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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

#91

Post by arthurcolle »

miserablegit wrote: post #61
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…

> The public had infinite access to the sexual equivalent of gourmet food If you think porn is "gourmet", you've not watched enough of it. Porn is the McDonalds of sex: repetitive, predictable, largely "safe" (with minimal care, you won't see what you don't want to see), and purposedly all-encompassing but still largely detached from the real thing. I'm an unabashed porn consumer and I have to tell you, I yearn for a…

Can't you just go hang out at an expensive bar/lounge. Not every bar is a dive and not every experience is McDonalds.

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

#92

Post by fractionalhare »

miserablegit wrote: post #61
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…

> The public had infinite access to the sexual equivalent of gourmet food If you think porn is "gourmet", you've not watched enough of it. Porn is the McDonalds of sex: repetitive, predictable, largely "safe" (with minimal care, you won't see what you don't want to see), and purposedly all-encompassing but still largely detached from the real thing. I'm an unabashed porn consumer and I have to tell you, I yearn for a…

I bet there's a cottage industry of porn that specializes in serving you that kind of experience. Even if it's just packaged from existing movies and more "softcore" or something.

Porn isn't gourmet or not gourmet, it can be whatever you want it to be. And if there's enough demand (and it's legal), people will make specialized porn to serve it.

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

#94

Post by sudosteph »

This topic reminds me of that "The Gang Hits the Slopes" episode of Always Sunny. That episode sort of hits on the idea that it's easy to think that movies back then were more "fun", but often it's just the same kind of pervy joke over and over. I could see how writers may have wanted to avoid having "horniness" as a motivator in scripts if it risked them getting lumped in with low-effort comedies.

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

#95

Post by fractionalhare »

croes wrote: post #90

Her take on the Starship troopers shower scene seems to be an american point of view. Nudity in an unisex shower isn't about flirting and sex for a european. Paul Verhoeven was naked too while filming it, because the actors felt uncomfortable at first.

Europe is a very diverse continent, I kind of doubt we can generalize whether the modal European would associate a unisex shower scene with flirting and sexiness.

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

#96

Post by throway98752343 »

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;…

The youngest millennials are around 25 years old.

Changing your "not sexually active" situation will take putting yourself out there a lot, lowering your standards (you can raise them later), being open to meeting all sorts and getting rejected a lot. You'll certainly gain entertaining stories, and you'll probably meet some new friends, possibly one or more lovers and one of them may become a romantic partner if that's what you're after. Please be good to the people you meet while you're doing this. And along the way you'll develop a tolerance to rejection, which is a somewhere between life hack and superpower.

All that that may be overwhelming though. The block you quoted is riddled with social anxieties. See if that's hold you back, and if so then get a professional to help you out.

Side note, now is a good time to prepare for this change, because the pandemic has put everyone into extended isolation all at once. So there's a lot of pent up desire for connection that will be getting released over the next year.

See also https://youtu.be/9mbp0DugfCA and https://youtu.be/ZOgvWIulxho for fun.

I'm rooting for you, fellow throwaway!

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

#97

Post by pbnjay »

I think the US ratings' agencies have more to do with it than some sort of cultural shift (and these ratings are more likely driven by boomer sensibilities of "saving the kids"). European movies and TV are clearly less chaste but started from nearly the same places.

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

#99

Post by tayo42 »

rayiner wrote: post #46
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;…

> 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…

How did boomers use more drugs? Since the boomer generation we had a crack epidemic, 2 heroine, 1 of those mixed with prescription opiates, and a non stop meth problem. Marijuana is legal in a bunch of states now. Psychedelics are having a revival. Mdma didn't even exist until recently and there have been two waves of rave culture

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

#100

Post by kpmcc »

lobstrosity420 wrote: post #18

I think the lack of sex in Hollywood can be traced at least in part to the Chinese market. There's a lot of money in it and studios are more than happy to comply with CCP guidelines to get a share of that pie.

Came here to say this. Big budget Hollywood movies have to be internationally viable nowadays and that means conforming to the least common denominator of the target audiences. The result is movies that are palatable to the US and China and are utterly vacuous garbage.
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