Modern Media’s Obsession With Body Positivity

ah yes body positivity come here I'm going to eat you get in my belly my favorite modern-day activist slant that's being firmly injected into our media and really anywhere you look in popular culture like being attractive or even healthy is a sin movies games whatever the medium it's there the latest example is the toning down of Mary Jane's looks in the new Spider-Man video game you know in an attempt to make her more relatable no a character whose Canon background is a professional model it's nearly impossible to find a movie or a show without some level of toxically positive crap being preached to you whether it's about racism no appreciate it and thanks brother we're not racist or I'm not trying to be you know I have some flare ups in traffic but overall I'm good body positivity or relationship preferences I do have a black brother-in-law so uh basically what I'm saying is uh my sister is fat and um you name it someone's writing a screenplay about it I guarantee [Music] it hey hey hey hey hey what's going on Corporate America is no better than teenagers when it comes to Trends from Tide Pods to Dei requirements never count out a teenager or a CEO to follow the next idiotic cool thing to do for clout diversity inclusion Equity yes I just did do Dei whether it's Megan Fox playing April O'Neal or a far more uh diverse and relatable version of April in this year's Ninja Turtles animated film or controversy surrounding whatever the this is in Fable they have to put out a public statement acknowledging that they were in breach of contract and I don't think that's going to be oh Jesus Hollywood is where trans go to die and Western culture seems to Pivot like Michael Jordan when it comes to reactions cultural shifts are always a rapid pendulum swing in the other direction in response to toxic bully culture we've pivoted as a society 180° and turned into a culture of toxic positivity it's the new trendy thing to do and Hollywood hopped on that train and is staying on until it derails which it inevitably will attractiveness and looking healthy not super model thin but healthy is hilariously criticism and attack because Hollywood wants to push a message of inclusion so that people see themselves on the big screen or YouTube ads and certain businesses Thrive off of beauty I mean there's literally a business called the beauty business and also Hollywood obviously attractiveness sells no matter what popular clothing brand is modeling to you Victoria's Secret recently revealed how the company learned that lesson with an executive speaking out on how inclusivity and the body positive movement and its marketing was a failure and they'll be reverting back to what sells literal supermodels how dare you quote despite everyone's best Endeavors and some really really good initiatives it's not been enough to carry the day the reality is we all know the performance of the company and so there must be something that's not going to plan he's not wrong the company lost nearly $1.5 billion in revenue from the start of its inclusivity movement with plus-size models in 2020 to now from 7 .5 billion in Revenue in 2020 to a predicted 6 billion in change this year there's some idiocy in here that could rival this guy I'm about 44 Locos in instead of having plus-sized models alongside thin models they just completely replace them a perfect example of completing a 180° turn instead of finding an actual truly inclusive Middle Ground if that's your state of goal Hollywood influences culture and culture influences Hollywood to talk exclusively about one is to ignore the cause and effect it plays with the other so as much as I'd like to stick to just critiquing cinematography and plot contrivances and scripts it's such blatant inyour face pandering that I absolutely can't ignore it it's honestly impossible so it let me talk to you all right well first things first and maybe the most obvious the desexualization of the mcu's female Heroes notice I said female and not just Heroes that was not a mistake dear viewer because because you'll notice a pattern that it seems to be an almost exclusively female driven movement pretending to be for everyone let me explain when Scarlett Johanson was hired to play Black Widow in the early years of the MCU her first role looked a little different than the last time we saw her in her first onscreen appearance in Iron Man 2 Black Widow was most definitely the F fatal role and looked the part two by the time we got to her solo film scar joo's outfit has become completely desexualized along with that aspect of her character same goes with Scarlet Witch whose costume in Age of Ultron was slightly more revealing but has since been toned down too I'm not saying this is good or bad I mean if you write a character who's a fem fatel it does make sense to have her you know be that but other than that I'm not trying to sound like a guy complaining cuz I don't get to see some baddies on screen funny part about this is it only seems to apply to the female characters last year one of the major selling points in the trailer for Thor love and thunder was Chris Hemsworth getting stripped to his bare ass ladies in the comments swooned meanwhile if you dare say scar Jo's hot you'll be condemned man that got herself a nice little Dum what did you just say you heard me it doesn't end with Chris Hemsworth either even characters not known for their physique have no shirt