Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by Dalton (A) on February 13, 2004 at 00:48:23

In Reply to: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! posted by Harmonia on February 12, 2004 at 22:10:33:

- Full frontal nudity is not the same for males and females. A female can depicted as fully nude from the front without displaying her genitalia. The same can't be said for males. Males characters in films or TV are depicted as being fully nude just as often (maybe even more frequently, and certainly more often in humiliating or comic situations) as females.

- As far as I know, there is no general clamoring among the female movie-going population (with certain exceptions, apparently) to view Viggo Mortensen's scrotum in a major feature film. I admit, I might be wrong about this.

- As far as I can tell from reading the article, it's primarily feminists (talking about "male domination", etc.) who are disconcerted by the relative lack of depictions of male full frontal nudity compared to female full frontal nudity. See my first point for why I believe this is a false concern. I have trouble believing that these people really desire to view Viggo Mortensen's scrotum either. Rather, they see it as a matter of sexual politics.

Again, look at the Yoko Ono quote that was used: "I wonder why men get serious at all. They have this delicate, long thing hanging outside their bodies which goes up and down by its own will. If I were a man I would always be laughing at myself." It's not a matter to those who are complaining that they don't get to see and "admire" attractive men's genitalia in movies. They believe that women are being "demeaned" by being shown fully nude (in some cases this is true, in others not) and want more male full frontal nudity to "balance the score" by "demeaning" men in the same way.

So, I think this "lack" of male full frontal nudity (and to clarify, we're talking about graphic depictions of genitalia, not bare buns) in movies is not a valid concern. It's not a matter of a "male-dominated" film industry exploiting women while not giving women what they want. It's not a matter of homophobic men refusing to tolerate it. If women truly wanted more male genitalia on display, it would be available. But, at least in non-pornographic movies, women don't seem to want it. They are content with allusions to full nudity, just as men don't want (and don't get) gynecological views of female genitalia in these movies. In fact, although there have been many instances of full male nudity, the closest we ever got to the gyno-view in a wide-release non-pornographic movie is the infamous Sharon Stone leg-crossing scene in "Basic Instinct". This caused such a stir that it is still parodied frequently today.