Ok, riddle me this.
Why do they never, ever show a man naked in a sex scene on television? I’ve had HBO, for around three years. During sex scenes, they’d show a woman’s breasts flopping about and their vagina fully exposed. But a guy usually has something covering his penis up. When it isn’t something covering it up, then the camera suddenly shifts upwards.
So what is the deal? Why do they show women fully in the nude all of the time, but never men?
This is known as a double standard. They exist in this world.
Did you see “The Crying Game”? That should keep you satisfied.
Double Standards – even on HBO! Maybe they think the sight of naked men will freak men out. This isn’t confined to cable TV, though – how many penises do you see in Playboy, for instance? (I know they’re there – but there are a LOT fewer than you would expect. Even when they show a “naked” man he’s usually either turned away, or something is covering it up.)
(1) it’s not really fair to compare the male penis with the
female breast in this regard, since the female breasts are
a secondary sex organ. They are widely and fondly thought of by men in our culture, I think mainly because they are
symbolic of the female and because we’re not allowed to see them in public.
Maybe men’s buns would be a better parallel as a secondary sex organ, and you do see those in the same shows where you
see breasts.
(2) Unfortunately there does seem to exist an attitude that
men’s bodies are inherently uglier than women’s. Well yeah,
I’d rather look at a woman any day, but are women really not
attracted by us men in the same way as you attract us at all? And understand, I’m not talking about fat slobs here.
I have a private theory, so to speak, that at least part of the prohibition here comes from actors. After all, women can exercise and have augmentations and such to improve their bodies, but the penis pretty much is what it is. It could be that actors are somewhat reluctant to put it all out their for the judgement of the world. Of course you could use a body double, but what if the word got out that you had? It would be just as humiliating.
out there, I mean. Put theirs out there.
What shows on HBO are showing a woman’s vagina? Wouldn’t that require spreading of the legs and lips? Or do you mean to say they show the outer parts of a woman’s genitals?
R-rated movies are allowed to show a non-erect penis, I heard they tried to put one in the movie ‘Sliver’ but they had to take it out to get an R. I can think of many films that show the mans penis (The Terminator, Boogie Nights, Bad Lieutenent, The Pillow Book, even Gattaca (PG-13) had one in silhouette), but none that show more than a woman’s pubic hair (I couldn’t see much in that much-talked-about scene in Basic Instinct).
And therein lies the biggest reason for the discrimination: the penis is a sexual organ, and is thus just plain inappropriate for all but the X-iest of films. Breasts, while attractive, are not sexual organs, nor is pubic hair, which is all that’s typically shown in a female full-frontal nude scene. The secondary reason, of course, is that the standard of beauty in this country is the female; even women like looking at beautiful women.
Furthermore, it seems to me that all you normally see in HBO/Cinemax-style sex scenes is nothing more than what Bill Hicks called a “hairy bobbing man-ass”. Oh joy.
Still, if you just gotta see a tallywhacker, go rent Wild Things and take a gander at Kevin’s Bacon. You’ll also get a glimpse in Hollow Man. Kevin’s trouser snake is becoming so exposed, soon it’ll need its own agent.
A naked woman standing (or laying) normally does not reveal her genetalia. A man doing the same DOES reveal genetalia.
The art school I taught at had a policy of models not showing genetalia when posing. A male model was required to wear some kind of covering (like underwear), but a female had to be fully unclothed (but never to spread her legs before the class).
It does indeed seem sexist, but that’s the logic.
<<The Terminator, Boogie Nights, Bad Lieutenent, The Pillow Book, even Gattaca (PG-13) had one in silhouette)>>
Ugh, are you sure about Terminator and Boogie Nights? I saw Boogie Nights, well most of it, just had a bunch of women flopping about swooning over Mark Wahlberg. Was this scene in the beginning of the movie?
I’m not presumptuous enough to say that they don’t exist in television. Heck, HBO has a series called OZ that shows a penis almost every episode. The problem is that when I see sex scenes, I wanna see it all, not just some woman flailing about naked. What irks me is that the cameria is conveniently positioned above the man’s navel, that’s what drives me insane.
There is a point that women just have pubic hair down there. But more than not, I do see that crease in there that is definitely a vagina. Besides, I find the male figure alot more eye-pleasing than a woman’s but then again, I’m biased.
Thanks for the replies. I do too think it is just a double standard.
All the above posts distinguishing between a fully naked woman and a fully nake man, genitalia-wise, are the standard justification for the double standard; that doesn’t change the fact that it’s a double standard.
The real reasons are all about power. To expose the woman entirely but allow the man some cover is perfect metaphor for the power imbalance between the sexes in our society. Trust me, if women had more power, they’d be the one to retain some dignity and the men would be the ones laid out like a formaldehyded frog.
The other power-related issue has been mentioned again: the dick you don’t see is much bigger than the one you don’t. When leading men finally have to show it all, it’ll be like the advent of talkies: many careers will crash and burn, not to mention Tom Cruise specifically . . .
And BTW, they did not show no dick in Boogie Nights, except in the sense that they showed aliens in Close Encounters.
Bob, of Bob and Margaret bared all on Comedy Central. I know he is animated, but I was surprised nevertheless.
I have a theory, that this society worships the Penis god and since you are not allowed to look at the face of god, you are not supposed to look at penises. You may look directly at a penis only if acting in worhip of said penis. As a society, we greatly value phallic things, because they embody some godlike characteristics. We also tithe to the penis by paying more to penis bearers. We tend to value non penis bearers only if they are sponsered by a penis in some way, as being a wife etc. A non-sponsered non-penis bearer doing the same activities as a sponsered non-penis bearer will be vilified and perhaps punished.
This is absolutely beautiful. I’m having Tshirts made.
There were no penises in Terminator-nor in the sequel!
The Pillow Book-that’s Ewan McGregor, right? I’m renting, who wants to come over? Bring popcorn!
So quit watching stuff about leabians & watch some gay male flicks, youll see plenty of penis.
Its at the very end of the movie. Thought to be technical its not really Mark Wahlberg’s penis, its a prostethic(sp?) to simulate the size of the person the movie is based on.
There is so one in Terminator! It is near the beginning, when the guys are watching Arnold Schwarzenegger walk towards them, naked. Though it is not a close up shot and it is poorly lit, you can definitely see his penis swinging back and forth.
Get out your anatomy books and look up what part is actually the vagina. It is the sheath, within the labia minora, that the penis goes up into. You can’t see it unless you spread the lips.
“Swinging” is overstating it a bit. I’d say “jiggling.”