[uncledaddy]

Unless the intention of the entire story is obviously to be pornographic or otherwise not serious in terms of story/plot/character development, sex scenes and all other material MUST be done in a manner that is completely relevant to the story and characters and only what is necessary for proper development should be shown. I will stop reading a story completely (or only continue reading it as a joke) if I come across a useless segment of filth clearly intended to keep the attention of an immature and/or otherwise bored reader. A good story does not have room for irrelevant crap. Period. That's not just applicable to sex scenes, but all things included in the story, from physical descriptions of the characters to the amount of time covered between scene transitions. Relevance, relevance, relevance. It is important. If an author seems to be ignoring it, then the material is not worth my attention--nor would it hold my attention if I were to try reading it anyway. As Red pointed out, however, there are times when a sex scene may indeed be relevant and certain details used to illuminate character traits and relationships in a way that other types of interaction scenes could not. This is when such things are acceptable. Sexuality is, after all, a normal and often important aspect of life. It can say a lot about one or more characters. Overall, as with everything else, an author must tread very carefully when it comes to this sort of thing and decide how much detail is truly appropriate for each situation. Just because it needs to be said that two characters have slept together does not mean that it needs to be written out from start to finish--and yet, sometimes it does.