I wish to protest the current ugliness. I see it as a continuing trend, “the uglification of everything.” It is coming out of our culture with picked-up speed, and from many media silos, and I don’t like it.
Peggy Noonan recognizes a trend that has been going on for many years. We see it in movies and TV all the time. Hollywood seems to be embarrassed by feminine beauty. Noonan sees a broader trend. I have many examples, but let’s start with Noonan’s.
You remember the 1999 movie “The Talented Mr. Ripley,” from the Patricia Highsmith novel. It was fabulous—mysteries, murders, a sociopath scheming his way among high-class expats on the Italian Riviera. The laid-back glamour of Jude Law, the Grace Kelly-ness of Gwyneth Paltrow,…
There’s a new version, a streaming series from Netflix, called “Ripley.” I turned to it eagerly and watched with puzzlement. It is unrelievedly ugly. Grimy, gloomy, grim.
Those are the same two characters, situated similarly. Scanning the other photos on IMDB, these are representative. The color palette and saturation are substantially different. Paltrow is dressed like in a feminine fashion. Fanning is dressed in masculine clothing. Grim.
I attempted to watch Star Trek: Picard. This struck me in the first episode. This is Picard talking to what we find out is a replicant.
The character isn’t attractive and her personality is impudent and aggressive. Why was that actress chosen for the part and what look was the director going for?
Here are two replicants from TOS Star Trek in 1966.
Why were those two actresses chosen? They are gorgeous twins. That’s it. Their acting chops were sufficient.
Star Trek has many different spin-offs, but recently, making the women masculine and not appealing is the norm. This is from Star Trek: Discovery.
The chunky woman on the left has the personality of a 12 year-old middleschooler. No confidence, lots of self-doubt and prone to babbling. The woman in the middle is named ‘Michael’, and is a loose cannon. She turns into kind of a space Jesus, but I didn’t watch long enough to figure out what that was about. I’m not sure about the person on the right. She isn’t either and is listed as non-binary.
Would it kill them to throw in a Yeoman Rand every once in a while? Yes, it would. Something about the male gaze.
Noonan may be right. It may not be just how women are portrayed. Men aren’t portrayed as masculine, women aren’t feminine and everyone is petulant, brooding and unlikable. It happens much more often than it should.
This was evident while watching Monarch: Legacy of Monsters.
These are the three young protagonists. The guy on the left is weak, emotional and touchy. The woman in the middle is actually gorgeous, but is never shown that way. She is belligerent, emotional and touchy. The woman on the right is pugnacious, emotional and touchy.
One is reluctant to call them protagonists, because the viewer does not get invested in them and doesn’t care what happens.
As with Noonan’s example, we can do side-by-side comparisons. The movie, Mr. & Mrs. Smith came out in 2005. The TV show came out in 2024.
The movie has two stars who are gorgeous, likable and with tons of charisma.
The TV show has an indecisive man-boy and a woman who can look good with makeup and a smile.
It’s tough to say when this trend started, but was certainly rolling in 2012 when Sports Illustrated chose this model.
To me, it seems like an assault on truth and beauty.