"Why is violence tolerated in fiction, but sex is not?"

[Arnox]

Posted this on Reddit, but I think you guys may be interested in this too.

Violence, just by itself, can be good or bad. At its core, violence is a show of force, and sometimes, that show of force ends in a gorey picture. But if we completely remove any possibility of showing that brutality, then the violence in fiction becomes a cartoon and might as well not even be there besides for slapstick. Sex, on the other hand, is a very private and intimate act between two or more people, and seeing that described explicitly in non-pornographic fiction is both unnecessary and cringey because the details have zero bearing on the story and the reader is obviously not one of the involved parties in the act. You can get across the consequences of implied sex and a relationship completely without going into lewd detail. You can't strip that detail out though with violence without rendering it at least mostly inert and ineffective. And that is why violence is more tolerated and detailed sexual acts are not.

 

[Houseman]

But what about sexual violence?

 

[Drathnoxis]

But what about sexual violence?

Then you get the best of both worlds.

 

[Battousai]

This isn't some philosophical conundrum really, people like seeing other people duke it out on screen, video games or other form of media and this has been happening for thousands of years. Human beings like seeing violent entertainment, case in point the Roman colosseum and many other similar theaters were used for gladiatorial battles, mock naval battles, fights against animals etc. etc.
Meanwhile sex makes people uncomfortable with their own intimacy and sexual inadequacies along with some people wanting to take some sort of moral high ground by condemning the depiction of said acts on any sort of media, denouncing it as pornography for example. All in all sex is a more private affair and depictions in mainstream media are usually not portrayed well or they simply go overboard with the depiction. Case in point how sex is portrayed in a lot of video games is extremely cringe inducing sometimes that it makes us all think they could have simply skipped al this.

 

[Drathnoxis]

I thought Shamus Young did a decent write up on the topic:

Why is a Bare Breast More Offensive Than a Severed Arm? - The Escapist

www.escapistmagazine.com

 

[Arnox]

I thought Shamus Young did a decent write up on the topic:

Why is a Bare Breast More Offensive Than a Severed Arm? - The Escapist

www.escapistmagazine.com

Ah yes, 2014... Back when the Escapist was still good. lol

But yeah, I mostly agree with Shamus.

 

[Fudgy McFadyen]

You're taking an egocentric viewpoint when asking your question (though I get your meaning).

Pretty much all films are just sequences of emotional provocation. You enjoy the emotional response you get from seeing (at least some) violence, but cringe at sex. Other people will be the opposite, and will enjoy romantic and sexual scenes (distinct from pornography).

I find both violence and sex in films tedious, to me neither adds anything to a story - not usually anyway. I prefer the Brechtian approach to story telling.