Is Gen Z a Sexless Generation? Gregg Araki Is Asking, and We Are Listening
It’s beyond question now as to what Gregg Araki, a pillar of the New Queer Cinema movement, spent his time pondering over in his twelve-year hiatus from filmmaking: What is up with Gen Z and sex?! Late last month, Film Independent members were treated to an advanced screening of Araki’s hotly anticipated film, I Want Your Sex. The screening was followed by a Q&A with the cult auteur, where he revealed that from what he gathered and was ultimately inspired by, not much.
The film follows the BDSM relationship between twenty-something intern Elliot (Cooper Hoffman) and his boss, a renowned mixed media artist, Erika Tracy (Olivia Wilde). Elliot is a slightly-to-very clueless zoomer, and when it comes to sex, his knowledge leaves something to be desired. Erika is a world wise millennial, and basically a pleasure deity incarnate. I think we can figure out the power dynamics in their erotic arrangement. Their relationship fuels the discourse at the center of the film, and brings us back to: What actually is up with Gen Z and sex?
According to Erika, Gen Z isn’t shaping up to be as sexually liberated compared to other generations before. She’s perplexed by this idea, especially since—as she says—Gen Z is more of the “FOMO generation.” Well, as the first generation to grow up completely immersed in the digital landscape we all know today, us zoomers (the cat’s out of the bag) are socialized into learning new pieces of media, news, and events at an excessive level not previously seen. This immediate endless river of options, of all the things we can consume or do, certainly keeps our fingers busy, but are we missing out by not jumping on each other’s bones enough?
In the Q&A, Gregg Araki shared that Erika Tracy is representative of him in some ways, and her outlook on Gen Z’s relationship with sex is one of them. He isn’t saying that zoomers are completely or mostly celibate—talk about a dystopia—but rather that the generation at large has formed a particularly restrictive relationship with sex.
It’s at this time that I must mention the COVID-19 pandemic. It disrupted all areas of life, one of those areas being the social life of a maturing generation. Illness, lockdowns, and the “6-feet apart” rule drilled into everyone are aspects that may have lingered post-pandemic and seeped into Gen Z’s sex lives. Also, with the rise of technology, AI and chatbot usage are increasing as well. This includes sexual/romantic chatbots. So, if someone feels like connecting with someone else without putting in the effort that’s expected, “someone” is just a few clicks away now. Sure, phone sex and companion hotlines have existed since the 80s, but even those voices on the other end were people. These are just a couple of hypotheticals, and that’s the point. Araki wants to talk about the future of sex, not just Gen Z’s relationship with it, and those are my two cracks of the whip.
It has been over a decade since his last feature-film, White Bird in a Blizzard (2014), a serious drama that revolved around a teenage girl’s emotional journey after her mother goes missing. Araki doesn’t usually do dramas, so that project felt like him challenging himself with somewhat unfamiliar waters, whereas this follow-up project feels like he’s challenging himself with more familiar waters. The kinky comedy-drama calls back to his earlier works that distinguished himself from the other 90s indie darlings. He simultaneously taps back into that DNA and expands it, resulting in a cerebral romp that is an absolute pleasure worth experiencing.
He carved-out a lane all his own with alternative and shameless explorations of sexuality and youth culture, through a creative lens that can best be described as a union between pop art and YBA (Young British Artists) art. I Want Your Sex sees Gregg Araki continue to explore these themes through his signature style, and go the extra mile by putting himself in the minds of young adults today with the anxieties that plague us beyond sex. The film also tackles social interaction, surveillance, job security—he gets it, and we’re thrilled he brought his current ruminations onto the big screen.
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