I recently watched the Scorsese movie The Color of Money (1986), which is about a billiard hustler. My verdict is that this is an excellent movie, very well worth watching. Paul Newman’s acting, as the older hustler mentoring a young billiard player into becoming a better hustler, is great. There are a few scenes where he just sits there, observing the environment, in a calm and collected manner. In these moments, you obviously pay close attention to the face of the aged Paul Newman. During one such scene it struck me that Hollywood nowadays no longer seems to promote male actors with masculine faces.

It is all too easy to point to Ryan Gosling, with his pointy chin and deep-set eyes and consider the case closed. That may be a bit too easy. Still, Ryan Gosling is a great example because he actively gets promoted by the mainstream as a male sex symbol. However, this guy is not a sex symbol. His looks are completely non-threatening. I may go out on a limb here, but it would not surprise me if this guy got shoved into a lot of lockers at high school. If I was a bully at this high school, this is a guy I would targeted. Promoting a man as effeminate as Ryan Gosling as a male sex symbol is utterly ridiculous. You really wonder why this is happening. Surely, the goal cannot be subversion. There are some crazy conspiracy theories claiming that the CIA actively promotes an effeminate image of masculinity in Asia, for instance, which led the Chinese government to actively promoting an image of rugged masculinity to counter these subversive actions.

Other big male leads in the last two decades were pretty boys like Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio, or George Clooney, but more common is the archetype of the non-threatening leading man. Think of Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, or Christian Bale. When I look back at 1980s movies, I think of Harrison Ford, Bruce Willis, Michael Douglas, Al Pacino, or Jack Nicholson. It takes me a few more moments to come up with Clint Eastwood, Kurt Russel, Richard Gere, John Malkovich, and Mel Gibson. There are of course others. With all of them, you can put them in a chair and they will exude masculinity just by being there. With the 2002 crowd, this is not at all the case. For instance, there have been attempts to give guys like Ben Affleck roles in which he is supposed to show a bit more gravitas. Yet, it just looks incongruous.

I think it is not much of a stretch to say that Hollywood actively promotes leading men who do not have the most masculine faces. Given what we know of testosterone and how it shapes the face, or simply male attractiveness, today’s crop of male actors seems to be significantly less masculine than their predecessors. According to leftist doctrine, everybody can be a leader, an alpha. Yet, look at 1980s movies with clear alpha-male roles such as Paul Newman in the aforementioned The Color of Money or Michael Douglas in Wall Street (1987), and you will probably agree that a guy like Ryan Gosling could impossibly have taken these parts. Another great example is Glengarry Glen Ross (1992), with the alpha males Alec Baldwin and Al Pacino. These guys play their parts extremely well. Cuckface Kevin Spacey was perfectly cast as the manager who exhibits beta-male qualities head to toe. The physiognomy in all cases is perfect. Masculinity is expressed in the face. Yet, if all you knew of the outside world was transmitted to you by relatively recent Hollywood movies, you would not know about it.