Generation Z wants less sex on screen in films and series
According to a study, young people between the ages of 10 and 24 want to see more friendship and platonic stories.
The University of California (UCLA) recently published a study entitled Teens and Screens, led by the Center of Scholars and Storytellers. This study aims to determine what Generation Z (young people born after 1995) thinks about the representation of sexuality in the films and series they watch.
A group of 1,500 teenagers aged 10 to 24 were surveyed on the subject (although for participants aged 10 to 12, the questions were not explicitly focused on sex), and a large proportion of them answered that they would like to see less gratuitous sex on screen. Precisely, 51.5% of participants “would like to see more content focused on friendships and platonic relationships”.
Despite their success, Euphoria and others Riverdale no longer correspond to the desires of these viewers. Conversely, Stranger Things, Heartstopper And The summer I became pretty would be more authentic and close to their own experiences. They take the example of the friendly relationship between Robin (Maya Hawke) and Steve (Joe Keery) in season 3 of Stranger Things. Because that’s the message from these participants: watching stories closer to real life, which is (apparently) not punctuated by unwanted sexual relations every ten minutes.
This Stranger Things Teen Would Never Have Come Out Without the Show
“As demonstrated in this study, teens are tired of stereotypical and heteronormative storylines that emphasize romantic and/or sexual relationships – especially toxic ones – and are seeking more depictions of friendship, which is a central aspect of adolescence and healthy social construction”, among these participants, 44.3% think that “romance in media is overused” and 47.5% find that “sex is not necessary to the plot in most TV shows and movies”.
However there are isolated cases like the successful series Sex Education, which highlights its objective of demystifying sexuality and approaching it in a thoughtful and educational way, but with a lot of very varied intimate scenes. Dr. Yalda T. Uhls, the founder and director of the Center of Scholars and Storytellers and co-author of the study, analyzes the situation: “Although it’s proven that teens want less sex on TV and in movies, what the study really tells us is that they want to see a wider variety of relationship types depicted in the media than ‘they are looking.”
“We know that young people are suffering from an epidemic of loneliness and they are looking for role models in the art they consume. While some storytellers use sex and romance as a shortcut for character connections, it’s important that Hollywood recognizes that teens want stories to reflect a full spectrum of relationship types.”, she explains.
Why there won’t be season 5 of Sex Education
