Quote:
Originally Posted by Worldwalker
all characters and activities must be justified and intrinsic to the plot. It irks people when they aren't.
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Not me.
It irks me when they're poorly-written or distract from the actual plot. (Both sex scenes and unnecessary details, like the random "picked child up from school" interlude.) But if they're well-written and contain some insight to the characters, I've got no problems with them. And it's hard to imagine a well-written scene *not* containing at least some character insight.
Also, I deplore the idea that sex is such an extreme and unusual act that it has no place in the majority of stories, and that including it automatically changes the genre. While gritty, explicit sex may not belong in a wacky college farce, it would fit very well into many private-investigator mysteries (and it's not like mysteries lack sex as a motive for various people's activities)--but many modern publishers won't touch stories not tagged "romance/erotica" that have more than a fade-to-black approach to sex.
Puritan ethics. It's not that sex plays no important part in the story; it's that sex isn't allowed to be described the way that other important aspects are described. The murder victim in a bloody heap can be described in excruciating detail; the seduction of the cop assigned to the case, can't be.
Which doesn't mean all stories that include sex describe or integrate it well, but it's so often censored entirely that I am in favor of it when it does get through, in the hopes that future authors will write those scenes better.