requirements if they're male like Marvel requiring Benedict Cumberbatch to get jacked for his singular shirtless scene waking up from a nightmare in Multiverse of Madness the hypocrisy looks worse when you consider that Natalie Portman had her mus muscular arms CGI on meanwhile Chris Hemsworth has to shorten his lifespan and project what you would consider truly unrealistic male body standards because there's no way that isn't geared to the gills on top of an unreal amount of training and physical pain he has to go through to increase muscle mass and maintain it elsewhere you had Bryce Dallas Howard complaining that the studio dared to ask her to lose weight for her role in Jurassic world Dominion almost like she was smaller in the previous two films and they were maintaining consistent the audacity meanwhile her co-star Chris Pratt has to be built like a brick house which requires an unbelievable amount of work and training to accomplish examples from all over media have sprung up and are rightfully mocked like when they decided to make Velma the dictionary definition of a self-insert character for Mindy Kaling because the character looked like well Mindy Kaling thankfully this show was absolutely pissed on by audience and probably started a thousand YouTube careers yeah I did it I went where no one should go I watched the first two episodes of Velma but that didn't stop HBO from doubling down in greenlighting a season 2 thanks HBO I'll make sure to make a video on each episode this time oh sorry I'm not a drunk on the verge of losing custody like every other woman solving murders these days you the summer movie season wrapped up this year with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles returned to theaters in the animated reboot and April went from being portrayed by Megan Fox who admittedly was pretty miscast honestly she's miscast in anything because she doesn't belong in anything she's not a good actress all Earth reals will soon know of AIS my realm starves and it's coming here to feed this is the worst but we went from that to this [Music] movies and television Dei casting and character designs aren't nearly as prevalent as it is in The Gaming Community though where it seems to happen more frequently with the Fable hysteria online honestly making me laugh this year I me Jesus Christ look at this image so powerful so relatable and for games just like in the movies the male characters are not altered from the hyper masculine roided out looking superhero physique while poor Mary Jean even got a downgrade between 2018 to 2023 and I didn't even know about this Disney plus short film called reflect until recently because it apparently came out last year but when I learned about it I was struck by how Disney films are an absolutely perfect corporate display of the evolution of societal approval or disapproval for example in Wall-E released in 2008 the humans were presented as lazy slobs overcome with greed narcissism and consumption in every form from entertainment to food all of the characters were morbidly obese and either restricted to their floating chairs or chose to stay in one the message of the dangers of consumerism and self-indulgence was loud and clear it was an obvious warning regarding Western societies increasing their waist sizes fast forward 14 years and Disney releases reflect where a character whose obese needs to push through her anxiety caused by her body issues so she can participate in ballet like she wants if we're talking just from a zoomed out perspective it's so interesting to me that a person who looked like this was considered a warning for the future 15 years ago while now in 2023 a person who looks the exact same is being showcased as a virtuous Beacon of Courage this sort of thinking doesn't work in the long run because it's just smoking mirrors you can't tell someone who's insecure about a legitimate issue whether they know it is or not that they're already perfect the way they are and if they just spoke it out loud enough and believed in themselves hard enough it'll become reality and the world will conform to them it simply isn't true and is quite literally magical thinking being displayed as a healthy coping mechanism the message itself is born out of empathy but like anything it can be overdone and become its own form of toxicity which it currently is self-actualization without having to put in any effort whatsoever builds a narcissistic culture from an insecure Society hell bent on pretending they're happy with themselves and avoiding the hard work which catches up to everyone eventually some people are born with symmetrical features and are beautiful others genetic Gifts of height and strength and are amazing athletes but those gifts are usually honed to have that unrealistic body standard it takes an incredible amount of discipline and hard work to look like that but to say it's impossible for the average person is blatant victim mentality not everyone needs to look like Megan Fox or look like Ronnie Coleman y all right those are extremes but suggesting any criticism of morid obesity being normalized as fat phobic is also an extreme what a body positive image like the character of Bianca and reflect fails to do is deliver the other side of the message the part that requires accountability no one should hate themselves it has that part absolutely right but no one should shy away from wanting to improve their circumstances either no matter what