Modern action films fetishize the body even as they desexualize it • Hacker News Board

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

#571

Post by Agentlien » Mon, Mar 08, 2021, 3:08 PM UTC

milchek wrote: post #27

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 H…

This makes me think of a AAA game I was part of where, in early production, it was announced we would target an older audience to be able to stay true to what we were depicting. The art director said not to worry about sales because our actual fan base was adults, anyway.

And then, slowly over the course of the project, the targeted age rating kept decreasing because it was projected we would then sell more.

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

#572

Post by coldtea » Mon, Mar 08, 2021, 3:09 PM UTC

dsign wrote: post #437

_xnmw wrote: post #415

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Scarcity increases value. We often artificially enforce the scarcity of things in order to preserve its value. That's the reason why patents, IP and copyrights exists, for example. "Marriage" and "fidelity" are a means of artificially enforcing scarcity on sex, in order to increase the value and likelihood of partners bonding for life, which in turn improves the child-rearing situation for society, as single parents…

> "Marriage", according to anthropologists .... There is a very interesting discussion about that in "Sex at dawn". Shortly put, anthropologists are very biased, and they will use their data selectively. Today, there are people that live wholesome lives with multiple consensual sexual partners, search for polyamory. IMHO, there simply is a lot of residual prejudice coming down from old religious dogma.

>Today, there are people that live wholesome lives with multiple consensual sexual partners, search for polyamory.

"Wholesome" as self-reported in their merry period.

And getting that to work as random pockets of individuals here and there is different as having it be a stable basis for society.

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

#573

Post by coldtea » Mon, Mar 08, 2021, 3:10 PM UTC

smusamashah wrote: post #569

throway98752343 wrote: post #246

> [Julia] was a bold-looking girl, of about twenty-seven, with thick hair, a freckled face, and swift, athletic movements. A narrow scarlet sash, emblem of the Junior Anti-Sex League, was wound several times round the waist of her overalls, just tightly enough to bring out the shapeliness of her hips. Winston had disliked her from the very first moment of seeing her. > Better than before, moreover, he realized why it…

How do people separate emotions from sex (i.e. changing/leaving partners). How do people do it without (emotional) bonding with the other person? I always thought the act itself is strongly emotional, isn't it? Will it be correct to say that cost of sexual freedom is emotional detachment from it?

>Will it be correct to say that cost of sexual freedom is emotional detachment from it?

Yes, that's what several generations had to discover.

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

#574

Post by chaorace » Mon, Mar 08, 2021, 3:13 PM UTC

lstamour wrote: post #349

aksss wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That guy knew what was up. Does all of this just flow out of the technology that turns high population societies into behaving like low population communities? The lack of privacy, the moralizing.. combined with a too-far removed central authority? Is that the dynamic that Orwell was able to see?

It’s worth pointing out that Orwell wasn’t so much predicting a future as commenting on current trends. For instance https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4412199/ or https://www.jstor.org/stable/27673024 My point is not that the above articles are definitive but to show that the more things change, the more they stay the same, etc.

I find it ironic that the most timeless sayings are about time itself; "Time is a flat circle" indeed!

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

#575

Post by wolfram74 » Mon, Mar 08, 2021, 3:13 PM UTC

anthonypasq wrote: post #565

jmarbert wrote: post #555

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another example of dehydrating for shirtless shots - Henry Cavill talks about doing just that for The Witcher in an interview on the Graham Norton Show. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ne5xD5XrzOc

i think its also worth noting that actors really exaggerate how hard is it to look good on camera and it ends up discouraging people from improving their diet and exercise. you dont need a nutritionist, and a personal trainer, and to treat it like a full time jobs and get paid for it to look good. you need to clean up your diet and do resistance training at least 3 times a week for an hour, and be consistent.

Combine that with how a cleaned up diet typically either costs more time or more money and working ~60 hours a week on minimum wage, yeah, that is pretty hard for a lot of people.

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

#576

Post by rbanffy » Mon, Mar 08, 2021, 3:14 PM UTC

coldtea wrote: post #573

smusamashah wrote: post #569

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do people separate emotions from sex (i.e. changing/leaving partners). How do people do it without (emotional) bonding with the other person? I always thought the act itself is strongly emotional, isn't it? Will it be correct to say that cost of sexual freedom is emotional detachment from it?

