My Toxic, Chemical Romance

For my last piece, I deconstructed a really toxic debate over the artistic merits of Marvel movies. In it, I mentioned why I thought the back-and-forth was reductive. I still think that, though it hasn’t exactly “died down” since. Yet there was another claim that was mentioned that didn’t get as much coverage, and that’s courtesy of director Pedro Almodóvar. In an interview with Vulture, he outright stated that Marvel movies “lack sexuality”.

There’s a lot to unpack, but it’s worth noting that Almodóvar didn’t say these movies were “bad” or “boring”. He did, however, say that they were “neutered” because they lacked romance and sex scenes. The characters kiss, on occasion, and are in relationships, but we never see them bed one-another (with the exception of Iron Man). They never actually become intimate. And, according to Almodóvar, that’s a flaw.

A “lack of sex” in newer movies isn’t a new complaint. One of my local newspapers wrote an entire editorial (which I can’t find anymore) on this a while back. Additionally, it was lobbed at director Makoto Shinkai’s work by one of the biggest pioneers in the anime industry. Sex, at least in entertainment, is “dying out”. But is that necessarily bad?

Sexuality in film has been a rollercoaster of highs and lows. Initially, in the medium’s heyday, edgy and innovative filmmakers constantly tested the waters to see what they could get away with. This eventually caught the attention of purists, which led to The Hays Code. The Hays Code is complicated and worthy of its own discussion, but one of its restrictions was that it made open displays of sexuality, with the exception of Biblical epics, forbidden. This was eventually abandoned following the collapse of Old Hollywood in the 1960’s, and the chastity belt was removed.

But there was a problem. Like any unhealthy restriction being dropped, the outcomes were unpredictable. Filmmakers, no longer bound by The Hays Code, started experimenting in extreme ways, which was supported by the institution of a film ratings system. Additionally, because an entire generation of filmmakers had grown up not seeing sexuality on film, they turned to foreign cinema for inspiration. As a result, sex started popping up left, right and centre.

I mention this because sex was less of a form of creative expression, and more a weapon of-what else-masculine dominance (because of course!). Films routinely showed men aggressively living out their desires with women because they could. And it was encouraged, with these men being portrayed as heroes/sympathetic despite their behaviour. This went on for decades, and the shockwaves can be felt even now.

So why did it stop? Well, a few factors. Firstly, new voices, many of them women, started popping up. It’s true that female voices in film aren’t exactly “new”, they’ve been there since its inception, but they were largely muted presences. Yet with the turn of the century came a desire for outspoken voices, and they weren’t happy with sex in film. It even boiled over following Me Too gaining footing in late-2017, highlighting the issues festering behind-the-scenes too.

Secondly, the target demographic of film changed. Initially, it got younger, thanks to teenagers and young adults now having disposable incomes. Then it transitioned to families, because these young audiences were now raising kids. It only makes sense that film, which is as much a business as an art-form, would evolve. Like the saying goes: “adapt, or die”.

Thirdly, and this is the probably biggest point, the internet age has led to online pornography democratizing the landscape. Sites like PornHub took the porn industry, which was once underground, mainstream, letting anyone with a computer live out their fantasies for cheap. Movies didn’t need to be “sexy” anymore, the internet was doing the legwork for them. And sex slowly started fizzling out as a result.

Which leads back to Almodóvar’s point: does Marvel lack sex? With the exception of the shows on Netflix, probably. But does it require sex? Probably not. And is that necessarily bad? Not really, because it’s not all that matters.

To be frank, I’m also relieved that traditional sex scenes are gone. A lot of them were really toxic and unhealthy anyway, and they kept sending out bad messages. For men, the implication was that “sex was a right of manhood”, while women were meant to fulfill that even when they didn’t want to. And while it’s true that movies aren’t inherently responsible for bad behaviour, they do set a precedent that can have real-world impacts. It’s happened before.

Does this mean sex in film is “dead forever”? No. It’s thriving in indie films, with some directors, allegedly, consulting experts to make their sex scenes more authentic. But I also think that sex scenes will make a comeback on their own. If The Hays Code swung the pendulum to one extreme, and its dismantling swung it to another extreme, then this is the pendulum beginning to normalize. We’ll definitely see sex scenes return, and this time they’ll reflect how sex should really be done. Not to mention, they’ll present alternative forms of sex that were long-considered taboo, like BDSM.

Also, why does Marvel need to be sexy? Ignoring beefcake/cheesecake fan-service, of which there’s no shortage, claiming that kid’s movies need to be “sexy” to be good is dishonest. You can be mature in other ways, as evidenced by Disney, Pixar and Dreamworks dominating the animated film scene. Sex is merely one facet of that, and, as I’ve stated above, it hasn’t been done properly for a long time. This is something that Almodóvar needs to understand, assuming he doesn’t.

But I guess, if all else fails, we’ll always have DeviantArt and Tumblr fan-fictions for that, right?