Today’s realization: “sex scenes that don’t drive the plot are gratuitous, so capital-a Authors must have a good reason to include them” is literally just “sex for pleasure is immoral, sex is only permissible for procreation” dressed up as if it was writing advice XD

Lol, yeah, people who make that argument give the same energy as creepy Roman sculpture blogs. There's something to be said about using every scene to push the story forward, but in reality stuffy weirdos use that point as a way to dismiss erotic art, because really it just makes them uncomfortable.

Exactly. It's like, why aren't you complaining about other non-plot-related elements in the book/show/movie?

Oh my god nobody is saying it's immoral, but ffs THE INTERNET IS LITERALLY FILLED WITH PORN FOR YOU TO ENJOY AT YOUR LEISURE, I shouldn't have to see it when I'm watching a movie with my parents (as in a perfectly great movie otherwise shouldn't become unwatchable for that reason).

I get where you're coming from, but I think fanservice is bad writing, personally.

I bet these are the same joyless people who condemn escapism in every creative medium. "If we're not exploring some overwrought tragedy of the human condition, then take it away!" (FWIW, I love challenging artistic works too, but sometimes we can have some low-stakes fun, as a treat, can't we?)

I like it. I hate to read some authors version of what he/she thinks is hot sex. It's almost always cringe af. AND, anything that doesn't advance the plot is gratuitous. Even Tom Bombadil is no exception.

I agree in theory, but my brain rejects it. Maybe I've watched too much male gaze cinema and read ya books

I did need to hear this considering my current writing project is ending up with a LOT of sex in it (Some very plot critical, some very not)

Yeah I dislike that puritanical stuff where everything has to have a 'use-case', everything has to be purely functional. That mindset leaves people feeling the need to justify or prohibit their fun in some way (like with weed or games or sex), instead of just being able to say they do it for fun

Good take. Honestly, writing sex scenes is fun. I can figure out pacing for unrelated scenes through practicing with that. So it's like jazz. I took to making scrap writing documents to show my progress from awkward IKEA sex; to a fun one about being an involuntary voyeur to someone else.