• givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    It’s not just games, it’s TV and movies too.

    Cramming sex into everything made sense when we weren’t constantly 5 seconds away from being able to see pretty much any kind of porn someone could imagine.

    Now tho, that stuff isn’t a reason to watch a show. If you just cared about that, you’d watch the clip online

    • Graphy@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      lol are you equating romance in media to porn

      Like do you watch the x files and whip out some porn every time the two mains chars have romantic tension

      • Skunk
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        1 day ago

        Yeah, isn’t rule 34 made for that?

        • Graphy@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          Personally I try to get through the whole episode of family guy before I man handle my ham candle

      • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.zip
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        18 hours ago

        … Have you not heard of Tumblr? DeviantArt?

        Gooning or swooning to shipping fanfiction and fan made eroge / nsfw art has been a huge component of many fandoms, of all kinds, for at least two decades.

        The reaction from a whole lot of more modern media is to just capture a lot more of that in the official media itself.

        In anime in particular, this is called ‘fan-service.’

        Porn is absolutely a giant competitor in the ‘digital media consumption / attention’ market, and it completely makes sense that for people who believe in making every digital media product with as broad an appeal as possible, that there’s been a trend toward an analog of fan-service outside of anime.

        • Graphy@lemmy.world
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          18 hours ago

          Maybe I’m too cooked right now to give this reply the attention it deserves but this was a trip.

          Like did my original comment give you the impression that I didn’t know people rule 34 every goddamn thing possible?

          Maybe I’m really old but you suggesting that anime is the reason we stuff sex into shit is just so funny to me. I once heard someone say “every generation is the first generation to think they invented sex.”

          The comment I replied to was like why romance if porn exist which was also funny

          Anyways if I misread your comment then my bad it’s been a day

          • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.zip
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            16 hours ago

            Like did my original comment give you the impression that I didn’t know people rule 34 every goddamn thing possible?

            In the context of the reply you were replying to, basically yes.

            I read what you said as hyperbolic, but generally dismissive of the idea that characters in media have sex appeal and/or vicarious romance appeal, often generally, and often to such an extent that it drives people to make and share their own erotic spin offs.

            I think it is silly to not realize how much a popularity of a show these days can be reinforced and strengthened by appealing to the fanfic crowd, to not realize that many network execs have realized that they have a better shot at cultivating a… well, cult like fanbase, if they make their show in a way that appeals to that kind of crowd.

            Maybe I’m really old but you suggesting that anime is the reason we stuff sex into shit is just so funny to me. I once heard someone say “every generation is the first generation to think they invented sex.”

            I didn’t suggest anime was the reason we stuff sex shit into more western media for more broad audiences.

            I said that doing that, stuffing overtly sexual and will-they-won’t-they, romantic tension type material into media, is called ‘fan-service’ within the realm of anime, and an analagous or similar thing is happening outside of anime.

            The comment I replied to was like why romance if porn exist which was also funny

            I think the unstated thing that I could have said, but did not, because I assumed it was common knowledge, would basically be:

            For quite a long time, men have been the main consumers of video and still image pornography.

            And women have been the primary consumers of erotic novels, in the US at least.

            The American media approach to attempting to make the viewer feel aroused thus differs based on the sex they are appealing to:

            Straight men, as a market demo, generally go for visual sex appeal and sex acts, overt or covert lewd gestures, tight fitting or revealing clothes etc.

            Straight women, as a market demo, generally go for on screen romance, for the build up to and moments of dramatic sexual tension, will they won’t they scenarios, the context around a relationship that builds up to the actual sex, etc.

            In general, for men, sex appeal is direct, physical, literal, and for women, it is more cerebral, more about mental framing and constructing scenarios that feature, or could potentially feature wish fulfilment, being desired by a person with preferred character traits, etc.

            These are of course not absolute truths with no exceptions, there are many exceptions, and yes I am aware that creating the media environment in this way reinforces the norms themselves.

            Nonetheless, this is still quite true in general, in aggregate, when you run the numbers.

            So… thats why it makes sense to conflate sex and romance from the perspective of a media exec designing a show.

            Sex sells, you just package it differently if you’re appealing to men or women.

            To most media execs:

            Men want the sex.

            Women want the story about why the sex is happening.

            • Graphy@lemmy.world
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              16 hours ago

              I read what you said as hyperbolic, but generally dismissive of the idea that characters in media have sex appeal and/or vicarious romance appeal,

              Of course I was being hyperbolic…

              often generally, and often to such an extent that it drives people to make and share their own erotic spin offs.

              …but jfc you’re adding layers to this that no one else even mentioned and then building off of those layers to have your own weird anime rants

              No shit sex sells - that was never the contention

              The point of my original comment was poking fun of the vibes I got from the comment I replied to which felt like “there’s no need for sex or romance in media anymore when you can watch porn so easily”