Welcome to Long Live the Sex Scene, a special project by Cosmopolitan that explores why these steamy television and movie moments truly matter, especially right now. Join us as we rewind, replay, and then rewind them all over again.
Chances are, you’ve read at least one think piece (if not a dozen) about how Gen Z is in a sex recession. Headlines claim Gen Z is having less sex than previous generations—potentially because people are afraid of or not interested in getting physically intimate.
To find out what’s really going on, Cosmopolitan polled more than 450 people over the age of 18 on your thoughts and feelings about sex, especially as depicted in TV and movies. The results make one thing crystal clear: Gen Z is not sex-negative. In fact, many of you who took our poll seem downright horny.
Eighty-six percent said you’re down to see sex depicted in movies and TV shows. What’s more surprising, though, is that 56 percent of Gen Z respondents said that watching onscreen sex made you feel more curious about sex—far more than the 10 percent who said sex scenes make you feel anxious.
And based on our survey analysis, Gen Z isn’t just enjoying sex scenes—you’re actually learning from them. Forty-three percent of Gen Z respondents said that watching sex on film and in TV shows like Bridgerton, Girls, and Normal People made you feel more knowledgable about sex, as opposed to 28 percent of older respondents.
Given the overall state of sex education in this country plus the fact that onscreen sex isn’t always, well, entirely true to real life, the question becomes: Should we be concerned?
Maybe. Jacob, who’s 23, agrees that a lot of young people learn about physical intimacy through sex scenes and thinks that “could be problematic because it sets an unrealistic expectation of what sex should look like versus what it’s really like.”
That said, our survey responses show that many Gen Z viewers value a sex scene that includes intimacy, trust, respect, consent, and/or clear communication. Which hopefully points to a strong case for art imitating life.
