For the last decade or two, Hollywood, like the rest of America, has been marked by a sex recession. Depictions of lovemaking, not long ago a fixture of big-screen productions, all but went away. Nudity practically disappeared, especially in big-budget productions. The number of studio-produced romantic comedies dwindled. Children's films dropped lovestruck princess plots that resolved in weddings for journeys of empowerment and therapeutic self-discovery.
There were myriad reasons for the shift: Some of it was a product of #MeToo, and a growing sense that on-screen sex and nudity were both unnecessary and exploitative. Some of it resulted from the rise of superhero movies and the decline in films targeting adult moviegoers. Ironically, the shift occurred in concurrence with changes in physical appearance, especially among male leads, who bulked up and got shredded for larger-than-life superhero roles. The result was a curious on-screen world in which, as one writer put it, "everyone is beautiful and no one is horny."
