Social conservatives have long been concerned about explicit sexual content in Hollywood movies and television shows. And shows like HBO’s Euphoria and The Idol, which feature frequent scenes of naked young women, are exploitative, not to mention how gross it is that Ethan Hawke casually directed a graphic sex scene with his daughter Maya.
But while Hollywood could learn to be a bit more chaste about what they put on screen, does that mean they should get rid of romance entirely?
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The activists at UCLA's Center for Scholars and Storytellers seem to think so. CSS put out a report last week titled “Teens and Screens,” calling for Hollywood content creators to put out not just more sexless content but more aromantic content as well.
According to the report, children and young adults between the ages of 13 and 24 want to see less romance and more friendship. “Gen Z’s values and desires reach depths beyond what society has typically explored,” the report reads. “As demonstrated in this report, they’ve grown tired of stereotypical, heteronormative storytelling that valorizes romantic and/or sexual relationships — especially ones that are toxic — and are looking for more representations of friendship, which is a core aspect of adolescence and social well-being.”
By all means, let’s put fewer toxic relationships on screen (Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson’s Marriage Story comes to mind as a project that never should have made the big screen), but if anything, what Hollywood desperately needs right now is more positive portrayals of healthy stereotypical, heteronormative romantic relationships, not less.
Maybe if Generation Z saw positive portrayals of normal happy couples fighting the odds and making a relationship work, they wouldn’t be the most depressed and suicidal generation on record.
The problem with a sexless Hollywood is that it is a rejection of the truth that we are all humans with physical and emotional intimacy needs. Those needs need to be met, and sexless, platonic relationships simply aren’t going to cut it.
One young girl told the CSS researchers she liked the movie Barbie because “the girl feels authentic to me. I just like her.” But the whole point of the movie is that Barbie is an inauthentic plastic plaything. The journey of the movie is Barbie realizing how fake she is and moving to become a real woman. That is why the movie ends with her at a gynecologist's office.
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If anything, Barbie is a rejection of the false platonic ideals CSS wants to push. Barbie and Ken are not a romantic couple in the film. Quite the opposite. In one of the movie’s funnier scenes, Ken asks Barbie if he can stay the night, to which Barbie replies, “To do what?” All Ken can manage in response is, “I’m not actually sure.”
Too many Gen Zers are, like Ken, not actually sure what men and women are supposed to do together. Hollywood needs more stories, not less, helping them fill in those blanks.