permissive Society™. The general UNEASE around Sex in spite of this, thoughever, demonstrates a curious bifurcation in the public Sex-concept. The culture of the recent past was capital "H" Horny in tone, it was very cheeky about it but it was entirely unironic. Check out this collection of ads in Spin Magazine from 2001. Btw they're all from the same issue. Every ad that ever existed during the 90s and 00s was like this, I can't stress this point enough. I'm not saying we need to retvrn to this fever-pitch of horniness, but it demonstrates an important point. Take a pretty famous example, Calvin Klein ads from the 90s:

This Calvin Klein ad simply radiates sexuality. It is in many ways Erotic Sex distilled into a single photograph. Fast forward to present day:

This modern day ad makes no such appeals to the viewer's sexuality as such. It doesn't ask "Hey, want to be HOT and SEXY and FUCK along with all the other HOT, SEXY people who ALSO FUCK?" Rather it sort of implicitly scolds the viewer for not having that same lust-reaction to this fat toad as he/she might have had to the hot 90's supermodels. What, this morbidly obese blob-woman doesn't do it for you? "That sounds like a you problem, sweatie."

"Sex" then, is divorced from the realm of the socio-biological and enters the realm of the ideological. And what we find is that we tolerate, and even hold as virtue, Sex in the Abstract. Sex work is real work, women's bodies are autonomous, slut shaming is bad etc. etc. etc. But on the flip side the messy and often asymmetric power dynamics of Sex in the Concrete become dangerous and suspicious. Complex rationalizations are invented which reveal how every sex-relationship is de facto exploitative. What follows is "grooming discourse", "age gap discourse", "power gap discourse", the list goes on. It's now, I think, socially illegal for any remotely notable person to have sex with a fan (or possibly anyone else for that matter). This strict morality extends all the way to nerd youtubers who talk about their top 10 JRPGs. It's not fair to the blob-woman that you don't lust over her the way you would over sub-10%-bodyfat fashion models with spotless skin and washboard abs. But even if you did against all odds lust over her you'd probably be *fetishizing the Other* or some other such newly fabricated absurdity. If contending with this stuff is the price of being horny, then who wouldn't much rather just be happy.....

This accounts for why the most viewed thing online is pornography, which is viewed at an inverse proportion to the amount of sex being had irl. Porn is a lot like those Hollywood blockbuster movies mentioned in the blogpost that WanderingPariah linked earlier, where attractive actors with perfect faces and six pack abs sort of asexually co-exist in eachothers' presence with no chemistry or sexual tension whatsoever, just in porn they fuck I guess instead of defeat Thanos. It's a weird simulation that does tick some of the surface level boxes of Sex, such as acts of penetration, but it doesn't often come across as Sex proper. The mechanics of it are of course present, penises, vaginas, anuses, that sort of thing, but what's conspicuously absent is a single iota of Eros. Some of the ads from that issue of Spin are about 1000% more erotic than most hardcore pornography. It leans into visually jarring, transgressive sensuality while somehow remaining completely SFW.

It's constructed, that is to say, "artificial", scenes of Eros, but it's not creating a full scale simulation of Sex in the way modern pornography does. Pornography is grotesquely NSFW yet seemingly entirely devoid of Eroticism. I actually wonder if the awful, disgusting, deeply LIMINAL fluorescent school-cafeteria lighting they use when shooting it (which creates that sickly, pallid color space) is a feature and not a bug. It reinforces the simulated aspect. Mood is antithetical to the mechanics of simulated Sex, because there's a risk that if mood were present it would turn into actual Sex. If you look up porn from the 1970s and 80s you find that the lighting and color balance are a million times better, so I can't help but wonder if this is deliberate, or at the very least something that was arrived at through the dialectic of subconsciously catering to unstated viewer preference.

When sex is simulated it is "safe". "No animals were hurt in the making of this film." It's held together by contracts with delineations and boundaries, at least in theory anyway (porn is often an exploitative industry in reality, but it's the idea here which is key, besides under the right labor conditions it can be completely ethical). Sex in the Abstract is ultimately more comfortable to contend with than the stark ambiguities and unspoken rules of engagement that come with Sex in the Concrete. But idk... that also sounds kind of ......hot? Much to think about.

