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Modern action films fetishize the body even as they desexualize it

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

#201

Post by dleslie »

jimbokun wrote: post #174
dleslie wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No one builds starter homes because municipalities don't zone for them. If you want a 3 bdrm condo most cities don't adequately zone for them, and so the limited stock is obscenely over-priced. The same follows for townhouses and row homes. My own municipality is, allegedly, progressive and far-left; but even it has locked in a huge chunk of the town as single unit homes in a "heritage conservation area", and insists…

"heritage conservation area" Now there’s a euphemism for locking in white privilege if I ever saw one.

Not sure why you're being downvoted, because it's absolutely true.

Residents of this neighbourhood regularly campaign against affordable housing, halfway houses, addiction recovery centres, et al; with Poe's Law levels of quotations in the local rag, with such gems like "I support affordable housing, but those people don't belong in this neighbourhood."

Moreover, the area is _mostly_ post-war colonial-style architecture. Post-WW1/WW2, to be clear. It's not exactly dripping with important cultural landmarks and structures.

Now, the local native band? They're still fighting to recover the remains of their grandparents and great grandparents which were buried under the local high school, along with half of a Chinese cemetery. I kid you not, it's like something out of a cheesy 80's B-movie.

"Heritage" _usually_ means one thing: keeping out the undesired people. "Heritage" is a weasel word for classism and racism.

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

#202

Post by dannyw »

koolhaas wrote: post #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…

At least it's healthy and linked with great health outcomes, so maybe it's a good thing :)

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

#203

Post by throway98752343 »

lurquer wrote: post #164
ChuckMcM wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if the answer isn't more mundane, money. Parents today seem to have no problem with their children seeing a movie where people are eviscerated on screen but won't let their kids see movies with sex in them. I found it funny that "Bridgerton", and "Game of Thrones" both produced with more sex, have been quite popular.

Putting aside parenting choices, the two types of images (sex and violence) are not equivalent. Sexual images produce a physiological response... you get horny. Violent images don’t really do much, maybe revulsion. But, other than that, not much at all. A picture of a bullet-ridden corpse will not make you want to shoot people. A picture of a naked chick having sex, on the other hand, will elicit a desire to have sex…

Citation strongly needed.

If anything, a bullet-riddled corpse should evoke sadness, not the desire to shoot more bullets into it or other things.

Maybe you meant that watching one character inflict violence on another triggers audience feelings of aggression or fear, depending on which character we empathize with. What we watch undoubtedly causes all manner of emotions: horniness, elation, shame, fear, revulsion, pride, etc.

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

#204

Post by astrange »

EdwardDiego wrote: post #14

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.

I don't know if this is just what they picked for BBC America, but every single British TV comedy I've ever watched has a cast of 90% white haired elderly people sitting around and being sarcastic at each other. Last of the Summer Wine, Dad's Army, Are You Being Served, etc etc.

These were also the only thing my parents watched, so it was a relief when I got to watch normal people TV and saw someone in their 20s.

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

#205

Post by oliv__ »

anonll394e92 wrote: post #37
throwaway77767 wrote: post #11

> 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;…

Personally I use escorts, it is not easy finding an independent, good looking, permissive, not-very-expensive girl but by my calculations that's a far more efficient way of satisfying my inner-chimp until I want to get married and have kids. I do not want to participate in some mating ritual that involves two persons lying to each other in order to just relieve some sexual tension. In Romania I do not feel that gener…

Not trying to insult but genuinely curious: how do you derive any kind of satisfaction (mental I guess) from this interaction? Don't you feel disgusted with yourself once it's over with? Why is just jacking off not a better option than this?

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

#206

Post by jimbokun »

WalterBright wrote: post #42

I've been watching some pre-code (before 1934) movies lately. The frank enjoyment of being human in those movies is quite refreshing. One interesting thing about them is even the beautiful stars often have bad teeth :-) Dentistry in those days wasn't very good.

