The human body has become a strange contradiction at the heart of the modern blockbuster. Sexy, yes. But sexual? No.
  • Audeamus [any]
    ·
    3 years ago

    Great article, except for the end, especially this bit:

    The first occurred in 1998, when BMI standards shifted a few points. Formerly, one needed a BMI of 27 (for women) or 28 (for men) to be classified as overweight, but the new standard lowered the cutoff to 25 points. Twenty-nine million Americans instantly became overweight without gaining an ounce. Under the new guidelines, doctors could prescribe them diet drugs or recommend weight loss surgery.

    A nationwide panic rose; headlines screamed about a new plague of fat people whose bodies were ticking time bombs destined to deliver death and destruction at any moment. Stock footage of fat people ambling about in public, filmed from the neck down to protect their identities (and more effectively dehumanize them), became a common sight on television news as bony broadcasters droned about the horrors of the Obesity Epidemic. Curiously, hardly any of the reports on this sudden increase in overweight/obese Americans bothered to mention the BMI standard shift.

    Yeah, fat-shaming is bad and the people on screen are too thin and perfect, but obesity has skyrocketed over the years, regardless of the standards you use. (And the shift in the definition followed a better understanding of what was healthy, not anything arbitrary.) Bad diets and sedentary lifestyles are a problem - one caused primarily by social trends, not individual choices.

    The diet/exercise/bodybuilding craze is the overreaction to the real problem of ill health/obesity. I think that is a mostly self-sufficient explanation than some psychological militarism, which you'd think would be greater during the Cold War. The USSR was crazy about exercise too, but not because it was thought of as good for the military, rather because it was considered a natural part of improving humanity.

  • the_bavarian [comrade/them]
    ·
    3 years ago

    Yet another reason for why the stupid American empire can't die fast enough - no more of this AAA mainstreamed blockbuster Hollywood superhero crap with its inhumane, evil content. At least when Rome fell there was actual human emotion, with these fucking liberals it's just reptilicana everywhere. Fuck them. Burn it all down. Bring back human beings!

    • star_wraith [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      Burn it all down

      Well thanks to cheap tract home construction, five-over-one apartment buildings, and storage of dangerous materials in paper-thin warehouse buildings, we might see this happen to the US both figuratively and literally.

  • vertexarray [any]
    ·
    3 years ago

    This also got me thinking about the scenes in the MCU where they're all in a room Having a Meeting but it never gets more intimate or open than a stone sober work party. But if they get mad they throw each other through walls.

  • bubbalu [they/them]
    ·
    3 years ago

    Thanks for sharing! really helped me figure out why all this eye candy has been doing nothing for me.

    • vertexarray [any]
      ·
      3 years ago

      It's incisive. The comparison to Snake Pliskenn really opens the third eye.