We recently discussed the incredible acting talent of women like Denise Richards in Wild Things. I do not know what it is, but there is a strange inverse correlation with the age of women and their acting talent. The younger and more attractive they are, the better their performance on screen is. It is a bit of a mystery. As mysterious as this may be, another mystery is why Hollywood removed peak female beauty in the 2000s. I will go through a few examples of fantastic actresses in the 1990s or early 2000s and their more recent counterparts.

When I think of exceptionally talented actresses, names like Denise Richards (Wild Things, Starship Troopers), Neve Campbell (Wild Things, Scream), Jennifer Love Hewitt (I Know What You Did Last Summer), or Elisha Cuthbert (24, The Girl Next Door) come to mind. Some had big roles when they were still in their teens, like JLH in I Know What You Did Last Summer, but others were well into their 20s, yet managed to stave off the deleterious effects of aging. In her mid-20s, Denise Richards quite convincingly plays a seductive high-school girl, with an inquisitive mind. “So, where is your hose, Mr Lombardo?” is one of the most meaningful questions ever asked on film:

You can surely fill an evening with the fabulous movies I listed above. As you sit down to marvel at the flawless acting, you may also notice that the main female actresses are not just attractive. Instead, they are examples of peak female beauty, and they are presented as sex objects. This went completely away in the 2000s, even though full-frontal nudity became more and more common. A good example is Scarlet Johansson, undoubtedly a very attractive woman when she was in her prime. However, her sexuality was never put on full display. Sometimes, this was even jarring. She was still in her teens in Lost in Translation (2003), for instance. Yet, we are supposed to believe that a horny teenage girl does not want to show off her ass and cleavage or put on a bit of makeup, or sometimes a bit too much. In the entire movie she dresses in a really plain way and it is an exception when she has put on some lip gloss. Of course, as she is so exceptionally attractive, you may not perceive this as negative the first time you watch this movie. However, to the discerning eye of a man with some experience with women, her portrayal of a young girl is not that convincing. To add insult to injury, her character is part of a creative crowd. She hangs out with artists, yet you would not be able to deduce that if you looked at stills of the movie.

In Europe in the 2000s, we still got to see a few very attractive women in movies. In The Transporter (2002), your eyes get to feast on a young and very attractive Shu Qi. She is in her mid-to late 20s in this movie, yet looks like a teenage girl:

In the sequel, Transporter 2 (2005), Kate Nauta plays the main female role. At that time, Hollywood no longer put women of that caliber into movies. Of course there were still attractive women in movies. However, they were no longer used as eye candy and to underscore that, it seems that female actresses had to have been past her prime. I am about to make a potentially controversial statement, but I think that Margot Robbie in The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) is a great example. Even though she is only 23, she somehow manages to look far older. To me she looked like 30. See for yourself:

The contrast between Margot Robbie in The Wolf of Wall Street and Denise Richards in Wild Things is quite staggering. Denise Richards probably did not spend quite as much time in the sun. On a related note, Margot Robbie is a horrible actress. I have watched a few of her movies and she is basically always the same person. In fact, she is not even able to learn different accents. Even in Barbie, based on the trailers I Have watched, she speaks with her heavy Australian accent.

So, what is going on there? I wonder if one of the reasons why we no longer get to see genuine bombshells in Hollywood movies is to reshape perceptions of women. Even the sexuality of very attractive women is being downplayed. Of course, in the 2010s, attractive women seem to have mostly disappeared from Hollywood movies anyway. Today, we are supposed to believe that Gal Gadot is a supermodel, for instance. My interpretation is that this is simply yet another example of Hollywood brainwashing. Just like sexy women disappeared from advertising and were replaced with fat, often black, women in the 2000s, so did they disappear from movies. Today, you need to go to YouTube or Twitch, or some other video sites, if you want to see attractive women in their prime on video. Clearly, there is something very strange going on when I can see several women who more attractive than Hollywood stars when I walk down the shopping street of any bigger city. This did not happen by accident.