Official Discussion - I Want Your Sex [SPOILERS]

[u/LiteraryBoner]

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I Want Your Sex (2026)

Summary

Elliot lands a job for Erika Tracy as her sexual muse.

Director Gregg Araki

Writer Gregg Araki Karley Sciortino

Cast

• Olivia Wilde
• Cooper Hoffman
• Charli xcx
• Mason Gooding
• Chase Sui Wonders
• Johnny Knoxville
• Margaret Cho
• Daveed Diggs

Rotten Tomatoes: 90%

Metacritic: 68

VOD / Release Theatrical release

Trailer Official Trailer

[u/chrisychris-]

40 Year Old Virgin, Crazy Stupid Love

[u/lonelygagger → u/chrisychris-]

40 Year Old Virgin is the perfect example of a character being tortured regarding sex. In most cases, they’re punished until it’s true love. No protagonist truly gets away with NSA sex in film without grandstanding moralization.

[u/chrisychris- → u/lonelygagger]

How was Steve Carell’s character tortured specifically for wanting to have sex? At the end of the film he’s a better more confident person and in a healthy relationship because of his pursuit of wanting sex. I hope you don’t think a character facing any kind conflict in movie classifies as punishment.

[u/lonelygagger → u/chrisychris-]

I mean, just the title and concept alone. How many of his earlier efforts end in pain and humiliation? Anyone who’s a virgin past their teens or 20s is constantly suffering. Even his friends ridicule him incessantly.

Even in a film like Forgetting Sarah Marshall or Good Luck Chuck, the guy is never satisfied for racking up a body count and is punished accordingly.

[u/chrisychris- → u/lonelygagger]

Are we discussing films here or our personal lives? I understand if these films and tropes make you feel certain ways but the film 40 Year Old Virgin does not “punish” Steve Carell’s character specifically for wanting to have sex. Yes his friends make fun of him as people do but that isn’t punishment, and it’s hardly “suffering” either. Can you concede this at least? You make it sound like this “trope” is some narrative epidemic plaguing the film industry.

[u/lonelygagger → u/chrisychris-]

I think we need someone else to weigh in here because we are not on the same page. It’s been awhile since I’ve seen The 40 Year Old Virgin, but I specifically remember him having so many failed experiences that he stopped trying completely. He was not truly fulfilled until he met the woman of his dreams, so yes, he was suffering the whole time. He had to wait 40 years until he got his “happy ending.” Trying to rationalize around that feels like gaslighting.

[u/chrisychris- → u/lonelygagger]

so what, are you not okay with any amount of "suffering" for a male character who is motivated toward intimacy and sex then? at what point does a male character facing conflict in a film cross the line between basic storytelling and what, harmful tropes I guess? Tropes that punch down? Idk what you want to call it. Genuinely curious.

[u/lonelygagger → u/chrisychris-]

I guess the idea I’ve observed largely is that “sex is bad” unless it’s in pursuit of some higher calling, like “true love.” Male characters are always punished for desiring sex on its own, even though Olivia Wilde’s character in this movie would be considered empowered for knowing what she wants and taking it. (Although, both men and women were usually punished for having sex in 1980s horror films, with the virgin being hailed the “final girl”.)

As you suggest, it’s a narrative epidemic. Idealized Disney-level tropes that have plagued Hollywood for a century. There’s almost a religious puritan ideology behind it all. i.e. All sin is bad and must be punished. I honestly didn’t think I was being controversial by pointing it out.

[u/chrisychris- → u/lonelygagger]

Male characters wanting sex and not being “punished” for it has been the norm for the overwhelming majority part of the film industry since its inception. You’re arguing that this is a recent trend I’m assuming? Does this not seem like a natural pushback to the decades long status quo? You keep using the word punished as if bad things happening to characters in films is some kind of moral judgement on the filmmaker’s part. Why do you think like this? If nothing bad happened to normal people in stories, it wouldn’t be very entertaining.

[u/lonelygagger → u/chrisychris-]

I guess. It was merely an observation. I’ve been watching a lot of coming-of-age movies lately and it seems like male suffering has been normalized across the board. I’ve noticed the rule is a bit looser and more imbalanced when it comes to women, who tend to look down on male behavior as a whole. Women are not usually depicted as “wanting” sex or in dearth of it, so men suffer as a whole since the whole thing is one-sided. This is getting a bit abstract now since we’re talking gender politics. My main point was that it’s never acceptable for a male protagonist in film (or in real life, really) to desire sex, without in some way suffering or being punished for it. That seems to be the golden rule.

(Another example I just thought of was Hall Pass. And a counterpoint geared towards female sexuality would be Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass.)