# Gratuitous nudity and NON-nudity in movies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 5, 2009, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gratuitous-nudity-and-non-nudity-in-movies/495447 "2009-05-05T18:53:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2009, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gratuitous-nudity-and-non-nudity-in-movies/495447/141 "2009-05-08T02:23:53Z")
> [@](#): > > The only boobs I remember seeing in that were the girl at the speed-dating, who didn’t seem to know they were falling out. Is that the same girl? No, that was Kimberly Page. Laura Bottrell, Stormy Daniels, and Jamie Elle Mann also showed their breasts in that movie. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2009, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gratuitous-nudity-and-non-nudity-in-movies/495447/142 "2009-05-08T06:17:23Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > And in _The Legend of Lizzie Borden_, Borden - as played by Elizabeth Montgomery - stripped down nude in order to avoid getting blood splattered on her clothes when she axe-murdered her parents. Which made a huge impression on this fourteen-year-old viewer. Aha! Which scene was “borrowed” in _Angel_, when Possessed By Evil Cordy stripped before axe-murdering one of the Ra Tet. It being TV, not much was seen. Speaking of TV–how about the\* Firefly\* episode “Trash”–in which Captain Tightpants appears as Captain Nopants? Which brings me to the nude wrestling scene between (the young) Alan Bates & (the young) Oliver Reed, lit only by fire. In _Women In Love_, which I saw in its first run… ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2009, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gratuitous-nudity-and-non-nudity-in-movies/495447/143 "2009-05-08T10:09:56Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > Here’s a not-safe-for-work photo that refuses your slander: > > [http://wallpaper.skins.be/natalie-portman/23779/1280x800/](http://wallpaper.skins.be/natalie-portman/23779/1280x800/) Here’s a slightly more revealing one (also NSFW): http: / / [2.jpg (image)](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_95B2y2Zz7To/Rumv-gwYNuI/AAAAAAAABq8/btN53fxTRzQ/s1600-h/2.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2009, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gratuitous-nudity-and-non-nudity-in-movies/495447/144 "2009-05-08T12:38:23Z")
In the Beatles’s first movie “A Hard Day’s Night,” John Lennon was taking a bubble bath with his swim trunks on. Five years later, he would pose naked on a album cover. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2009, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gratuitous-nudity-and-non-nudity-in-movies/495447/145 "2009-05-08T16:18:13Z")
> [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](#): > > Nudity is NEVER gratuitous in my book. Unless we’re talking somebody like, say, Ruth Bader Ginsburg. [Oh, Ruthie!!!](http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/05/08/DDASMUSSENBR.DTL) ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2009, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gratuitous-nudity-and-non-nudity-in-movies/495447/146 "2009-05-08T23:46:22Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > I always found it amusing that She-Hulk’s shirt DOESN’T get torn to shreds, even though we know that this happens all the time to the male Hulk. But when the Hulk is a She, her shirt might rip but enough fabric will always remain in place to cover her nipples. [This has been explained](http://www.mister-rik.com/hosted/shehulk.jpg). (The Sensational She-Hulk, Volume 2, Issue 4, 1989, and I sincerely hope you appreciate that I dug down to the bottom of a large stack of comic boxes to locate that issue and scan it for you :p) My submission for gratuitous non-nudity: In the [_crappy and I only watched it because the crazy girl I was dating at the time insisted_] movie [Feardotcom](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0295254/), the villain is running a live-action torture/snuff porn site. The heroes burst in on him as he’s ready to begin torturing his latest nubile young victim. It’s pretty clear he plans to start by torturing her breasts, and he has taken the time to remove her blouse and tie her up in a suitable manner, but he’s somehow forgotten to remove her bra. ---
