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Male frontal nudity in the movies uncovers an old debate
By César G. Soriano and Jim Cheng, USA TODAY
Hollywood is fleshing out an old taboo: male frontal nudity.
Four current films feature actors in the full monty:
⢠In Kinsey (in theaters), a student played by Peter Sarsgaard seduces sex researcher Alfred Kinsey (Liam Neeson). Says Sarsgaard, "We were just sitting around (during filming), and I said, 'I feel I've got to be naked for this.' " There was almost a Neeson nude scene, too. "Liam was perfectly willing, but for budgetary reasons, we cut it, unfortunately," says writer/director Bill Condon. "I know, it is a disappointment."
⢠In Sideways (in theaters), husky actor M.C. Gainey runs out of the house naked in angry pursuit of Paul Giamatti (news).
⢠In Alexander (opening Wednesday), Colin Farrell goes buff for a wedding-night sex scene in the Oliver Stone epic. Farrell also filmed a nude scene in his last film, A Home at the End of the World. But that scene was cut after producers thought it was too distracting.
â¢In Bad Education (opening today; review, 7E), Gael GarcÃa Bernal doesn't bare all but comes close while preparing for a swim.
While penises are not yet as prevalent as female breasts, they are becoming more accepted.
"It's not about gender," says Moritz Borman, producer of Alexander. "In a mature movie, if some nudity would improve the scene, it wouldn't matter if it were Alexander or Alexandra. A filmmaker would have to consider it."
It's about time, some women say. "As a woman, I'm glad. I want to watch male bodies," says Linda Williams, a film-studies professor at the University of California-Berkeley. "There is a growing eroticism about the male body that hasn't quite existed before."
It may be a form of rebellion in this post-Janet Jackson (news) environment, says Gwendolyn Audrey Foster, a film and feminist studies professor at the University of Nebraska. As in the 1950s, "There's a tremendous amount of repression now. People are upset over seeing Saving Private Ryan. At the same time, you have a popular culture that is pushing boundaries to a degree that doesn't seem to match."
But any trend is just coincidence, says Jim McBride, who runs mr.skin.com, which chronicles nude scenes in film. McBride notes that full-frontal male nude scenes pop up every few years, and most are limited to art-house releases that are rated R or NC-17. Of the current films with male nudity, Bad Education is NC-17, the rest are R.
Foster disagrees and says the trend will continue as more women move into the upper echelons of the male-dominated film industry.
"This general attitude toward pushing things toward the edge is definitely popularizing new images we haven't seen before, taking a look at the human body and looking at men and women equally without objectifying anyone. It's more about artistic license than box office draw," Foster says.
Male frontal nudity in the movies uncovers an old debate
By César G. Soriano and Jim Cheng, USA TODAY
Hollywood is fleshing out an old taboo: male frontal nudity.
Four current films feature actors in the full monty:
⢠In Kinsey (in theaters), a student played by Peter Sarsgaard seduces sex researcher Alfred Kinsey (Liam Neeson). Says Sarsgaard, "We were just sitting around (during filming), and I said, 'I feel I've got to be naked for this.' " There was almost a Neeson nude scene, too. "Liam was perfectly willing, but for budgetary reasons, we cut it, unfortunately," says writer/director Bill Condon. "I know, it is a disappointment."
⢠In Sideways (in theaters), husky actor M.C. Gainey runs out of the house naked in angry pursuit of Paul Giamatti (news).
⢠In Alexander (opening Wednesday), Colin Farrell goes buff for a wedding-night sex scene in the Oliver Stone epic. Farrell also filmed a nude scene in his last film, A Home at the End of the World. But that scene was cut after producers thought it was too distracting.
â¢In Bad Education (opening today; review, 7E), Gael GarcÃa Bernal doesn't bare all but comes close while preparing for a swim.
While penises are not yet as prevalent as female breasts, they are becoming more accepted.
"It's not about gender," says Moritz Borman, producer of Alexander. "In a mature movie, if some nudity would improve the scene, it wouldn't matter if it were Alexander or Alexandra. A filmmaker would have to consider it."
It's about time, some women say. "As a woman, I'm glad. I want to watch male bodies," says Linda Williams, a film-studies professor at the University of California-Berkeley. "There is a growing eroticism about the male body that hasn't quite existed before."
It may be a form of rebellion in this post-Janet Jackson (news) environment, says Gwendolyn Audrey Foster, a film and feminist studies professor at the University of Nebraska. As in the 1950s, "There's a tremendous amount of repression now. People are upset over seeing Saving Private Ryan. At the same time, you have a popular culture that is pushing boundaries to a degree that doesn't seem to match."
But any trend is just coincidence, says Jim McBride, who runs mr.skin.com, which chronicles nude scenes in film. McBride notes that full-frontal male nude scenes pop up every few years, and most are limited to art-house releases that are rated R or NC-17. Of the current films with male nudity, Bad Education is NC-17, the rest are R.
Foster disagrees and says the trend will continue as more women move into the upper echelons of the male-dominated film industry.
"This general attitude toward pushing things toward the edge is definitely popularizing new images we haven't seen before, taking a look at the human body and looking at men and women equally without objectifying anyone. It's more about artistic license than box office draw," Foster says.
