No One is Hungry for Anyone Else
August 17, 2023 1:00 PM   Subscribe

A body is no longer a holistic system. It is not the vehicle through which we experience joy and pleasure during our brief time in the land of the living. It is not a home to live in and be happy. It, too, is a collection of features: six pack, thigh gap, cum gutters. And these features exist not to make our lives more comfortable, but to increase the value of our assets. Our bodies are investments, which must always be optimized to bring us… what, exactly? Some vague sense of better living? Is a life without bread objectively better than a life with it? When we were children, did we dream of counting every calorie and logging every step? from Everyone is Beautiful and No One is Horny [Bloodknife]
posted by chavenet (24 comments total)

This post was deleted for the following reason: Double. Double -- travelingthyme



 
I would also like to say that porn of the 80s with people who had bodies they lived in was lot sexier than mainstream porn today with people whose bodies are largely sculptures to admire. (I'm not judging you if you disagree, though. You like what you like.)
posted by seanmpuckett at 1:09 PM on August 17, 2023 [11 favorites]


Still remember this discussion and tho I think it’s an important point of view, it’s also a - repost.
posted by Silvery Fish at 1:17 PM on August 17, 2023 [3 favorites]


Is a life without bread objectively better than a life with it?

no.

seriously though, I do struggle with this, I'm 55 but I still really care about being thin and toned and attractive and I wish I could just put it down but its really sticky.
I cannot think of a thing in my life that would be better if I had fewer wrinkles, or thigh gap or skin like a glazed donut....
posted by supermedusa at 1:19 PM on August 17, 2023 [3 favorites]


I'm not judging you if you disagree, though. You like what you like.

You're watching the wrong porn.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 1:20 PM on August 17, 2023 [3 favorites]


No One is Hungry for Anyone Else

Assumes facts not in evidence.
posted by Thorzdad at 1:21 PM on August 17, 2023 [5 favorites]


ok now I have RTFA. its an interesting analysis, I'm not sure I agree with all the broad points. I would expand on that but I'm having trouble corralling my thoughts...
posted by supermedusa at 1:36 PM on August 17, 2023 [1 favorite]


The reason why no one is horny in superhero films or other planned blockbusters is because:

1. studios no longer focus almost exclusively on the domestic market and they put a lot of effort into thinking what will be acceptable in China, India, Saudi Arabia, etc.

2. everyone has a handheld device on them at all times that is capable of streaming whatever variety of sucking and fucking we find most enjoyable directly into our eyeballs and we don’t have to go to the movies to see attractive people smash anymore.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 1:37 PM on August 17, 2023 [10 favorites]


Faint memory from the Watchmen graphic novel: Two characters have clumsy friendly sex while on a tv screen, Mr. Human Potential is doing a solo gymnastics routine.
posted by Nancy Lebovitz at 1:45 PM on August 17, 2023 [4 favorites]


OK so are they actually trying to argue that the Aerobics fad of the 80s wasn't PROFOUNDLY hornt? I don't know that I can trust anything they say if that's the case.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 1:45 PM on August 17, 2023 [3 favorites]


OK so are they actually trying to argue that the Aerobics fad of the 80s wasn't PROFOUNDLY hornt? I don't know that I can trust anything they say if that's the case.

Apparently, none of their local stations aired 20 Minute Workout.
posted by Thorzdad at 1:52 PM on August 17, 2023 [4 favorites]


Previously on MetaFilter
posted by jedicus at 2:07 PM on August 17, 2023 [2 favorites]


Yeah, mainstream Hollywood generally attempts to optimize around "what will get the most butts in seats", and if you're expecting a big overseas market, you need to take that into account. This is why there's a lot less blatant sex in general audience films, but also why the invasion of the US in the remake of Red Dawn was North Korea - can't piss off the potential audience, so that kind of takes any country that could plausibly stage a widespread invasion of the US off the board.
posted by rmd1023 at 2:20 PM on August 17, 2023 [1 favorite]


Apparently, none of their local stations aired 20 Minute Workout.

