u/Perhapsnice

I thought I liked romance but I just realized it's actually the drama or the eroticism that gets me, have other women had this same realization?

Like I absolutely loved The Fault in Our Stars. But thinking about it, what really got me was the drama, not the romance itself. And then I watched Off Campus and seeing all the hype around it on social media, I realized I basically watched it for the sex scenes. And it made me ask myself a real question, do we actually like romance for what it really is? Because for me romance is a love story, not erotica. Yes sex is part of love but still. I'm realizing that for a romance to be enough for me without strong drama, it has to genuinely flirt with eroticism otherwise I get bored. So maybe I don't actually like romance that much. Is it just me or have other women had this same realization?

Male genitalia in mainstream films honestly raises questions for me. Off Campus is a good example.

Going into the serie, I knew it was rated 16+, so I expected sexual scenes. And that’s fine with me. But to me, that kind of rating doesn’t mean I’m going to see explicit genitalia.

There’s still a real difference between showing a sex scene and actually showing genitals. That line matters. A bare torso, even if it’s sexualized, is not the same as showing a sex organ. The moment you see a penis on screen, it shifts into something much more explicit.

What bothers me isn’t just that it appears, it’s also the feeling that it’s becoming more and more normalized. Like the boundary is slowly moving without really being questioned.

And for me, the solution isn’t to balance things out by showing vulvas too. If anything, I think neither belongs in mainstream films, even with a 16+ rating. That kind of content fits a different context, where the viewer knows exactly what they’re getting into.

That’s basically what pornography is for. There’s a kind of contract there. In regular films, it’s not the same.

So the issue isn’t that a film has some erotic elements, it’s that this line gets crossed without being clearly signaled.

Am I the only one who feels like this is a real disconnect?

ETA : thanks for all the "puritanism" accusations lol. i like fan service, well served, just not porn. don't want to see anyone's anus, vagina or penis in a film not porn rated ... and in almost every culture people cover between the legs so. i'm just thinking about ratings doing their job. because perverts will always exist, everyone has their own boundaries, that's just logic. don't insult my intelligence 🤷🏾‍♀️

PS: yes this post is AI translated. I speak French and I'm not American, and also, I'm a, woman. Thank you. The world doesn't just contain America. If it bothers you that it sounds AI, sorry, but I didn't wanted to sound odd as I'm not a fluent speaker.