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Modern action films fetishize the body even as they desexualize it

bloodknife.com

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Re: Modern action films fetishize the body even as they desexualize it

#51
Reminded me of a line in American Beauty, when the two gay neighbours are jogging, and Lester joins them and asks them for tips to get in shape[1]:

- Neighbour: "Do you want to just lose weight, or do you want to have increased strength and flexibility as well?"

- Lester: "I want to look good naked"

[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjTg7F59WfE

Re: Modern action films fetishize the body even as they desexualize it

#52
Tiny point: "It was all bullshit: no one looks like that without calorie restriction."

I'm 6' and I've weighted 135-145 pounds for my entire adult life and I'm 50+. Being a guy, I never restricted my calorie intake. I'd expect there are women with a similar metabolism.

Which isn't to say that a lot of skinny celebrities aren't dieting like mad to get this look. But probably some percentage aren't and the rest hate them. Human physiology is weird. Also, and, despite my mythical natural skinny, no one has put me in movies, darn it.

Re: Modern action films fetishize the body even as they desexualize it

#54

I think this is why British crime dramas / police procedurals seem to feel more real (to me, raised in a post-colonial country) - very few people look like temporarily financially embarrassed models slumming it as detectives.

Agreed. British shows have characters that look like what people outside of LA look like.

Re: Modern action films fetishize the body even as they desexualize it

#55

> This cinematic trend reflects the culture around it. Even before the pandemic hit, Millennials and Zoomers were less sexually active than the generation before them. Maybe we’re too anxious about the Apocalypse; maybe we’re too broke to go out; maybe having to live with roommates or our parents makes it a little awkward to bring a partner home; maybe there are chemicals in the environment screwing up our hormones;…

There are almost 7.7 billion people on the planet already, even with less than replacement birthrates, I think we're good on human count for the next 300 years or so at a minimum so unless the birth rate really catastrophically collapses. We could lose an order of magnitude of people without endangering genetic diversity, take significant load off of the environment, and frankly, quite probably improve the human cond…

The math is more dismal than that. With a 1.5 birth rate (common in Europe) the population drops by more than half in three generations (about 100 years). This causes the economy to collapse—stock valuations have baked in assumptions of future generations of consumers existing. But it can get worse. South Korea has a fertility rate below 1 and Taiwan is headed that way. At that rate, the population drops by almost 90% within a century.

Re: Modern action films fetishize the body even as they desexualize it

#56

Maybe it’s just me, but I roll my eyes at anything sexual in TV and movies. They’re usually completely unnecessary to the storyline, and almost feels like a quota (sex scene, check). Even The Simpsons throws in unnecessary sexual plots, and every time I see them, I can’t understand why they added it in.

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Re: Modern action films fetishize the body even as they desexualize it

#57
Was really glad to see 9/11 mentioned in the article in relation to the American male body entering its militaristic phase. It validates an armchair theory I've had related to the correlation between media coverage / dramatization of Special Forces operations in the early to mid 00's and the general trend of American dudes getting very ripped and growing beards.

At some point around 2005-2008, I just started noticing every guy around me was lifting weights like they were going to raid a tunnel system in Afghanistan, and if you could grow a decent beard, you did. And then the ripped look was kinda table stakes. Everyone had to mirror that alpha male SEAL physique and eventually people forgot why, and it became a self reinforcing cycle for the next 10-15 years.

The article makes a great point about the softer bodies of sex symbols in the 80s and 90s. That's rare to see now.

It is definitely still a thing of course, just look at start up people. Everyone in a leadership position is bulging out of their clothes.

Re: Modern action films fetishize the body even as they desexualize it

#58

There are interesting ideas here. Personally, I find the War on Terror explanation a little far fetched. I think a more likely possibility is that movies started specializing. In the decades before the Internet, cinema was one place where the average person who didn't buy dirty magazines could glimpse more skin than in everyday life. Then the Internet came along. Suddenly pornography was in everyone's home. Soon it w…

I find the War on Terror explanation a little far fetched.

Yes, that was a bit much. The Cold War produced a much more serious fitness boom, especially during the Kennedy Administration.[1] It also produced an education boom. Today, 71% of young Americans are ineligible to serve in the military.[2] Too fat, too dumb, too criminal, or too drugged. There seems to be little concern about this at political levels.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_Fat_(song)

[2] https://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/downloads/unfit-to-serv...

Re: Modern action films fetishize the body even as they desexualize it

#59
post #46

> This cinematic trend reflects the culture around it. Even before the pandemic hit, Millennials and Zoomers were less sexually active than the generation before them. Maybe we’re too anxious about the Apocalypse; maybe we’re too broke to go out; maybe having to live with roommates or our parents makes it a little awkward to bring a partner home; maybe there are chemicals in the environment screwing up our hormones;…

> This stresses me out as a young and not sexually active millennial. What do we do as a society to improve some of these trends? Do we want to? What do I do as an individual to change my individual situation? Why do we need to? The data shows that sex, drug use, etc., actually peaked with baby boomers. They were peak frivolity. It’s only because they created all the media for decades that we think those were good th…

> Millennials are a more sober and serious generation for a more sober and serious time. No need to regress.

I mean, the US did embark on a multi-decade war. But is our time fundamentally more serious than what the Boomers went through?

Re: Modern action films fetishize the body even as they desexualize it

#60
There's something I expected the author to say that never came: in order to have sex, first you must choose how to have sex. If a movie has a sex scene, it expresses an opinion about sex: how to have sex, why to have sex, when to have sex, and what kind of person would have sex like that. But opinions are dangerous: people might get mad at you if you have an opinion, but nobody can get mad at you if you don't.
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