**Author:** ![Rocketeer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocketeer/32/4437_2.png) [@Rocketeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rocketeer)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2009, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gratuitous-nudity-and-non-nudity-in-movies/495447/147 "2009-05-09T04:57:07Z")
> [@Mister\_Rik](#): > > [This has been explained](http://www.mister-rik.com/hosted/shehulk.jpg). > (The Sensational She-Hulk, Volume 2, Issue 4, 1989, and I sincerely hope you appreciate that I dug down to the bottom of a large stack of comic boxes to locate that issue and scan it for you :p) God, I loved Byrne’s run on **She-Hulk**. The book has never been the same since. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2009, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gratuitous-nudity-and-non-nudity-in-movies/495447/148 "2009-05-09T06:18:11Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > And in _The Legend of Lizzie Borden_, Borden - as played by Elizabeth Montgomery - stripped down nude in order to avoid getting blood splattered on her clothes when she axe-murdered her parents. Which made a huge impression on this fourteen-year-old viewer. I was in my 20s and Liz was, er, only nine years younger than my mom, but I was still impressed by her lower-back dimples. One of the greatest moments of TV, playing to those of us who were confused in 1964 that this GODDESS was perilously close to the age of our moms. We were unfamiliar with the concept of a “cougar” then. Okay, some were, but I was only 10 and still confused by the 30-yr-old moms parading in their bikinis. However, how does it dismiss Lizzie’s documented burning of bloodstained clothing? Not, as a fan of Ms Montgomery (pant-pant!), it mattered to the movie, as it also portrayed Lizzie, as I also believe, as being guilty as hell. (looking at what I wrote and adding a gratuitous “as” to be inserted randomly) But a “How the f\*ck guilty was Lizzie Borden?” thread in GD is for someone else to start. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2009, 9:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gratuitous-nudity-and-non-nudity-in-movies/495447/149 "2009-05-09T09:18:36Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > In _Working Girl_, there’s a scene where Melanie Griffith is cleaning an apartment in her bras and panties. It was a true WTF? moment for me, that they’d bother to put that sort of scene in a Harrison Ford movie. 😕 Well, if the advice columns are any indication, there are a lot of people who like to do housework in the nude. [Cite](http://www.snopes.com/embarrass/buff/helmet.asp) ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2009, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gratuitous-nudity-and-non-nudity-in-movies/495447/150 "2009-05-09T15:45:54Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > I was in my 20s and Liz was, er, only nine years younger than my mom, but I was still impressed by her lower-back dimples. One of the greatest moments of TV, playing to those of us who were confused in 1964 that this GODDESS was perilously close to the age of our moms. We were unfamiliar with the concept of a “cougar” then. Okay, some were, but I was only 10 and still confused by the 30-yr-old moms parading in their bikinis. “Cougar”? I think not. “MILF” definitely, but “cougar” implies a completely undeserved level of desperation and tackiness. A “cougar” is an older woman who lusts after younger men, but a “MILF” is an older woman lusted after by younger men. NOTE: I don’t necessarily buy either of those definitions, only clarifying their meaning in popular culture. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2010, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gratuitous-nudity-and-non-nudity-in-movies/495447/151 "2010-05-05T12:26:00Z")
> [@TBG](#): > > She might’ve been naked, but you don’t see any nippleage or bajingo… Waitasecond. When you say “bajingo” do you mean her hoohah or her whooboy? ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2010, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gratuitous-nudity-and-non-nudity-in-movies/495447/152 "2010-05-05T14:42:31Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Rumors I’ve heard of another one, which if it’s true, it’s one of the great tragedies of cinema. Supposedly, for the final scene of _Alien_, when Ripley is getting into the cold-sleep pod, Sigourney Weaver thought that she ought to be naked, to highlight the character’s vulnerability at that point. But the producers disagreed, so instead she was wearing that bra and panties that looked like they were about to fall off. People, this is not a difficult question: When Sigourney Weaver, especially Sigourney Weaver as she appeared in the early 80s, volunteers to get naked, you say YES. As a woman, I kept thinking - what woman would wear panties that were constructed like **that**?! You hike the string part up on your hipbones, for heaven’s sake. I spent half that scene pissed at Costuming, not worried about what was going to happen to her or engrossed in the action. Oh, and a “gratuitous” scene that was done for comedy - a skit from **Kentucky Fried Movie** that’s supposed to be a promo for a porn film. The scene is in a shower with a glass door, and the couple is going at it such that the woman’s naked body is being pressed repeatedly against the glass door - with “balloon”-like noises each time her chest gets smooshed against the door. I can imagine the foley artist’s facial expression when he reads what rubbing on a balloon is supposed to represent. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2010, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gratuitous-nudity-and-non-nudity-in-movies/495447/153 "2010-05-05T14:49:13Z")