they are the story successfully shows her overcoming her insecurity to dance but wait she also wishes she could look smaller like the others her desire to change her appearance is never addressed and is actually frowned upon as a negative thing why it's presented like her circumstances are completely out of her control which for the vast majority of people in those circumstances that this kind of character is preaching to it completely is some people are genetically gifted and either have physical attributes that make them stand out when it comes to attractiveness or attributes of athletic prowess it is what it is some people have real medical issues that make them gain and unable to lose weight this is also absolutely true but like the genetically gifted those are rare circumstances but people who are deemed guilty of projecting unhealthy beauty standards typically don't look that way just because of luck a lot of hard work and discipline goes into an athlete's ability to stay on the court or field or Dwayne The Rock Johnson an unbelievable amount of discipline and HGH to look like he did in Black Adam and yeah when you see a fitness influencer who's jacked as and bald guess what he's unhealthy too it goes both ways you absolutely shouldn't expect to look like Chris Evans it's his job to look like Captain America and it's also long-term unhealthy right liver King and I'm here now to set the record straight yes I've done steroids and yes I am on steroids monitored and managed but to suggest that morid obesity is the answer to that and to just leave it at that is insanity it's a defeatist mentality disguised as virtuous individual bravery regression pretending to be progression but I think it often fails and people reject it because the human spirit is stronger than that and people want to do better and be better they just don't know how and so people end up feeling lost a character like Bianca does more damage than good because it completely stifles the can do mentality by putting a concrete ceiling over it you're good enough don't progress don't try and improve you're already perfect you just need to realize it in what discipline in the history of existence is not attempting to better oneself helped anyone succeed in anything ever how could Humanity progress if we said this is good enough how is the hypocrisy and the existence of this mentality not obvious to absolutely everybody almost everyone deals with insecurity no matter what they look like or who they are Margo Robby was once asked if she felt sexy and she said she plays characters where she has felt that way you you me every other average person in the world we all feel insecure at times and yes that's absolutely valid and probably even reasonable to feel that way a lot of the time but the message doesn't need to say that's where it ends there are also things within our control and a lot of times we can do something about our anxiety driving situations we're either just afraid or don't know how or both but just because it's difficult doesn't mean it's not available to you and to keep balance here like I understand how can you reasonably blame anyone it's cyclical unhealthy food is marketed everywhere and is cheaper than healthy food because it's cheaper to produce in mass quantities over 80 years obesity rates Skyrocket and we go from worrying about the future of the western Society if it continues to marketing body positivity that's capitalism baby and it's hard to escape in everyday life that's another thing I've always found amusing about this the demographic that the body positivity movement is aimed at is mostly anti- capitalist meaning meanwhile reality is that body positivity is extremely Pro capitalist because it's suggesting it's totally fine to eat 8,000 calories a day spend that money honey just make sure you give it up to Nestle healthy at any size is again magical thinking it reminds me of smoking whereas societal attitudes have altered greatly in the past few decades and it's now mostly socially frowned upon to smoke cigarettes my mom used to smoke she says cigarettes kill is your mommy a doctor no uh scientific researcher of some kind no well she doesn't exactly sound like a credible expert now does she because no you probably won't get cancer in your 30s but we know there's a high likelihood of developing it later in life if you never stop same goes for obesity and the health risks associated with it this isn't about plot contrivances or shitty editing in a movie but it Bears repeating that culture is inexorably connected to entertainment and it's gotten to a point where it's weird to completely ignore the other part of it if you're a commentator on either and unfortunate reality but reality nonetheless there's a better way to push a body positive message and it includes the second part that takes accountability into consideration that's a real positive message even a cynical ass like me is saying it push that Hollywood the world would quite literally be better for it ladies if you could just support the WNBA the way you support a fat chick that's proud of her body and is no longer a threat to you oh my God you're a goddess you're gorgeous you look great that bikini I would myself if I look like that keep eating keep eating

Channel: The Movie Cynic

Views: 161,939

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Id: EUA0YFJHS4I

Length: 16min 32sec (992 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 30 2023