 

[containercore]

Ironically family guy was right this whole time.

There hasn't been sex on TV since Game of Thrones (2011).

 

[Ardea]

Sex is a vital part of the human experience, but as with all exquisite things it should be enjoyed with care and consideration. I happen to believe that committed monogamy fosters the most intimate and fulfilling sexual experiences, and it would seem that the dust often settles that way when most societies organise themselves. There are exceptions, but more often than not humans tend towards monogamy.

I can't speak for zoomers because I am not one. However I can theorise as to why they seem to reject gratuitous sexuality while also failing to attach significance to sexuality as a whole. They have grown up with sexuality shoved in their faces in the most cringy and disgusting ways. Videos like this spring to mind. When I was growing up (not THAT long ago as I am only just outside the age bracket for zoomerdom) this kind of thing would never have been shown to that kind of audience. It would be considered obscene, and to zoomers, seeing sexual degeneracy normalised and promoted by the establishment is like watching their uncool dad give their mother a lapdance. This analogy is all the more apt because zoomers more than any other generation were raised in an near inescapable morass of media and "social" media. Like any generation before them, they reject the stuffy ideas of the previous generations. It just so happens that in this case, those stuffy ideas were the kind of grotesque sexual deviancy that previous generations rebelled by exploring.

As to the question of "asexuality" - this is contrary to human nature and while some exceptional people may sincerely experience no sexual attraction, almost all humans do to some extent even if it is sparked by something disordered and abstract like a pelican or a car. You will often find young women claiming to be asexual. They are the same target audience for the trans ideology. They are intimidated by their femininity and the vulnerability that entails, and want to escape it by any means necessary. They choose to do this by either rejecting their femininity entirely and trying to adopt masculinity (transgenderism) or by rejecting the very concept of sexuality itself for fear of being abused, which sadly, they often already have been.

 

[Captain]

 

[MindControlBoxer]

When you look at people aged 18-24 do they seem like full-grown adults to you? Or teenagers in adult bodies? I know that's rhetorical, but I'm underlining a shift in what is an adult, shifting from the 1950s to 2020s.

It depends of the person.
When people say teenagers they usually mean high schoolers, not working people, it envokes a sense of growing childhood and naivete.
I wouldn't think these are teenagers even if they're *technically* 19year olds.

Spoiler

This is what most people would think when you say teenagers, in the 1950s and in the 2020s.

Spoiler

A 16 year old now was born when soulja boy was a becoming thing, a 23 year old now probably cranked the soulja boy as a kid.
They are not the same at all, it is disingenuous to say that they are representing teens opinions when they use a age group that had a completely different world they grew up in.

It tries to envoke the idea that kids are having these opinions where in reality full grown adults have them, disingenuous at best, data manipulation at worst.

 

[LostintheCycle]

A 16 year old now was born when soulja boy was a becoming thing, a 23 year old now probably cranked the soulja boy as a kid.
They are not the same at all

 

[GENOSAD]

>The generation full of lonely people doesn't want to see sex on screen to remind them of how lonely they are
Not quite sure how this is indicative of "asexuality" being on the rise, but all right.

 

[RisingThumb]

It tries to envoke the idea that kids are having these opinions where in reality full grown adults have them, disingenuous at best, data manipulation at worst.

I'd be interested to know what the data portrays if you eliminate the 18-24 age group, as I suspect this age group is the most politically extreme and radical group.

If you remove this group, you remove 700(18,19,20,21,22,23,24) participants, which is 46% of the data. As a result, 46% of the data points are from full grown adults. Definitely disingenuous at least. When you put the percentage in terms of participants who answered questions about sexual and romantic content(1200 participants) this becomes 58% of the data points.

