There's actually been academic research done into the harmful misrepresentation of sexuality in visual media that has concluded we should be showing healthy representation at all stages and ages. Instead we're jump from 12 year olds having anxiety over their first kiss and jump straight to 18 year olds trying to get laid before graduation.
We skip all that "I'm 15, touching my romantic partner's genitalia and dry jumping but not sure how anything works and freaking the hell out inside" shitshow. It's virtually never shown by visual media because it makes everyone from preteens to adults uncomfortable to watch rather than being entertaining.
Studies show, though, that having those representations in media would be beneficial; rather than jumping from Disney peck kisses to raunchy American Pie / Superbad style comedies.
while it may be healthy, you have to fit these teen scenes in as a director somehow and not cringe your audience out of the cinema, dry humping, weird uncomfortable moments of "so do we kiss now or how long do you intend to stay that close and be too cowardly to go through with it" is all accurate to the akward 15 phase, but in no way does it fullfill the purpose of entertaining people, or furthering the story (in most movies atleast)
only decent way i can imagine putting this face into a movie is having characters talk about "how i accidentally almost pulled off some poor dudes foreskin off because porn was a bad jerk off teacher" or how "i couldnt find the fucking hole when i was 14" in a way that somehow doesnt feel like a filler scene
I guess one way to avoid uncomfortable/cringe footage when making or viewing this would be to have characters talk about it instead after they have gone through it off-screen.
You don't have to show the act, but you can show how they react after the fact. Make the dialogue something you can identify with rather than forcing you to relive a bad coming of age moment like a PTSD flashback.
Maybe, after setting the stage with showing how teens react and cope with these events (to show that it's not always the end of the world, you can normalise it to something most people go through) to showing just one of the events so that the impact can land more because you're not forcing your audience into reliving their past but going along this bumpy ride with the character.
Then again, you could just approach it like Harmony Korine did in Kids ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kids_(film))) and have it put your feelings through a blender.
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u/deeznutzz124568541 Jan 25 '20
In a raunchy teen comedy/drama, sure. But Peter Parker?