Sex On Screen - Bodies and Taboo

Sex on screen: No longer taboo? – Nicholas Barber (BBC)

(missionpoint.com)

     I saw this article just today, even though it’s a bit over a month old, and it got me thinking. Although I support the apparent sexual freedoms becoming more and more acceptable on the "silver screen", this article doesn’t consider one important part of film nudity, and that is the body itself. 

What do I mean by this?

If you’ve ever watched a movie containing an open sex scene, then you’ve certainly noticed a big inequality in, well just that – nakedness. There are always more women who are shown naked than man, and that is a fact. Breasts are seen in almost every movie these days, regardless if it contains explicit sex scenes or not. If male body is shown, though, it’s usually just a naked torso, rarely the whole body from the back, but almost never a full naked male body. However, recent films that concentrate on sex, such as von Trier’s Nimph()maniac, do fix this inequality to some extent.

One other important thing is how these females look. They are always “picture perfect”, almost model-like women, with no apparent flaws. Does that tell us that a woman can be sexual and attractive only if she looks like a model? 

Well, reality check, dear film makers! We are not all models, our teeth are not always "Colgate-white", our breasts are not always perfectly rounded, we fart, we sweat, we go to the bathroom; if we don’t shower – we stink too, we often eat more than just a salad, we have zits, wrinkles, hairy bodies and other “imperfections”; and one more thing – most of us use make-up, so that “natural look” everyone is talking about is most often achieved with a lot of it.

(2.bp.blogspot.com)

One TV show that stands in the way of these typical presentations of nudity is a well-known HBO series “Girls”. Not only that some of the characters don’t have perfect bodies, and are not afraid to show them, but nudity is almost always distributed equally. If there’s a sex scene, you can be sure that you’ll see both participants’ naked bodies. So I have nothing but thanks to the show’s maker, Lena Dunham, who showed us all how you make a show that’s both interesting and respectful. 

     I’m well aware that these issues take a lot of time to change. But, if Hollywood and other big film centers don’t improve their attitude towards women, we’ll never see equality in our society. Because no matter how “unimportant” entertainment industry may seem, it’s still influencing almost everyone across the globe. If we’re going to be naked, let us all be naked! Equally!

PS: One more interesting article on women in movie industry, good read!