Over time, Hollywood actors and actresses came to personify the glamour and mystique of American culture. Take the blonde-haired goddess Marilyn Monroe, the most iconic sex symbol of all time. Underrated as a performer, she set the standard for nearly every Hollywood actress after her. Take the suave, impeccably-dressed Cary Grant as another example. One of Hollywood’s greatest leading men, his good looks and charming personality won over millions of fans. Women wanted to date him; men wanted to be him. Around the world, Hollywood became the global standard for cinematic excellence. There once existed a magical, personal connection between Hollywood and moviegoers, which, like everything else in the Age of Social Media, has been killed off and replaced by a fake digital copy.
Photo by Wendelin Jacober
“Movies are no longer ‘made’; they are excreted.”
Hollywood once stood for something great: an idealistic ethos of self-expression, bold individualism, and limitless creativity. It meant the rejection of the vanilla standards of mainstream society. The “silver screen” of Hollywood offered an appealing alternative: a sensual, life-affirming embrace of a colorful, bohemian existence. From its beginning, the industry was very open-minded and provided opportunities for artistic expression, including for women. Emerging from the “culture wars” of the 1920s, Hollywood’s permissive lifestyle was influenced by the jazz-era flappers, who challenged traditional religious and social barriers. Young girls rejected their parents’ traditional homemaker lifestyle in favor of a more ambitious and free-spirited path. They openly cursed, smoked, and freely engaged in sexual flirtations. Despite the Catholic Church’s attempts to censor movies through the Hays Code, sexuality shines through every minute of classic Hollywood cinema. Kissing, touching, and body shots have always been popular in American movies. Just like Pygmalion in Greek mythology, Hollywood directors infused their artworks with sexual energy and dynamism.
While Catholic priests may no longer interfere with Hollywood, today’s films no longer take any real risks. Movies are no longer edgy, creative, or dangerous. Because of the MeToo movement, it has become much harder to produce scenes of open eroticism. Intimacy coordinators are hired to supervise scenes, which, as Alan Ng has pointed out, implies that actors cannot be trusted to adhere to consent norms. It represents a new culture of repression, in which authentic personal expression is viewed as dangerous or harmful to society. Oscar Wilde, who criticized Victorian prudishness in the 19th century, wrote, “Art is individualism, and individualism is a disturbing and disintegrating force.” Individualism cannot exist without a culture of permissiveness and free expression, which no longer exists in today’s America. When you replace Hollywood’s traditional glamour with a new cinematic culture of wokeness, don’t be surprised when the industry suffocates and dies from lack of creativity.
