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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

#11

Post by throwaway77767 »

> 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; maybe we don’t know how to navigate human sexuality outside of rape culture; maybe being raised on the message that our bodies are a nation-ending menace has dampened our enthusiasm for physical pleasure.

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?

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

#12

Post by planet-and-halo »

Currently reading The Master and His Emissary and can't help but feel this is a related problem. In short, more and more of life is being packaged into lifeless utilitarian abstractions, and less and less are we connected to spontaneous, intuitive, and humanistic facets of life.

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

#13

Post by lr4444lr »

Cute article, but may I.offer a simple alternative? Movie makers want to appeal to viewership in homes where there are children, and younger audiences in general. You can't show much nudity or direct sexual themes to minors. That of course doesn't explain why the house in Poltergeist was more normal looking, but that point isn't really bolstered by too much else.

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

#15

Post by alfiedotwtf »

> Bodybuilders experience this as they go on crash diets to quickly cut fat so that their muscles will show during competitions; though they look like physically perfect specimens of manhood, they don’t dream of women, but of cheeseburgers and fries. Many eating disorder patients lose their sex drive completely and even stop menstruating.

I had to laugh at this. I went on a meal replacement drink (Aussielent) for a while for all meals, and I vividly remember for the first time in my life, I dreamt of eating a juicy hamburger. It was like some oasis in a desert, and that burger was all I thought about the next day

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

#16

Post by brushfoot »

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 was in everyone's pocket. Sexual desire became something you could very easily take care of, to your exact specifications, in private.

The one-size-fits-all portrayals in movies became gauche by comparison. And unnecessary. The public had infinite access to the sexual equivalent of gourmet food, so it suddenly seemed old-fashioned for the cinema to keep peddling stale bread.

Probably this also contributed to the me-too movement and the surrounding fallout over the sexualization of women in spaces where sexuality was now seen as being inappropriate. For example, the controversy over grid girls in racing.

A populace thoroughly satiated in private can afford to be puritanical in public.

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

#17

Post by Robotbeat »

Teen birth rate is currently less than a fifth what it was in its peak in the 1950s baby boom. (And has reduced about 20% relative to the figure here) https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/08/02/why-is-the-...

And the overall fertility rate in 2020 was 1.779 births per woman as of 2020 in the US. https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/USA/united-states/fert...

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

#19

Post by Avshalom »

brushfoot wrote: post #16

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 dunno, everything being PG-13 feels like the opposite of specializing. They're trying to get everyone into the theater.

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

#20

Post by Robotbeat »

Avshalom wrote: post #19
brushfoot wrote: post #16

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 dunno, everything being PG-13 feels like the opposite of specializing. They're trying to get everyone into the theater.

...including the puritans, which means violence is okay but sex is a dealbreaker.
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