“I Want Your Sex”: Is Gen Z Too Prudish to Have Fun?

Or maybe Hollywood is completely degenerate. Who knows? While we are on the subject, let’s take a look at I Want Your Sex, the new film by Gregg Araki.

As a true Gen Z individual, there are some things I wish I didn’t have to deal with: phone calls instead of texting, meeting people in person, and sex scenes in movies. But a combination of circumstances got me interested in watching a film that usually would have everything to lose for me: I Want Your Sex by director Gregg Araki. 

First, after watching The Invite a few months ago, I’m more willing to forget the feminist trash that was Don’t Worry, Darling and watch Olivia Wilde in films without rolling my eyes. And second, after what seems to be years submerged in the sad-beige/corporate-white trend, just the sight of the cyan and hot pink design on the promotional poster gave me years of life. 

However promising it looked, after watching, I could not find anything too interesting about it. What I did find were some positive reviews that, far from making me reflect on my sex life, made me wonder why older generations think this type of movie could be an inspiration.

What is I Want Your Sex About?

The film focuses on Elliot, an inexperienced young man who lands his first job as an assistant for renowned artist Erika Tracy. Everything takes a turn when the boss initiates a dominating sexual relationship with him, dragging Elliot into a world of desire, obsession, and (perhaps) crime. 

Toxic Bosses and Boundary Problems

As I mentioned, I enjoyed the lack of boring minimalism: the gallery, Elliot’s friends’ apartments, and every set are full of color and fun patterns. And I must admit the actors do a great job.

Cooper Hoffman portrays Elliot, which I’m guessing is supposed to represent the “stereotypical Gen Z” for millennials: someone socially awkward, pretty incompetent when it comes to life in general, and sexually repressed. But Hoffman turns what could have been an annoying caricature into a somewhat likable dork. Olivia Wilde also offers a great performance as Erika, a provocative artist whose entire work revolves around her sex life. She is demanding, manipulative, and has no sense of boundaries or respect, which ends up becoming a problem for Elliot. And I must make the comment: if the roles were reversed, it would be unacceptable. 

Story-wise, there is not a lot to say: Erika decides to have sex with Elliot (a good chunk of the movie is the two of them engaging in different “activities”), but she starts taking control of his life more and more. In the span of a few weeks, she ruins Elliot’s closest friendship, publicly shows Elliot’s intimate videos as part of her art exhibition and gets him involved in a police case by faking her own death. So to me, this is more a cautionary tale about not getting involved with these “liberated” people, rather than inspiration to have a more adventurous sex life. 

Oh, and Charli XCX is in the movie as well. That was random. 

Pseudo-Intellectualism

I’m not sure if this was Araki’s intention (introspection is not something Hollywood enjoys), but the film ends up offering a sort of meta commentary on modern art and its hypocrisy. Erika says it herself: you don’t need to create good art; you just have to be good at convincing people that you do. And doesn’t this phrase describe the entertainment industry in a nutshell? 

The past few years are proof that if your product can promote (or pretend to promote) the right set of ideas, the “intellectual” circles will award you the high-art status, no matter how mediocre your work actually is. That is why you are now allowed to release semi-pornographic movies in theaters, as long as during promotion you speak about “empowerment,” “body autonomy,” or the industry’s favorite: “female desire.” 

Are We A Bunch Of Frigid Freaks? 

Some positive reviews I’ve read for this film interpret it as a call for Gen Z to stay away from our phones for five seconds and experience life. Have some sex. I understand where these people are coming from (we have acquired a bit of a reputation, I’m afraid), and as part of the generation, I’m well aware that we are not the most functional people out there. However, when I hear people saying that “Gen Z doesn’t want to watch sex scenes” as if it was a generational failure, I think we are being misunderstood. 

I suppose part of it comes from previous generations seeing sex as more of a taboo. Any film or piece of art that challenged that could be seen as groundbreaking and bold. That is not how Gen Z grew up.  

I don’t mind a movie having sex scenes in a general sense. The thing is, in the last couple of years, a ton of films have sex scenes for no apparent reason. I know it’s not the intention of I Want Your Sex in particular, but even movies that want to show us a love story have a tendency to end up being 80% about the sex lives of the main characters, something I’ve discussed in other articles. 

In the last ten years we have seen a constant effort from all types of media to convince us that “empowerment” comes from having sex. Or from promiscuity, to be more precise. 

It was not so long ago that we went through that phase of young people thinking that your sexuality is your only identity, that who you sleep with and your bedroom preferences are what define you as a person. This mentality started to consume everything around us: movies, TV shows, music, and social media, presenting sex as something completely detached from your emotions and general well-being and turning it into a statement against… something else (Oppression? Patriarchy? Toxic masculinity? Climate change? You can choose). The 80s and 90s productions at least had the ability to be natural when depicting sex; now everything is some sort of rancid intellectual exercise.

I’m Tired, Boss

Having a healthy sex life used to be about finding a stable partner, with sex being a meaningful part of that relationship. But the last decade has trained an entire generation to believe that sleeping with a myriad of random people you don’t care about, having a collection of weird sex toys, and engaging in one or two orgies a year should be “the new normal.” This was particularly pushed onto women as some sort of “liberating” experience. Until this very day, some people will applaud a woman who sells herself online for $3.99 and call it empowerment. 

When it comes to the film industry, sex scenes are now not only used as filler, but they have also become more and more depraved and disgusting as time went by. Plus, we have seen almost every single actor (or at least, the five or six lucky ones working right now) naked and starring in some explicit scenes. It’s not new, it’s not interesting, and it’s not profound. 

In short, they want to charge us to watch expensive porn. If you think I’m exaggerating, watch this year’s “Wuthering Heights”, Saltburn, or Academy Award winners like Poor Things or Anora. I Want Your Sex is pretty vanilla compared to other projects I’ve seen in the last four years. 

So yes, our few surviving Gen Z brain cells are a bit fried by the constant displays of breasts, asses, and human fluids. We would love to see something else. I’m personally not repelled by the idea of sex; I’m repelled by the ideas Hollywood wants to sell me about sex. 

And watching Olivia Wilde in a thong using a dildo on Cooper Hoffman is not my idea of entertainment. Thank you guys, but I don’t want your sex.