I see a post circulate every once in awhile that talks about sex scenes in books or films and I see a lot of people talking about how they make them uncomfortable or they don't see the point and honestly? I find a lot of the arguments to be pretty childish.
A sex scene is same as a fight scene, a dance scene, or any scene of intense activity characters might do together. How much point it has and how much you get out of it is going to depend on what the genre is and how much attention to character development the writers are giving. There is no inherent lack of purpose to a sex scene that you couldn't argue for any other type of activity scene in a film.
Even as an ace person I don't get NOTHING out of a sex scene if it's well written and I am invested in how the characters interact with each other. There is a lot of trust, vulnerability, tenderness or violence that can go on in an intimate scene that you can't really get with the same magnitude in a different context. It's not just about being horny. I may not ever feel horny but I can feel other things in scenes of intimacy that are cathartic, intriguing, or even relatable.
The point of art, any art, is to evoke emotions in the audience. That doesn't mean you're going to feel everything that an artist or writer is trying to convey. It's not even required that you be horny to be able to enjoy or contemplate a sex scene.
The only time a sex scene exists with no purpose other than to sexually stimulate you as a viewer is in porn and I could make an argument that porn isn't even without merit as an artform or that we cannot have academic or philosophical conversations about it and what the kind of porn we consume says about our culture and society. I can also make an argument that we don't HAVE to have academic or philosophical conversations because it's perfectly ok just to want to feel horny just like it's ok to want to feel sad or scared. There is a catharsis and a relief to be found in the intensity of certain genres.
This doesn't mean every sex scene works or does something important for the plot. It doesn't mean a movie or book isn't handling it badly. There are plenty of bad or poorly written scenes that are just the director putting his fetish on the screen to the detriment of their characters and story. But that isn't a ubiquitous truth and it's no worse than when any other type of scene fails. I've seen pointless sports montages, dumb fight scenes that went on way to long, and unsatisfying slasher kills across plenty of genres but no one is getting their panties in a twist over those.
I think it would benefit more people to take a neutral perspective on sex and its place in art because, whether we participate in it ourselves or not, it is a fundamental part of the human condition and it can be provocative, insightful and even beautiful in the hands of a strong writer.
If you are sex repulsed then that's fine, some people don't watch horror because they don't like gore, but they wouldn't make the argument that the horror genre doesn't deseeve to exist or argue that gore doesn't belong in films where violence is central to the plot. The fact that people will argue that sex only belongs in porn and there is no value outside of it is puritanical.
