Sex Meta: What's Wrong With Sex

[chasingtides]

What's wrong with sex?

Before I clarify my question, let me explain where I'm coming from. I've been in fandom for about 12 years now and definitely through my late formative years. I've written fanfiction since before I knew the word existed. I also write my own original fiction. In both cases, I write gen. Because, really romance often bores me. I don't generally like reading romance and I certainly don't like writing romance.

This often puts me on the outs with both fanfiction and original fiction. I don't watch most TV shows. I don't like a lot of mainstream fiction. I do, however, like romance when it is countered with a heavy helping of plot. I like plot that isn't romance. What about evil zombies from outerspace coming to Earth to replace your pet dogs with pod dogs? What if the Mongolian Empire had steam powered robots and horse powered zeppelins? What if the world was really run by highly intelligent daffodils? Huh? What about that?

However, I've seen a lot of people bitch about sex. Why, they say, sex should only be used to further plot and characterisation.

Why? What's wrong with sex?

I mean, sometimes I like to do slightly inane things with my characters for the sheer fact that it's delightful. I could, in theory, remove them and the plot and characterisation would still function. But I feel that it adds a little something. (I also like to add paprika to my chicken soup. Delight is a sure reason when it comes to questioning the strange things that I do.)

So, does someone want to tell me why showing sex is somehow a bad, extraneous thing? I mean, I've had sex that hasn't moved the plot of my life or changed my character. I'm sure other people have, too. Why can't fictional characters? Isn't it's fun/hot/I like writing smut a decent reason?

(While in reaction to a lot of writing discussion I've seen, this is in particular reaction to this meta. However, I felt it would be inappropriate to respond with this as a comment.)

Comments

[mosaic.livejournal.com]

I'm inclined to agree with you. There's nothing wrong with fun/hot sex in fan fiction. For me, I prefer plot over sex, so unless I'm purposefully writing smut for a fic exchange or something, I'll only put (detailed) sex in if it has something to do with the story itself. In the same vein, I wouldn't necessarily detail a character's trip to the grocery store if it has nothing to do with the rest of the story.

I feel the same way about what I'm reading. If I'm in the mood to read smut, I don't care how or why characters got into bed together, I just want to read about how hot it was. But if I want something heavier, more serious, or simply more plot-y and there's a random, pointless sex scene that's only there for fun, I might question why it's there in the first place. Not to say that it's bad that it's there or that I'm going to leave a comment saying, "Why is there a sex scene? It doesn't enhance the plot!" Obviously, it's the author's work and he or she can put whatever he or she wants! But I might question it a little and wonder if there's something about it that I'm missing or if it really is just a fun, "throwaway" scene.

[maladaptive.livejournal.com]

My issue with sex is that reading it is boring and the majority of fanfic out there (in my fandoms) is about this ultimately boring act. There are few writers I've come across who can make it not boring-- and that's only because the actual sex was intermittent around witty banter.

There's also the issue of being a smut writer in general. Sex is highly personal and, unlike other aspects of fiction, the different styles really affect the audience (some like mechanical descriptions, some like more abstract, etc). So it's safer to just leave it out.

I've also heard the "if the sex doesn't advance the plot" but that always went for published works, not fanfic. And I completely agree with it in published fiction, but I generally feel that if anything doesn't advance the plot in some way, it shouldn't be there.

Granted, I don't tell people what they can or can't write and I know that other people enjoy reading/writing smut, and that's fine. It's just less fic out there for me to read.

[chasingtides.livejournal.com]

I don't like reading it, either. I think it's pretty boring. But I also figure - if that's what you want to write, well, your business.

People whine about what I write and I know how annoying it is. I won't whine about what other people write (unless it is poorly written or unwarned for).

[maladaptive.livejournal.com]

That's kinda where I stand. Obviously there's an audience, and... come on it's fanfic. We don't have to be quite so mercenary about marketing.

The post seemed reasonable at the outset, but I'm sleepy. I haven't read the comments yet.

[chasingtides.livejournal.com]

I guess I'm reacting to the idea that sex *has* to mean something to be included. People in relationships have sex. Sex doesn't always mean something. So why not include it? I mean, I don't tend to include physical descriptors of my characters in my original fiction, but I don't get testy when other people do.

I don't even know if I make any sense.

[brni.livejournal.com]

Well, in some sense, it has to do with the idea that everything in the story should work to advance plot, develop character, etc. Sometimes you just have to hack out the bits that you think are cool, but don't really advance the story. Doesn't matter if its sex or a fight scene or a walk on the beach, or anything else. If it doesn't teach us something about what's going on and who is involved in the action, it's going to leave the reader feeling somewhat flat.

[chasingtides.livejournal.com]

If it makes sense, I think people expect more out of sex than a fight or a walk on the beach.

[brni.livejournal.com]

It does, but I think that there's two contrasting things going on. 1) Because we're all, like, high minded people from a fundamentally sexually repressive culture, we want our sex scenes to be justifiable for some reason other than pure lasciviousness. 2) We're willing to read largely gratuitous sex scenes for purely lascivious reasons.

[deccaboo.livejournal.com]

Sex means different things to different people (and different characters react in different ways to sex.) I don't think there is necessarily anything wrong with PWP smut!fic, but I find them boring in the main, and there are so few I find genuinely hot/touching/funny that I prefer to read and write fic where the sex scenes are a necessary part of the story.

A character's one-night-stand-what-the-heck-I-might-as-well encounter in the alleyway behind a club doesn't have to be pointless...but so many fic writers approach it in this pointless way, that I think sex scenes in fic have become pointless through replication of this kind of situation.

And there are some stories where the sex is so gratuitous that it makes the whole fic sound silly, even if the main body of the text makes a good point. It reads as if the writer has seen that "sexay stories" get more reviews, so here goes I with the sex0rs...*write, write*

I wrote a character for a British CSI-type story collection and she was a highly sexual being. She responded to the horror and death she saw every day by sleeping with a close male friend to make herself feel alive and clean again. I was careful not to overplay the sexual aspect of her character, but at the same time it was an important part of who she was and to leave it out would have left her two-dimensional.

There is definitely a place for sex in fiction and it shouldn't automatically be seen as bad, but I think too many people use it as a turning point in the character's life when sex doesn't necessarily have to be that way.