The London Free Press has an article entitled Why No Naked Men?. Inspired by the fuss over Vanity Fair’s nude cover featuring Keira Knightley, the author asks why it’s acceptable for actresses to strip down while actors keep their clothes on.
The article quotes Janice Min, editor of US Weekly, who happily makes numerous assumptions about “what women want.”
“Men just aren’t viewed as sex objects in the same way that women are,” Min says. “Women don’t think about men being naked in the same way that men think about women.”
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In fact, she says, when photos of a shirtless male star come in to her magazine’s offices, “We say, ‘Gross! Put some clothes on!’ “
Now, am I the only one wondering what the hell is wrong with Janice? How many of you out there would declare a shirtless male star to be “gross”? Since when did the bare male chest become a cause for disgust? Especially when said bared chests are on “male stars” – some of whom I’m sure aren’t too bad looking?
I mean, goddammit, hasn’t she seen the young Brad Pitt sans shirt in Thelma and Louise? Or even those infamous nude photos of Brad on a balcony?
Samir Husni, a journalism professor, goes on to say that “There’s an inherent fear in this country of pictures of naked men… we haven’t been trained yet to look at pictures of naked men.”
When magazine editors are declaring the male body to be “gross”, it’s not surprising. On top of that, I think there’s an element of homophobia involved as well. It’s assumed that nude, or semi-nude, images of men will scare away male consumers, so no-one takes the risk. website uptime Never mind that you may be winning a new swathe of female customers by appealing to their sexuality.
Perhaps next year we’ll see two nude men on the cover of Vanity Fair, accompanied by a clothed woman.
By the way, the Brad Pitt pic is from this site which features screencaps from Thelma and Louise. I had the pleasure of seeing this movie again the other day, and dang, if Brad Pitt isn’t adorable in that film.