In the 80s Everyone Was Having Sex, Now We Just Watch It on TV…

It’s Surreal

Mary Carter
5 min readNov 10, 2024

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We pretend to be sexually liberated, but we’re handcuffed by our own hang-ups. I can’t help but smirk at the reactions to Disney+’s new series “Rivals.”

We’ve become a society that consumes sex through pixels but is terrified of experiencing it in real life. How did we end up in this collective emotional masturbation?

Sex Scenes in Rivals

Within the first 10 seconds of “Rivals,” we’re thrown into a world where desire doesn’t ask for permission. David Tennant, Aidan Turner, and Alex Hassell appear naked as naturally as we now share pictures of our breakfast.

A nude tennis scene between Rupert Campbell-Black and Sarah Stratton is doing more for the sexuality debate than a thousand Twitter threads.

Sex Scenes in Rivals

I grew up in an era when desire was something you lived without apologizing, not something you passively observed through a screen while mindlessly scrolling through TikTok.

We fucked without wondering if the angle was flattering or if the lighting highlighted our imperfections. Pleasure didn’t need filters, and orgasms didn’t require social validation.

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Mary Carter
Mary Carter

Written by Mary Carter

I share candid reflections on love, sex, and life's ups and downs, no holds barred and no taboos.

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