Are today's audience too sensitive when it comes to sexual aggression?

But I thought there were women out there who did like sexual aggression in real life as well as movies. I watched High Plains Drifter with my gf and there is the scenes where Clint Eastwood unleashes his sexual aggression on a woman and my gf got super turned on by it and said it was really hot. So wouldn't women find these old aggressive scenes as much of a turn on, and is my gf a case in point?

I think its a bit of both, that's Deckard's intensions but the way he does it obviously leaves a lot to be desired and I'd say is ment to be revealing of a darker side to the character hence not changing it.

Honestly though I think you could argue that cinema has always been more comfortable with showing sex as a marker for abuse and dysfunction than it has as a positive, think those endless erotic thrillers in the 80's and 90's. I mean not to say that view isn't legitimate or can't make cinema of worth, a lot of Lynch follows it as does the film in my avi that I'd have as one of the best of the decade. I do think its a view that even the more liberal side of society/the media is more comfortable with because it does fit into the more puritanical undertones that are present even there. You look at say the contrasting reactions to Shame and Blue is the Warmest Colour, both equally graphic but the latter had much more issue taken with it because the sex within wasn't shown as a sign of some dysfunction.

I think my problem is with the word aggression. To me aggression means crossing a line, forcing yourself on someone, taking what is not given. This word aggression should be contrasted with seduction which, in my mind, is more of a give and take. I think movies blur the line at times by confusing these two distinct activities. In my mind if a person engages in sexual aggression, crossing the line, they might find themselves in jail or dealing with angry husbands, boyfriends, brothers, or fathers. They might not ever realize that their aggression has actually scarred some woman who was too scared to protest or say no. Forcing yourself on someone is not cool in any circumstance.
If the activity is actually consensual, you have to go by more than she did not say no, than it would be more like seduction. And some women might like a little bit of rough foreplay which is okay if it is consensual.

My point is that this is a sensitive issue and film makers should take care to distinguish aggression from seduction. Not because they are scared of the me too movement, but because there is a difference between these two activities that should be distinguished.

Yeah, people using words differently is definitely an issue. For example, if someone were being kind of pushy or insistent while trying to seduce someone, I would describe it as "aggressive" even if there was no physical aspect or implication behind it, but to others that might convey exactly that. A lot of these issues are inherently fraught, and then made worse by the general imprecision of language, as well as people's misguided attempts to make people take it more seriously by categorizing broadly different acts under the same incendiary terms, which ultimately only undermines how seriously all of it is taken.

Tricky stuff, to say the least.

What do you mean by "unleashes his sexual aggression"?

Also, as human beings just like men, different women are into different things. We're individuals. So what turns on one woman isn't necessarily going to turn on another. It's also important to note that if someone is aroused by watching a certain activity that doesn't always mean that they would enjoy actually doing it.

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Well the scene is on youtube, I could post it, but it is sexual so not sure if it would be appropriate on here. Mainly he was just really rough and she liked it, but if they did that today, it would be considered politically incorrect.

I guess what I am getting at is, is that when women seduce men in movies, or vice versa, they expect the female character, to be politically correct about it nowadays, when she is having naughty sex. It's like there is this audience expectation that says, "if you're going to be a naughty girl, you have to be a politically correct naughty girl", which seems like a contradiction in terms for me, and I don't get why society seems to have that expectation nowadays, compared to before.

I can't say that I've ever seen a film where a "naughty" (that's such a stupid word) girl was being politically correct about her "naughtiness." I haven't the slightest idea what you're talking about.

Naughty is not the best word, I couldn't think of the right word when I wrote it.

Well what I mean is, is that audiences are more easily offended if the sexual situation and behavior is not more politically correct. I mentioned Basic Instinct before as an example, and if that movie came out today, with the sex situations the same, people would be more offended now, compared to back then.

Well it's just that the sexual situations are more politically correct now compared to before, so I assumed it was because of the audience. Why else would it be that way now, if it wasn't for the audience?

It was said on here before that Blade Runner's sex situation was considered rape-ish by some of today's audience more now compared to before, so I thought that was a case in point, as to why Hollywood has changed in that area of it's portrayal of sexual situations.

Oh okay, but I thought that women were more politically incorrect today, than a few decades ago, so I thought that they might be more open to aggressive sexual scenarios now compared to before, but for some reason the movies portray the opposite.

In High Plains Drifter the sexual scene you're talking about has a rogue male date raping a woman. She clearly struggles and by definition of law it would be rape. The movie shows his actions as acceptable and that the woman liked him afterwards....So to answer your question: doesn't today's audiences accept more sexual explicit situations?...yes they do...BUT...if that scene in High Plains Drifter was made today the male character doing the date rape would not be glorified, he would be demonized...and that is the difference.

I would keep hitting the rep button if I could.

In High Plains Drifter though, the woman liked it after and tried to cuddle him and even wanted to hook up again with him after. But you don't see that in movies today, as they are afraid to show women respond positively to sexual aggression, more so.

And when watching it with my gf she got turned on and thought it was hot, so if that's the case, perhaps Hollywood underestimates what audiences are PC about?

It s a time when movies have regressed or cater an audience that doesn t have the main concern of watching sex scenes that have agression, it s not a time anymore when movies like Killing me softly would stick in anyone s head, because to me this film is a great romance film but not a great thriller, and has a great sex scene as there was chemistry between joseph fiennes and heather graham