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Not a rec but a trend I noticed in music.
In Hayes Code Hollywood (puritanical production mandates against things like sex, violence, swearing in movies), there were musical numbers that took otherwise innocuous songs and added eroti./BDSM undertones. we had “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. The big dance sequence in Minnelli’s The Pirate, where a woman is transformed into a donkey/bunny(? I forget) on all fours (I think?) while Gene Kelly gyrates around her in tight, low cut leather (this is crystal clear).
Fast forward (I’m skipping many steps - an amateur at this sort of thing) to the late 2000s/early 2010s. The latent BDSM becomes more explicitly lyrical in songs Like “Bad Romance” and (obviously) “SM.” However, these songs have erotic purchase - they chart desire ( “ I want your revenge” “Chains and whips excite me”) without the context of the body. The instrument and the lyrics let the listener construct titillation/lust.
Then, in the latter 2010s, we get total assaults of the physical experience of pleasure in Songs like “WAP” artists like Cupcakke, etc. so explicit that they undermine eroticism. At the same time, there’s also artists like Carly Rae Jepsen, who wax about yearning in a mystical, spiritual fashion (that im sure Jia Tolentino wrote about somewhere).
still working out why, but I think this change speaks to how rabidly we want sensation (not contemplation) from art but also (bc we get most of our art electronicall) technology and (still Working this one out) religion?
i told my friend about this and he said, “Sex Positive Accelerationism.”
Feb 26, 2024
Related Recs
article dissecting the cultural messaging and changes in modern popular lingerie (from parade to victorias secret) and contrasting the 2010s corporate girlboss messaging with vibe shift of the 2020s:
"Eroticism is incongruous with sight. It’s all about hidden pleasures, mystery, masquerade, freedom, secrecy. Lingerie is not secret; it is a sexual offering, an altar made from visible blessings. True eroticism comes from what cannot be seen, predicted, sensed, or divined. Eroticism carries an essential risk. Lingerie has no risk. It is as plain as a donut.
It is in that, then, that we see other things bloom in quiet popularity: Brandy Melville pajamas; satin Comme Si boxer shorts; big t-shirts over panties; and, of course, women online lusting after Nicole Kidman’s Egyptian cotton pointelle tank top set from Eyes Wide Shut — a movie that came out 24 years ago, but still feels new in its approach to eroticism."
Feb 22, 2024
@mothersuperior post on latex and the yearndemic reminded me of this essay that I read a few years ago about the commodification and fetishization of the body and how it’s been paralleled with a lack of chemistry and sexuality that we used to see on screen. The title is your tldr: everyone is hot and no one is horny. The sterilization of sexuality and sex is everywhere, past even film. It’s a response to the acceleration of capitalism, war and colonial extraction of the earth. It has crept into the ways we view ourselves, our experience and our bodies.
One thing I took away from this essay is that to align yourself with traditional beauty standards will make you too tired to fuck. Similarly, the whole « working on yourself » grind that I heard on first dates all the time is this strange, individualistic perspective that makes you too exhausted and distracted for the holistic chemistry we desire. We flatten our lives to marketable lines that make us appear attractive - I’m working on myself, I’ve been going to therapy, I have a nice job and apartment. And while people are obviously horny, they don’t know for what - forming our bodies to be better, our minds fixed and correct, we can’t pinpoint what the purpose is cause we’re too fucking exhausted to investigate further than that. Love, desire, and chemistry feel more and more elusive.
For us to morph ourselves into the image of sexiness according to western beauty standards, there is sacrifice (nutrients, your current corporeal form, the ability to be perceived as more than an object, working long hours for your grind) that doesn’t align with sensuality (unless you’re into that). There is no room for the spectrum of sensations you body is capable of feeling. There is no room for desire when we’ve given it all up the capitalist war machine. :p
2d ago
we're losing the holy war to virgins and wattpaders. males would rather spend an evening watching sissy hypno jois than fucking a real life woman. lesbian cinema has been plagued by the yearndemic as if hollywood can't imagine two women wanting to go at it nasty style. all the fasion forcasters are saying oversized utilitarian shlop is in for 2025. dating apps practically let you mail order cock to your house and yet we're fucking less than ever. what the fuck is going on? when reagan was in office robert mapplethorpe taking photos of a guy in a gimp suit with a cum guzzling tube coming from his mouth. we need that back. i think latex is one of the few materials that trancends the digital hellscape we're living in right now. it engages the senses. you can look at a photo of someone wearing latex and know exactly what it smells like and tastes like and feels like. it's the closest one can get to nudity while being fully clothed. it tantalizes because it relies so heavily on implication. in an era where you can get on the internet and view 4k photos of body parts the victorians only saw after a decade of marriage, latex delays gratification by forcing the observer to fill in the blanks. the people in office are trying to scrub the earth of anything they find perverse and replace artists with thieving robots who only work because of the centuries of human creativity that came before them. fantasy is one of the only things unique to human sexuality. we need to be reveling in it, not supressing it!!!
Mar 4, 2025
Top Recs from @babyboybrida
this was the epitome of the Obama administration
Feb 19, 2024
The following photos are examples. another instance which belongs only to memory: I was teaching kindergarten on the UES at a point in my life which seemed to have no point but one morning I was walking from 86th street where they have enormous lavish dogs who look like they have a 401k and the sun was coruscating like entire streets were orange and I strolled past this Platonic piece of dog shit that was sculpted like a soft serve and the shit had this gleaming halo from the sun and stopped and stared at it for like 5 minutes
This song from the legend of Zelda always plays when I see these: https://youtu.be/qtCWgWUhA8s?si=f13382M560HRzX6B
Feb 4, 2024
🎥
I don't even know how to begin. There's an incredible cover of "Dreams" by the Cranberries and "California Dreamin" is used like 12 times.
Feb 21, 2024