> Will it be correct to say that cost of sexual freedom is emotional detachment from it? Yes, that's what several generations had to discover.

Either that or you learn to love everyone equally.

I still think polyamory is O(n!) though.

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

#577

Post by MereInterest » Mon, Mar 08, 2021, 3:15 PM UTC

tinco wrote: post #387

dmoy wrote: post #326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

13 in the books. I guess they probably bumped that age up in the tv show?

Hell yes they did, the Drogo sex scene would be hilariously uncomfortably outrageous if they even hinted at her being underage. Game of Thrones was lauded for it's gritty shocking approach to sex and death, at least in the first couple seasons, but I don't think a TV show could ever touch the harshness of the world as described in books.

> Hell yes they did, the Drogo sex scene would be hilariously uncomfortably outrageous if they even hinted at her being underage.

I think it would have been outrageous for a different reason, but the show's scene was still uncomfortable for its lack of consent. One of the key points of that scene in the book was how cautious Drogo was to respect boundaries. In the show, the repetition of "no" was used as a command, as a denial of Daenerys' choices, and to state that her choices do not matter. In the book, the repetition of "no" was used as a question, not a command, in order to ask for consent despite a language barrier. This was used to draw a contrast between Daenerys in Westerosi society, where she had no choices of her own, and Daenerys in Dothraki society, where her choices were respected.

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

#578

Post by Const-me » Mon, Mar 08, 2021, 3:18 PM UTC

throwawayhehe wrote: post #459

Const-me wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> why is 100% sex work less exploitative than 50% sex work? I oppose receptionist that also has sex with the boss. Exploitation has nothing to do with that. At least in my world view, having sex at workplace is unprofessional. First of all, spending corporate or investor's money on paying sex workers is wrong. Even if the boss is the sole owner of the company i.e. spending their own money, boss fucking a receptionist…

Why is spending investor's money on sex workers any more wrong then spending it on other job perks? What's "unhealthy" about boss having sex with receptionist. Got news for you: it already happens a lot :) As far as employees who have families, can't they just go poly if they don't want to risk being fired?

> Why is spending investor's money on sex workers any more wrong then spending it on other job perks?

Because it harms the company. This perk gonna reduce hiring pool by a factor of 2-4. I think many married people, women, and probably many lgbtq+ people wouldn’t want to work there.

> What's "unhealthy" about boss having sex with receptionist.

Sex between consensual adults is fine. The unhealthy atmosphere is caused by other people in and around the company knowing, and discussing, what’s going on.

> can't they just go poly if they don't want to risk being fired?

Gonna be hard to sell that idea to wives/husbands of these employees.

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

#579

Post by tilolebo » Mon, Mar 08, 2021, 3:19 PM UTC

bojan wrote: post #568

globular-toast wrote: post #560

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or they actually are naturally thin. Such people do exist and I refuse to believe most people haven't ever met someone like this. Why is it so hard to believe that the tiny fraction of people who make into Hollywood are selected for this trait? I'm not saying they don't also do unnatural things to their bodies that set unrealistic standards and don't set a good example, but being "thin" is not one of them.

I don't think that's how it works. People you perceive as "naturally thin" probably simply: * are used to not snacking between meals * eat when they are hungry, and stop when they are not * do not drink (excessively) * are more-than-average active Calories add up extremely quickly and it's very easy not to notice if you don't pay attention. Say you have one Mars bar per day, as a snack - that makes a difference of 10…

You really believe all bodies react the same to calories intake?

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

#580

Post by amanaplanacanal » Mon, Mar 08, 2021, 3:27 PM UTC

simonh wrote: post #481

dsign wrote: post #437

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "Marriage", according to anthropologists .... There is a very interesting discussion about that in "Sex at dawn". Shortly put, anthropologists are very biased, and they will use their data selectively. Today, there are people that live wholesome lives with multiple consensual sexual partners, search for polyamory. IMHO, there simply is a lot of residual prejudice coming down from old religious dogma.

It wouldn't at all surprise me if human sexuality adapted flexibly to the social environment. Both can be true. Marriage might be a natural and ubiquitous response to the pressures of living in settled relatively highly communities, while flexible relationships might be common in societies of small loosely associated nomadic groups.

I suspect that it was the advent of agriculture that led to monogamy as we know it. Now that almost nobody works in agriculture any more we are reverting to the relationship styles we evolved with.