I work in Hollywood. Like USC’s Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, the UCLA Center for Scholars & Storytellers is just another example of a political advocacy group using a university as cover for ideological messaging, under the auspices of “research.”<p>Note that both Annenberg and S&S rarely, if ever, publish the raw data used to draw these suspiciously blunt conclusions about media representation (in this case, about supposedly “dated and unrelatable romantic tropes”); they merely crank out glossy press releases designed to be regurgitated by overworked trade-magazine bloggers. Underneath these are lousy “self-reporting” surveys with data carefully massaged to fulfill an intended purpose.<p>There’s a lot of snake oil peddled in town, but this stuff irritates me the most, as it is often reported uncritically and discussed without any reflection on why these “studies” are conducted, or who funds them.
I imagine the trend may be inversely-correlated to how easily someone can find depictions of sex on-demand through other sources, i.e. actual porn.<p>So then other areas like "safe bastion of platonic intimacy" or "awkwardly happy mutual hand-holding" are comparatively under-served.
One only need to look at the current depictions of sex in popular shows to see why people don't like them. These are incredible gratuitous and basic and exist for shock value without a shred of passion nor artistry. Worse, they can detract from the actual story of the show and reduce overall enjoyment. For example, look at The Boys extremely detailed and crude rape scenes for absolutely zero reason.<p>Sex sells, but it can also diminish overall entertainment value if not done right. Too bad sale is the only thing most producers care about.
Here's the link to the 2024 study:<p><a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/633f0603fdaa7311ba384d21/t/6719a3a9660bed6cba2abf97/1729733553264/Teens+%26+Screens+2024+Report.pdf" rel="nofollow">https://static1.squarespace.com/static/633f0603fdaa7311ba384...</a><p>Here's the 2023 study:<p><a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/633f0603fdaa7311ba384d21/t/65452c5506cddd4709554a1b/1699032154689/Teens+%26+Screens+2023+Report.pdf" rel="nofollow">https://static1.squarespace.com/static/633f0603fdaa7311ba384...</a>
Sounds like this study is about what people <i>say</i> they want (and perhaps when given a multiple-choice selection of ideas), but not what their actual behavior is.
Maybe seeing attractive people in media makes people feel bad about their own appearance. Or their partner's appearance.<p>Maybe they don't want to watch something just to be reminded of their mediocre/nonexistent sex life.
The problem is that these teens want to watch tougher, mature stories like prestige TV stuff or the movies Variety cited and then complain that there's sex on it. If they are not comfortable watching sex they should stick to basic mainstream stuff, which became completely aseptic after the Superbowl tit incident. Not everything has to be for everyone.