
How ’90s-Era Hollywood’s Insatiable Obsession with Teen Psychosexual Coming-of-Age Films Still Resonates Today

What’s more dangerous than a teenage girl? Sexualizing one.
The fear of newfound sexual freedom, particularly the libidos of adolescent girls, were interrogated, explored, and — at times — exploited in ’90s-era high school-set psychosexual thrillers. From the age of characters portrayed, actors’ requests for body doubles, or the questionably problematic market for watching real-life teens undress onscreen, the eroticism of teens in the ’90s still has resonance today.
Now, as Todd Haynes’ “May December” shows the lasting psychological effects of the traumatic grooming of a male tween (Charles Melton), and Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Poor Things” charts a sexual awakening from a developing child mind in an adult body (played by Emma Stone), it’s only right to return to the trend of coming-of-age sexuality onscreen, most infamously weaponized by a niche genre trend of thrillers framed by teen female perpetrators.
Sex is back onscreen, but what did overt eroticism look like in films past?...
The fear of newfound sexual freedom, particularly the libidos of adolescent girls, were interrogated, explored, and — at times — exploited in ’90s-era high school-set psychosexual thrillers. From the age of characters portrayed, actors’ requests for body doubles, or the questionably problematic market for watching real-life teens undress onscreen, the eroticism of teens in the ’90s still has resonance today.
Now, as Todd Haynes’ “May December” shows the lasting psychological effects of the traumatic grooming of a male tween (Charles Melton), and Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Poor Things” charts a sexual awakening from a developing child mind in an adult body (played by Emma Stone), it’s only right to return to the trend of coming-of-age sexuality onscreen, most infamously weaponized by a niche genre trend of thrillers framed by teen female perpetrators.
Sex is back onscreen, but what did overt eroticism look like in films past?...
- 10/20/2023
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
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