From the study:

each age group containing 100 respondents). Among these, 20% were younger adolescents (ages 10-12), 33.3% were middle adolescents (ages 13-17), and 46.7% were older adolescents (ages 18-24

Questions specifically related to romantic relationships and sexual content were included only for middle and older adolescents (ages 13-24)

13,14,15,16,17- 500 participants are teenagers asked about sexual content. 700(18,19,20,21,22,23,24) are adults asked about sexual content(1200 in total). This data is skewed towards young adult perceptions of media, not teenager perceptions of media. This isn't entirely useless as there's a blur between the 2. I suspect this data is being misrepresented as "American kids prefer no sex on screens"

What I've said implicitly asserts that adults are greater than or equal to 18 years old, and teenagers and kids are less than 18 years old.

 

[AnHero]

This data is skewed towards young adult perceptions of media, not teenager perceptions of media. This isn't entirely useless as there's a blur between the 2. I suspect this data is being misrepresented as "American kids prefer no sex on screens"

What I've said implicitly asserts that adults are greater than or equal to 18 years old, and teenagers and kids are less than 18 years old.

You mention in passing that there is a certain blurring at the edges, and I'm glad you acknowledged that, but I think this ambiguity actually bears emphasizing. I don't think strictly going by sheer numbers of 'young adults' vs 'teens' works to say the data is skewed. There are plenty of 18,19 and even 20 year olds who spend most of their time with teens (I mean, 18 and 19 are still teenagers); many who are still in highschool and follow all the trends thus could be classified culturally as 'teens'. Speaking from personal experience, I knew people who were held back, or started school late, or were even refugees from other countries; thus were older but still plugged into 'teen culture' and the 'teen' perception of things. In my senior year there were several 20 year olds, and one guy was even 21--and they blended in fine.

I'm not saying the classifications used in the study should change, or that 18 and 19 year olds aren't young adults, or even denying that journos just kept referring to 'teens' without caring about demographics because it would spice the article up;--but I do think the number of 'actual teens' is the highest in this particular study.

 

[AnHero]

>The generation full of lonely people doesn't want to see sex on screen to remind them of how lonely they are
Not quite sure how this is indicative of "asexuality" being on the rise, but all right.

 

[Some_porcupine]

The modern zoomlet, thoughever, finds his relation to horniness much more complicated, as evinced by memes (a format which, thanks to the squalid imaginations of millennials, now are a vehicle for cries for help, doomerisms and various coping mechanisms). Examples:

Starland Vocal Band – Afternoon Delight

A 1976 No. 1 hit that was somewhat controversial due to the sexually suggestive theme. It made a comeback when it appeared on the soundtrack for the movie Anchorman in 2004.

genius.com

 

[Gift of Denial]

On the topic of sex scenes, yesterday I saw Koji Wakamatsu's Ecstasy of the Angels.

Wakamatsu was a japanese film director who realized "pinku eigas", soft erotic films not intended for a mainstream release. He's one of the masters of japanese cinema, and him not getting more recognition is pretty much a crime - but his movies are truly violent, in a way that no other film director managed to be, and they're also full of sex which is also loaded with violence, contempt and anger. If you watch Ecstasy of the Angels, you will see - almost half the scenes of the movie are sex scenes. The characters talk during sex, forge new bonds, as well as destroy each other while fucking one another. And as this perpetual orgy ensues, the group of violent terrorists, a mix of The Man Who Was Thursday and real leftist radical groups in japan, that the movie follows turn into each other more and more, and descend into more and more violence, like a frenzy.

Is there "a point" to these sex scenes? In a way there's not. Sex for them is becoming more empty of content, same as the violent acts they commit. Towards the end, the only revolutionary in the group that still has a firm belief in marxist principles, and the one whose allegiance to the group in a suicide mission is more in doubt, breaks down in anger as one of the character casually photographs two prostitutes he hired to make out with them and take pictures of it. It's banal, sex devoid of it all.

This is a tangent - but I loved this movie, and I consider it one of the films in which sex scenes adquire a dimension beyond exploitation, erotism, beauty, or any of the many cliches that have been used to either critique or defend sex scenes. Showing that there's nothing written on how to use a sex scene - even displaying it at its crudest.