Modern action films fetishize the body even as they desexualize it

> and they still haven’t forgiven Joel Schumacher for putting nipples on the batsuit

Haha. Brilliant article.

Become financially independent is probably the best you can do. That'll cover not affording to go out and having to live with parents or roommates.

It's interesting, but pretty easily explained, right? Disney. What if you excise their canon from all the points made? I don't know the answer to that, honestly I don't watch movies. I'd be willing to bet their demographic capture strategy weighed children more highly than adults. That's easy memorabilia sales, tickets, dvd's, subscriptions, indoctrination, which will later yield nostalgia. And if you remove child-oriented or family films, the latter of which may even contain sexually suggestive content, from my recent movie/tv experiences there's still a lot of sex. I suppose if you weigh popularity there's an argument to be made. But does sex sell movies when you can watch an infinity of hardcore pornography with not only full blown nudity, but any variety of fantasy?

The really strange part, which seemed to me to be largely overlooked, is the ratio of violence to sex. The US in particular seems possessed by an interesting duality. One being that depictions of extreme violence are fine, but full frontal nudity is somehow verboten. And then another interesting point, the magnitude of which I'm not wholly aware of, is that we're almost certainly the porn capitol. Not in production alone, but in consumption as well, but I'm speculating on the basis of anecdotes.

What does it mean?

This was a fun read, especially as someone who grew up with those 80s and 90s movies.

That said, and as the author touches on, the action/super hero of today is a PG-13 one. Studios need to reach the widest audience possible to make the most money, so it's a safer bet.

Sure, back in the day studios had the same imperative, but the licensed toy game was still young, so they didn't realise that maybe if they made Die Hard PG instead of R they could sell some John McClane action figures to younger viewiers.

Nowadays, that's basically the starting point; what we can we sell outside of the movie? how can we milk the franchise for as much as possible?

And that's where a lot of the sex appeal is lost. Marvel movies can't be as raunchy as a result.

Another topic that the author touched on was the way the ideal aesthetic has changed in not just our bodies but where we live or what we do in our spare time.

I agree that more and more we are optimising for artifice; fitness classes, extra curricular activities, holidays, concerts and events we attend, just to keep up an appearance online or in person. And in those activities we often don't get the true value out of them because we're doing them for the wrong reason.

Anyway, it's a complex and interesting topic and I'd love to read more about this perhaps from even further back (50s or 60s) if anyone has something similar to this post?

Live your life and turn off the bullshit. Otherwise, wait for it to burn out. Social media is a bubble, and the milk that helps create the metoo froth.

We’ll sacrifice bad guys to the volcano gods for awhile, then the bubble will pop, the trend will fade and women (in the media) will be thirsting for men who aren’t wusses.