Basic Trope: Sex is demonized to comical extremes by Moral Guardians.
- Straight: Alice and Bob have sex. Alice gets pregnant, and both come down with terrible, incurable STDs.
- Exaggerated:
- Sex Signals Death.
- By merely flirting with Bob, Alice is dragged to hell by demons, some of whom are even crying at what took place.
- Bob and Alice are disgusted at the idea of sex and make their antisexual views very clear. They've managed to piss of a wide range of people such as puritans, religious people, perverts, sexual deviants, conservatives, liberals and basically anyone who likes sex.
- Downplayed: Alice and Bob have sex, and they both end up with STDs. However, the STD in question is one that is possible to cure (such as gonorrhea or syphilis).
- Justified:
- Alice and Bob are teenagers, and Can't Get Away with Nuthin' for the sake of a Very Special Episode.
- Sex, especially of the premarital and/or non-reproductive variety, is against Alice and Bob's religious beliefs or social mores.
- Alice and Bob live in a society before germ theory and modern medicine: people don't understand the exact cause of STDs, but they know that it has something to do with sex, and therefore figure that sex (or certain kinds of sex) angers the Powers That Be.
- Alice and Bob live in an era where STIs and STDs are next to impossible to treat: bacterial infections (such as chlamydia and syphilis) have become resistant to all known antibiotics, and viral infections (HPV, HIV, herpes) have likewise evolved resistance to all known antiviral drugs. It's just too risky to be promiscuous, even with condoms.
- Alice and Bob live in an era where reliable birth control either does not exist or is difficult to obtain, and where lineage and inheritance are Serious Business: sex carries too much risk of unplanned or unwanted pregnancy to be treated flippantly.
- Alice and Bob are antisexuals, and therefore hate sex and oppose it. Any attempts to change their minds have been rejected due to their lack of interest and utter revulsion towards sex.
- Inverted: Sex Is Good
- Subverted:
- Alice and Bob have sex after discussing how nervous they are about something bad happening to them for it. Nothing bad happens.
- This only applies to non-marital and/or non-reproductive sex in this setting.
- Sex isn't evil so much as it is powerful. It's too great a source of pleasure and creativity to classify as evil, but too dangerous and unpredictable to classify as good either. (See also Order Versus Chaos)
- This only applies to situations of rape or Questionable Consent, especially if a minor is involved. Sexual acts, flirtation, etc. between consenting adults are fine.
- Double Subverted:
- At least not right away. The pregnancy and STDs may show up later, emotional hang-ups and the accompanying drama ensue later, and people scorn Alice for her part when they find out.
- It turns out Alice and Bob were not married to each other (whether or not they were to other people), and not doing it for the purpose of having a baby. Thus they experience consequences, while a married couple actively trying to conceive do not.
- Victim-Blaming is rampant, and people are more likely to say that someone who was raped "got what s/he deserved."
- Parodied: Alice and Bob spontaneously combust for even so much as thinking naughty thoughts, and explode if they dare to act on them.
- Zig Zagged: Some couples have problems and drama related to sex, others have sex with no problems or drama.
- Averted:
- No one has troubles related to their sex lives.
- Sex Is Good
- Enforced:
- Alice and Bob are characters in a pamphlet or video meant to be shown in Sunday School.
- Alice and Bob are characters in a Teen Drama, and the episode is a Very Special Episode meant to Scare 'Em Straight.
- The movie Alice and Bob were in was made during the days of The Hays Code.
- Lampshaded: "If you have sex, you WILL get chlamydia. And die."
- Invoked:
- A minister or Sunday School teacher brings it up in his/her sermon.
- An abstinence-only sex-ed class
- Exploited: Bob is an idealistic hero, but not above sexual urges. Claire is a Card-Carrying Villain and seduces him with her feminine wiles because having premarital sex will bring him over to The Dark Side.
- Defied: Alice and Bob join a religion (yes, there are a few) that believes that Sex Is Good, or at least not evil.
- Discussed: "What's so bad about sex anyway?"
- Conversed: "While it's true that there exists the possibility of things going wrong, if you have sex responsibly (use condoms, get tested regularly, and limit the number of partners you have), they're less likely to. It's just people are afraid of things going wrong, and that fear for their safety and their partner's safety translates as a fear of sex and sexuality.
- Deconstructed:
- Sex is treated as a Moral Event Horizon crossover because there really does exist the possibility of things going wrong. Because of that, Moral Guardians and the like see it as evil, not because it is evil, but because they're afraid of the possible consequences. The Laser-Guided Karma killing off all the amorous couples in the series is a reflection of these fears.
- Alternatively, a Mad Scientist sees Sex Is Evil, and finds means of destroying sexuality by declaring that the human body is a disgusting immoral thing that should be destroyed and replaced with machinery that does not desire or have sex, resulting in dehumanisation.
- Political Overcorrectness runs society, and while sex itself is not outlawed, sexual desire is, having been decreed to be inherently degrading and objectifying. It is considered impossible (at least by the Moral Guardians in charge) to be sexually attracted to someone and still view and respect them as a human being rather than reducing them to their body and appearance. Thus, all citizens are chemically castrated to remove sex drive, and people only have sex for reproductive purposes, and the government proceeds to outlaw non-reproductive sex, punishing offenders with death (or worse). And that’s until they find out how to grow fetuses in tubes...
- Bob is antisexual and is demonized as a religious puritan and is repeatedly told that something is wrong with him and that he should stop "oppressing" other people because they've conflated antisexuality with Sex Is Evil. As a result, Bob feels attacked because he thinks that they're trying to force him to like sex.
- Bob is asexual and/or antisexual and gets called all sorts of nasty names, is subject to vulgar remarks about his voluntary abstinence, has had to deal with people implying that a good shag will change his mind and has had to harm or even kill people who've tried to rape him. All because Bob doesn't like sex.
- If sex in general is considered evil in a population, the only two ways it's gonna get more members is if the population either achieved cloning technology or has attracted younger people from foreign soil. If neither of these are viable or morally acceptible for the population, the population will eventually go extinct due to babies no longer being produced to replace dying members.
- Reconstructed:
- Alice and Bob become more informed about sex and how to protect themselves. They strengthen and stabilize their relationship. (And of course they strive to be good people.) Because they don't fear harm coming to themselves or their partner, sex is not seen as an evil act. It's good and beautiful. Or, at worst, as neutral as eating a PB&J sandwich.
- Despite the challenges Bob must face because of his antisexuality, he's determined to change societal perception of Antisexualism, starting with the fact that antisexuals and puritans share completely different stances on sex. He ends up becoming somewhat of a hero in atheist circles due to his agenda targeting religious hypocrisy (i.e calling pre-marital sex immoral despite it being no different to marital or post-marital sex) and making an enemy of Neo Puritans, Christofascists and other religious fascists.
- Played For Laughs: Laser-Guided Karma for sleeping with Anything That Moves.
- Played For Drama: Sex Is Evil, and I Am Horny.
Back to Sex Is Evil
