


Everyone is beautiful.Īnd yet, no one is horny. Even background extras are good-looking, or at least inoffensively bland. Everyone is beautiful.Īnd this isn’t just the lead and the love interest: supporting characters look this way too, and even villains (frequently clad in monstrous makeup) are still played by conventionally attractive performers. There is some talk of diets, though not terribly detailed-and no mention of steroids or other hormonal supplements, even though male actors’ suddenly ultra-swole selfies on Instagram suggest physiques crafted with chemical assistance.Īctors are more physically perfect than ever: impossibly lean, shockingly muscular, with magnificently coiffed hair, high cheekbones, impeccable surgical enhancements, and flawless skin, all displayed in form-fitting superhero costumes with the obligatory shirtless scene thrown in to show off shredded abs and rippling pecs.Įven background extras are good-looking, or at least inoffensively bland. We watch actors doing burpees or shaking ropes with expensive personal trainers. The promotional cycles for blockbuster movies now include detailed descriptions of the performers’ fitness regimens. It was all bullshit: no one looks like that without calorie restriction. Skinny celebrities confessed their love of burgers and fries in magazines models undergoing profile interviews engaged in public consumption of pasta leading ladies joked about how little they exercised and how much they hated it. In the early 2000s, there was a brief period where actresses pretended that their thinness was natural, almost accidental.
#Wonder woman sexy full
No one flirts.Ī room full of beautiful, bare bodies, and everyone is only horny for war. Another talks about how badly he wants to kill the enemy. Another joined in the hopes of receiving her breeding license. One joined for the sake of her political career. The topic of conversation? Military service, of course. On the surface, it is idyllic: racial harmony, gender equality, unity behind a common goal-and firm, perky asses and tits.Īnd then the characters speak. It is, of course, the shower scene, in which our heroic servicemen and -women enjoy a communal grooming ritual. When Paul Verhoeven adapted Starship Troopers in the late 1990s, did he know he was predicting the future? The endless desert war, the ubiquity of military propaganda, a cheerful face shouting victory as more and more bodies pile up?īut the scene that left perhaps the greatest impact on the minds of Nineties kids-and the scene that anticipated our current cinematic age the best-does not feature bugs or guns. Everyone Is Beautiful and No One Is Horny Modern action and superhero films fetishize the body, even as they desexualize it.
