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IN the past few weeks, I’ve seen throats slashed in Bad Boys: Ride or Die, hostages held by ghostly ghouls in The Watched and a man having his nipples torn off in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. But have I seen one single second of a loved-up couple rolling around in bed together, or even a passionate kiss? Nope. It seems Hollywood has now decided sex simply does not exist — or rather, China has.

Chinese ticket sales now exceed those in the US, making the Communist state the No1 box office market in the world — and it has turned film studios into prudes in a bid to avoid offending them. Figures show that half of the 250 highest-grossing films in the past year feature absolutely no sexual contact at all — and the number has flopped by 70 per cent since 2000. Gone are the days where we could enjoy watching the most natural — and fun — human acts recreated on the big screen.



And I feel a certain sadness knowing a teenage sexual awakening won’t happen by seeing the modern equivalent of a hand slapping a steamed-up window in Titanic or a buff Patrick Swayze performing some exquisite moves on Baby in his staff quarters in Dirty Dancing (a scene I rewound so many times in my formative years that the VHS tape snapped). So what is shaping today’s young minds when it comes to their idea of a love life? Asexual Marvel characters or CGI monsters stamping on most of Earth ? Apparently, they’re fine with that. A recent study of 1,500 under-24s found they prefer watching stories .

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