I had no idea anyone people saw this outside of Canada.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 2:23 PM on August 17, 2023 [3 favorites]


Apparently, none of their local stations aired 20 Minute Workout.

Shake weight too? This link is a Saturday Night Live parody of a real commercial, but it features a lot of really good SNL castmembers.
posted by The_Vegetables at 2:34 PM on August 17, 2023 [1 favorite]


Also a plot point in Starship Troopers is that the hot guy is in a love triangle with the two hot women, one of which he has sex with and then she conveniently dies so he can get with the other, so I'm not sure I agree with the writer's analysis. Apparently didn't make it very far into the movie.
posted by The_Vegetables at 2:35 PM on August 17, 2023 [1 favorite]


I had a serious disagreement with this last time it was posted and I'm just gonna repeat my earlier comment:
I have a hard time engaging with this when it doesn't acknowledge how much all this horniness was written, directed, cast, photographed, and costumed by and for men. In my perception, a big chunk of what has been jettisoned is not healthy sexuality but an assumption of male entitlement to women's bodies. Han Solo is hornier than Poe Dameron, but my kids think he's an entitled creep who is unworthy of Leia's attention. Thor kisses Jane's hand rather than ravishing her with his hammer because the movie is trying to care about her point of view rather than just putting an attractive body on screen for Thor and the dudes in the audience to enjoy. Captain Marvel gets to wear a flight suit rather than a swimsuit because we are a little more interested in what a woman would want to wear than what a man would want to look at.
posted by straight at 2:52 PM on August 17, 2023 [14 favorites]


Superhero films are sexless because they have no room in the plot for anything beyond setting up the next 15 movies worth of battles and mystical gemstones.
posted by grumpybear69 at 3:23 PM on August 17, 2023 [2 favorites]


Oh my god, 20 Minute Workout, I had forgotten all about that. It aired as Aerobicise on Showtime between feature films in the early eighties…right as I hit puberty. I was a Catholic school latch key kid with loads of free time. We were supposed to Confess, but I don’t think I even had the words to describe the furious and repeated venial sinning that occurred.

I just looked one of those up on Internet Archive, and Deborah definitely informed later dating choices.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 3:37 PM on August 17, 2023 [2 favorites]


~Apparently, none of their local stations aired 20 Minute Workout.
~I had no idea anyone people saw this outside of Canada.


My local station aired it in the morning, in the half-hour right before I had to leave for work.
20MW trivia...Bess Motta played Linda Hamilton’s roommate Ginger in The Terminator.
posted by Thorzdad at 3:43 PM on August 17, 2023 [2 favorites]


20MW was produced right here in Toronto by Nelvana, a studio that made its name with second string cartoons. One goes where the money is.
posted by seanmpuckett at 3:58 PM on August 17, 2023 [1 favorite]


Nelvanamation!
posted by Thorzdad at 4:02 PM on August 17, 2023 [1 favorite]


Bess Motta played Linda Hamilton’s roommate Ginger in The Terminator.

Ya Ya Ya Ya Intimacy!
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 4:16 PM on August 17, 2023 [3 favorites]


Thor kisses Jane's hand rather than ravishing her with his hammer because the movie is trying to care about her point of view rather than just putting an attractive body on screen for Thor and the dudes in the audience to enjoy. Captain Marvel gets to wear a flight suit rather than a swimsuit because we are a little more interested in what a woman would want to wear than what a man would want to look at.

This is the heart of it - the reality is that we have moved (slowly) away from the idea that the only sort of relationship men and women can have is a sexual one, and that idea causes a certain sort to freak out, as they seem constitutionally incapable of grasping that characters who are fundamentally coworkers are not going to be all over each other because that's not how coworkers behave nor how they see each other. Nor how the fact that letting men and women have non-sexual relationships and bonds lets us have better intimate stories as well.
posted by NoxAeternum at 4:19 PM on August 17, 2023 [1 favorite]


This article about a Canadian sports television series is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

Merely playing a video of it can expand a stub, if you've got one.
posted by chavenet at 4:22 PM on August 17, 2023


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