Just happened to watch The Front page tonight which was made in 1931.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0021890/

The innuendo is pretty strong and the characters are mostly terrible people and the plot pretty dark.

But also very witty, fast paced, and funny. Some really interesting shots, too, with moving and panning cameras, or things happening in both foreground and background.

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

#207

Post by aksss »

minxomat wrote: post #125
ZephyrBlu wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not american (Nor european) but I would still be extremely uncomfortable in an all-male shower let alone a unisex shower. I'm curious what you think the reasons that nudity is not as big of a deal to Europeans are.

I mean for one, a nude shower is the standard at pretty much all pools. Gender-separated most of the time, but still. From elementary school swimming lessons (which to be fair happen before pools open to the general public), to attending them as an adult, you drop all clothes when you enter and shower in one big room. Sure there might be partial walls for the extra shy, but most just don't care. Same goes for gym sho…

> The enormous gaps in US toilet stalls are far more terrifying

ADA compliance?

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

#208

Post by ajmurmann »

jjcon wrote: post #160
kyledrake wrote: post #141

Wanted to add this RE the shower scene in Starship Troopers: "Two nude scenes were kept in the original version (the co-ed shower and a bedroom scene with Rico and Dizzy), although these were modified in the broadcast version. The cast agreed to do the co-ed shower scene only if Verhoeven agreed to direct the scene naked, which he did. Verhoeven found it strange "Americans get more upset about nudity than ultra-viole…

> A bare breast is more difficult to get through the censors than a body riddled with bullets. I see this point a lot and I think it is a good one but I have some theories on it too. I think that violence (at least to a point) is part of our natural play instincts, think cops and robbers as a kid. We aren’t disturbed when young children mimic violence, we even see it in nature fairly ubiquitously. Animals play fight…

It seems to be somewhat limited to Americans though. So isn't the obvious explanation the religious, puritan heritage?

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

#209

Post by [deleted] »

aksss wrote: post #200
KingMachiavelli wrote: post #121

I feel like this article/author wanted to connect a lot of things when the reality of the situation is far more simple. People and young people have having less sex and less of everything because of poorer circumstances combined with an inability/reflectance to compromise. Applied to housing this means that it is economically harder to afford a house so people stay home in their parents mcmansions. It's hard to affor…

I always wonder if expectations are set correctly for “kids these days”. I bought my first house at about 26, halfsies with a friend, but we were above average income for our age being programmers back in the very early aughts. I don’t think my parents had their first home until they were in their thirties. There are certainly zoning issues in cities, there are legitimate issues with living wages, but the idea that y…

[deleted]

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

#210

Post by DoreenMichele »

KingMachiavelli wrote: post #121

I feel like this article/author wanted to connect a lot of things when the reality of the situation is far more simple. People and young people have having less sex and less of everything because of poorer circumstances combined with an inability/reflectance to compromise. Applied to housing this means that it is economically harder to afford a house so people stay home in their parents mcmansions. It's hard to affor…

People and young people have having less sex

An observation I've shared before: Some former hippie who was older than me once told me "All the TV stations went off the air at 9pm. There was nothing to do after that if you were still awake other than sex and drugs."

Now we have the internet. You can go down the rabbit hole on YouTube videos, intellectual articles or whatever floats your boat, sexually or otherwise, any time of the day or night if you have an internet connection and even homeless people can manage to get online at least part of the time via the library, a cell phone, etc.

Maybe sex was something of a time filler and it's no longer needed as desperately because we have plenty of other things to do. We also attach less to sex/marriage. At one time, whether or not you married had a huge impact on access to money, medical benefits, etc and that's changing.

Similarly: We have an "autism epidemic" in a world that has gotten a lot noisier and busier than it used to be. We know the world has changed radically and yet we keep looking for ways to blame the individual for behaving differently rather than wondering about how those widespread environmental changes are impacting people and what role they play in widespread trends from vastly huge upticks in certain diagnoses to vastly less sex.

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