It seems that one of my preferred subject matters when I have a lot of free time is admiring the looks of various good looking people, usually actors or models. In that pattern, another post on that topic.. (and a quick movie review)
Oh boy! I was looking at an illustrated list of "50 most beautiful men" compiled by Harper's magazine. There was a decent assortment; some of them were more historical examples like Robert Redford and Elvis Presley, and some were more modern like Jake Gyllenhaal, Brad Pitt, Ryan Gosling, Johnny Depp (although they used a picture from when he was young and not creepy looking) and Alexander Skarsgard, among others. Come to think of it, I'm a little surprised Colin Firth wasn't on the list. Anyways, someone else who was on the list... the British actor Henry Cavill. I had been vaguely aware of him in the past and I think maybe I kind of associated him with Hugh Jackman for some reason, but anyways, they chose a really nice picture of him for the list and I thought "Wow, his face is so... even." He sort of looks a little like Ian Somerhalder. By 'even', I mean that his facial features seem to me to be really well balanced between more masculine and more delicate. His face sort of seems like one of those things where they overlay a ton of different pictures of people and it comes out with an 'average' face. That's a compliment, by the way. Anyways, it's too bad he hasn't really been in any other notable movies aside from playing Superman. I'm not really that into superhero movies/tv shows. Nevertheless, I can still appreciate his appearance.
And, while we're on this topic, Trevor Noah of the Daily Show recently interviewed Massachusetts congressman Joe Kennedy III. Who, I must mention, is pretty nice looking. I wonder if he will ever run for president. As it stands, I'd vote for him. He might be too young to run though. I think the Kennedy family on the whole are/were all pretty nice looking, at least in their youth. And I should get around to watching the movie Jackie, where Peter Sarsgaard plays Bobby Kennedy.. Also, I thought it would be worth a mention here that perhaps the initial catalyst for Peter Sarsgaard becoming one of my favorite actors was when I took the AP Psychology class in high school. In the second semester, we learned about social psychology and touched on the topic of some unethical psychological experiments, which possibly is what caused me to think that Experimenter would be an interesting movie to watch. So, thank you, Ms. Sabet, however tangentially she is related to Peter becoming one of my favorite actors.
I think a relevant concept that can apply here and to my similar past blog posts is that of the 'female gaze', a counterpart/opposite of the male gaze, which is summed up nicely by this quote from a LA Times article: "You don't have to be a women's studies major to be familiar with “the male gaze,” a term coined by film theorist Laura Mulvey in 1975 to describe film created through the lens of a heterosexual male, a gaze so ubiquitous in Western media as to be self-explanatory."
So, my blog posts here are sort of an example of the female gaze, I'd say. The difference between the female gaze and male gaze has to do with what is focused on/the perspective in which something is cast/seen (this is my simplified interpretation of the concepts, from my understanding). In the interest of feminism, I will continue to shamelessly admire the appearances of various male actors/models (and blog about my thoughts regarding such). However, I don't think that my appreciation of these various actors counts as objectification, which google defines as "the action of degrading someone to the status of a mere object." I don't treat these actors as nothing more than pleasing things to look at, although perhaps it may seem that way. Objectification is inherently degrading to the people being objectified, and I wouldn't consider my views on these various actors to be degrading to them. Maybe I should take a class in women's studies where I would assume these types of concepts are explored. Out of curiosity, I wonder if there are many male professors of women's studies?? [Honestly, look at me/this! I could totally write for some website...]
Quick movie review: Contagion
I watched this movie because I was looking to watch something else Matt Damon has been in, aside from the Bourne series and Good Will Hunting/Saving Private Ryan (both of which maybe I should rewatch and pay specific attention to Matt's performance, although SPR was quite a brutal experience to watch and I'm not sure I want to put myself through that again).
The movie was alright; it wasn't bad although it probably could have been better. It wasn't exactly a stunning role/performance from Matt, but it wasn't horrible either. A pretty average/decent movie, I'd say. I think it could have made more of an impression than it did; it was one of those middle of the road movies. Not a waste of time though. The premise is about a virus that is quickly spreading around the world, which eventually leads to a lot of chaos/problems as normal society begins to break down due to the disease. It was sort of an interesting thing regarding what could possibly happen if a virus were to occur like that in real life. Matt Damon plays a guy whose wife is the first person to die from the virus. He had a really awkward length hairstyle in this movie which didn't really look good on him, but I guess maybe they were trying to convey an average family man type of person (he had a son and a daughter). It also seemed like he was a little pudgy in the face/chin area. At first I thought he was Mark Wahlberg. Again, I guess they were trying to convey him as a pretty normal kind of guy who just happens to get caught up in things regarding the outbreak of a virus. I think I was used to seeing him with short hair due to watching the various Jason Bourne movies (which I should probably rewatch, but in order this time).
As a closing thought, I'll leave you with this sentiment, which I've expressed in the past but I feel is worth repeating: Online dating is such an ordeal... ugh. I think I'm probably just better off staying single.
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