> [@Claptree](#): > > Why would you lie? It doesn’t make any sense. Next you’ll tell me that chicks having sleepovers don’t always have naked pillow fights. The documentary "Animal House’ disagrees. They sure do have pillow fights while naked. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2010, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gratuitous-nudity-and-non-nudity-in-movies/495447/154 "2010-05-05T15:20:10Z")
Anniversary zombification? (OP posted 5-5-09.) ---
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2010, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gratuitous-nudity-and-non-nudity-in-movies/495447/155 "2010-05-05T16:39:26Z")
> [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](#): > > Anniversary zombification? (OP posted 5-5-09.) Either that, or the world’s longest double-take. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2010, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gratuitous-nudity-and-non-nudity-in-movies/495447/156 "2010-05-05T16:45:10Z")
> [@Grumman](#): > > Either that, or the world’s longest double-take. I can imagine **Princhester** mulling over the question of what exactly a “bajingo” is, and finally being unable to contain his curiosity. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2010, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gratuitous-nudity-and-non-nudity-in-movies/495447/157 "2010-05-05T16:45:12Z")
Movie nudity never goes out of date. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2010, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gratuitous-nudity-and-non-nudity-in-movies/495447/158 "2010-05-05T16:46:34Z")
> [@Tours d'Argent](#): > > I feel like female nudity is definitely decreasing in movies. The last film I can remember seeing with a naked woman in it was _The Wrestler._ And before that, I can’t even remember. And I regularly watch movies in the theater. I am, however, noticing an increasing trend of male _cocks._ Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Zack and Miri Make A Porno, the recent Wolverine movie, Watchmen, The Dewey Cox Story to name a few…all featuring gratuitous schlong scenes. Why can they show cock like this, but not a pussy? SWAG here: Back when I was a lad, in the Dark Ages before every home had a VCR and a PC, if you wanted to see a nekkid lady, you had to go to an R-rated movie (preferably a sexploitation comedy like _Porky’s_ or any of the _ouevre_ of Russ Meyer. ) And even then, you couldn’t …er… take matters into your own hand. (Your other alternative, of course, was to go to the 7-11 that was far enough away from your house that your parents would never go there, hang around awkwardly pretending to read _Sports Illustrated_ while you waited for the nice lady who looked like your grandmother to finish buying her Kent Ultra Slims, and then hurriedly and with as few words as possible, buy a _Playboy_, all the while feeling like the world’s biggest pervert.) Nowadays, of course, any young man with a itch to scratch can merely go online and find enough porn to give him carpal tunnel for months. So the “supplying randy 17-year-olds with wank material” niche has been filled by the Web. Thus, one of the reasons for gratuitous nudity on film has disappeared. Schlongs on film are still shocking, though, so there’s a reason to use 'em. ---
**Author:** ![BwanaBob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bwanabob/32/2985_2.png) [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2010, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gratuitous-nudity-and-non-nudity-in-movies/495447/159 "2010-05-05T17:56:23Z")
> [@Ferret\_Herder](#): > > As a woman, I kept thinking - what woman would wear panties that were constructed like **that**?! You hike the string part up on your hipbones, for heaven’s sake. I spent half that scene pissed at Costuming, not worried about what was going to happen to her or engrossed in the action. > > Oh, and a “gratuitous” scene that was done for comedy - a skit from **Kentucky Fried Movie** that’s supposed to be a promo for a porn film. The scene is in a shower with a glass door, and the couple is going at it such that the woman’s naked body is being pressed repeatedly against the glass door - with “balloon”-like noises each time her chest gets smooshed against the door. I can imagine the foley artist’s facial expression when he reads what rubbing on a balloon is supposed to represent. Ah. “Catholic High School Girls in Trouble”. I remember that scene. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2010, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gratuitous-nudity-and-non-nudity-in-movies/495447/160 "2010-05-05T18:32:26Z")
In [An American Werewolf in Paris](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118604/), Juliet Delpy shows her boobs to Tom Everett Scott’s character and has him massage them because it will ‘soothe him’ while she imparts Important Expository Information. It’s awesome on many levels. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gratuitous-nudity-and-non-nudity-in-movies/495447.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gratuitous-nudity-and-non-nudity-in-movies/495447.md?page=9)