Quick Celebrity Poll

Scott Hardie | February 23, 2006
(link)

Does this make you like Keira Knightley & Scarlett Johansson more, or respect Rachel McAdams more?

Erik Bates | February 23, 2006
[hidden by request]

Michael Paul Cote | February 23, 2006
Whether or not someone wants to take their clothes off for a camera means nothing as to whether I like or respect them. As far as I can tell, it was their decision to make so who am I to complain. I have never complained about seeing beautiful women clothed or otherwise. And I think Keira Knightly is extremely hot.

Lori Lancaster | February 23, 2006
[hidden by request]

Erik Bates | February 24, 2006
[hidden by request]

Michael Paul Cote | February 24, 2006
I think that if you look back to classic art (I am not an expert), many works of art were done with clothed males and nude females. I was once told that having men wearing clothes made the women nude not naked.

Kris Weberg | February 24, 2006
I think the women look rather like marble nudes, and just about as unarousing, in that photo.

Aaron Shurtleff | February 24, 2006
I think the answer is right in the article:

"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." In fact, she says, at her magazine's offices, when photos come in of a male star with no shirt on, "We say, 'Gross! Put some clothes on!'" (Imagine that being uttered about an attractive female.)

Of course, I always hear Gross! Put some clothes on!...mostly from the wife. Probably why I'm not an actor!

Kris Weberg | February 24, 2006
(Bah. My link isn't working for some reason.)

At any rate, there are several reasons we don't see male nudity, most of them fairly practical.

First, more parts of the female body "count" as nudity.

Man with no shirt? No nudity.

Woman with no shirt? Partial nudity.

Aside from genitals and asses, what exactly would be male nudity?

So you can show a man's ass -- and that does happen more often in movies these days, in all honesty -- or you can show full frontal male nudity...and few magazines or films want to do that for obvious reasons.

Those reasons include practical considerations about the technicalities of male frontal nudity. Even moreso than female nudity, male nudity is affected by environmental factors, with the result that, as one comment at (Tom Mannion's blog that isn't accepting links from here) put it, a male actor often has the choice between turning up flaccid and getting roasted in the tabloids while looking unmanly, or wandering the photo shoot or soundstage aroused and...getting roasted in the tabloids while looking sleazy. And as any guy will tell you, what you are on any given day isn't always a matter of choice.

All of this in itself is quite political, of course -- why is toplessness not nudity when it's a guy? Why is penis size, generally speaking, a bigger deal in a photo or film than breast size? (Reese Witherspoon does bare-chested film scenes and so does Pam Anderson and no one worries about it.) -- but it's more understandable.

(Sorry to repost this as a new one, but the edit wound up being so extensive that it became a new post after Aaron had already responded.)

Jackie Mason | February 25, 2006
[hidden by request]

Scott Hardie | March 8, 2006
Once upon a time, I thought Scarlett Johansson was so attractive that she actually inspired a sex dream, and I never have sex dreams. (link) But now I can't stand her. Maybe it's some prudish reaction to seeing her whore out her body for a magazine cover, but no; I'm not a prude and I felt this way before Vanity Fair. Maybe it's because I've noticed the same gestures and techniques show up over and over in her roles and I no longer think she's a talented actress, but no; I think Audrey Tautou plays the same role over and over again but she's still appealing to me. You know what? I'm think it's just because I'm so damn sick of seeing Scarlett Johansson everywhere. It's overexposure. Give her a Best Supporting Actress trophy already so her mainstream career can be over and she can go back to obscurity where she was much more interesting.

Rachel McAdams, though? I'm impressed. Way to respect yourself and give Vanity Fair the finger at the same time.

Kris Weberg | March 10, 2006
I still lust after Scarlett, which I'm sure now has me on a restraining order list somewhere.