Newsflash: Survey of Respondents Shows Males & Females Equal in Naked Body Shots in MSM

This just in: I am changing the title of this article because it is only getting comments from people who think that I am a prude and that a stepford society is good. I would summarize the response thush far to be: males and females are equally represented in media and Internet pictures when naked. Most people are ectomorphs and mesomorphs and it is possible for any person to exercise and eat their way from being an endomporh into the aforementioned body types. Society is best served by a media dominated by images of airbrushed female nudes. Youngsters who regularly view this kind of "art" will be the ones with the highest self-esteem, regard for both genders, and success in personal and professional relationships. Ok. That is too long, so I'll use the one above. ###

After reading Scarlett Johansson's article, "The Skinny," with 274 comments, I was astounded to see that the nude Allure pictures post had 353,000 page views and 530 comments. The irony is that the Allure pics, Allure magazine, and the distribution of the pictures, are promoting exactly what Johansson is concerned about.

The selling of the "perfect" female body obviously has an enormous market value, but it also has a huge cultural cost. For children, adolescents and adults of both genders, this fake portrayal of the female body is damaging. Unrealistic expectations, a focus on only the external person instead of the whole person can crush self esteem and relationships.

The first amendment is not going anywhere, nor should it (!) But it places responsibility on citizens to engage in a dialogue about the ramifications of pornography on the Internet and other media, and it's effect on mental, physical and societal health.

Johansson notes that "as many as 10 million females and 1 million males living in the US are fighting a life and death battle with anorexia or bulimia." Those are high numbers, and don't even include the relational and personal toll of objectifying the body, male or female.

Just last week, Sean Hannity and the fashion police picked First Lady Michelle Obama's outifts apart. She was too casual, too fancy, too off the rack, too haute, too drab, too hot. Her figure was all right, and all wrong. In many ways, it's not the First Lady people were responding to. People were also reflecting their own views on the significance of female appearance and what role it plays. Also at play were their views of the role of women and men in society, and at this particular time in our country's growth.

My message is this: millions of young people are watching. They are forming their personal and professional identities, based in part on what they see around them. The images they see now have lasting effects on their self-image, their views of how they should behave in relationships and in their work. So what should we tell them about those things?

Comments

[InternationalObserver]

The Allure pics posted on HuffPo have already had 600,000+ hits (just on HuffPo).

I looked at the pics and thought "Wow!". Not only because they look great (duh, I'm a guy) but also because these are EXACTLY the same types of pics as I'd see in Playboy many years ago when I was a boy.

Look how far we've come. First Playboy, then the 'Lad's Mags' and now they're in a 'mainstream' woman's magazine! My oh my, where will this end? What will 'Sports Illustrated' do now?

[GalapagosTortoise]

What you need to hear are some of stories by women, of what girls said, and how they felt, when they discovered those magazines at about the same age.

But I agree that it's old and very unoriginal stuff.

[mbaty]

All entertainment type images are idealized versions of reality. All of them are photoshopped, and all of them represent a perfected, stylized versions of reality, whether it's a pop star, a rock band, a tv personality, or an adult performer. And people tend to like images that represent their ideal selves mirrored back at them. If images like this inspire people to get fit and take control of the way their body looks and acts, then that is a benefit to all of us. If there's one thing Americans are good at, it's hypocritical attitudes about sex and nudity. And that is because of needless existential shame.

[zenwhenicanbe2]

i like naked chicks

[Sarah Gram]

I can't believe the comments on this article. For a supposedly progressive lot, a suprisingly large percentage of you seem to have absolutely zero conception of the way sexism, media images, and inequality are mutually intwined and reinforced in this society. The problem with these images is not that these women are beautiful or that they are sexually attractive; the problem is that these are the only women's bodies that we EVER SEE. The guy up earlier who said that women are only earning 70 cents on the dollar and why don't feminists focus on that? Critiquing media images is part of focusing on those issues -- part of the reason women aren't respected or taken seriously in the workplace is because we live in a society that only ever portrays women as sexual objects, as vapid whores, or as over-emotional bitches. The sexism that leads to women getting 70 sends on the dollar for equal work is the same sexism that leads to young girls battling anorexia is the same sexism that leads to oppressive beauty ideals is the same sexism that leads to sexual violence. Pick up a 101 primer or something, because this stuff is basic. It's not about women throwing away their lipstick and burning their bras and not being pretty enough for the male gaze anymore; its about giving them the choice to do all of those things and still be taken seriously and treated as human beings in this culture.

[Zachary Hueras]

Because men aren't objectified in the media for women, right? Don't be ridiculous; sexism is a real problem, but it has nothing to do with the fact that sex sells. More women would buy a product from a sexy commercial with Brad Pitt than a sexy commercial with Chris Farley, the fact that men feel the same way respectively an imagined problem.

mbaty is right when he suggests that people buy idealized versions of reality. You're right in that self-esteem issues can be reinforced by images like these, but they are not caused by them.

The battles with anorexia you speak of stem from deeper issues than what's being sold on television. If you feel less-than-beautiful when watching television, it's because you're not comfortable with your self-image in the first place. Hence it's called "self-esteem."

11 million people chose anorexia and bulimia to deal with their self-esteem issues. They focused solely on their external image, not realizing that there might be a problem inside. They will continue an unhealthy practice because it has visible results, but they won't stop because they'll never live up to their standard of beauty.

In my view, anorexia and bulimia are symptoms of a deeper problem in all cases, and at worst become a habit with a psychological dependency. The means of acting out are new, but what they feel is decidedly not.

[Zachary Hueras]

[Continued]

Now, there's nothing wrong with being overweight if you're comfortable with it, and if you're not there's also nothing wrong with doing something about it, but it IS wrong to blame other people for your discomfort. Don't blame the media for figuring out that most people find skinnier to be sexier (it's called the greatest common denominator). Have a healthy understanding of how the world works on a large-scale level (greatest common denominator), have a healthy understanding that individually people are attracted to different traits and body types, know that some people are intolerant and should be ignored, and understand that you are your most critical judge.

[GalapagosTortoise]

The media didn't "figure out" that skinnier is sexier. The media created this standard in our culture. Do you remember Twiggy? That's when a lot of this stuff started around obsessive thinness. And we began to see a spike in eating disorders among women, as media images began to change. Some of it was positive for women, but some of it was even more destructive.

As far as the experience of the women posing is concerned, which another poster addressed, we also "been there, done that" with Jane Fonda providing us the inside scoop, as to what it was like to be a media toy thing, interestingly enough, "in outer space", and then realize one was a human being instead. There were some others, as well ...

Of course, this was met by a new sexism, some of which has emerged today, tinged as fashionably European savoir faire about nudity, but is really old-fashioned insidious European chauvinism with a few perks added in.

[GalapagosTortoise]

If you make women insecure about what they look like and what they can never look like, and you invalidate them every time they know they're being told they're nothing but a sex object for someone else's pleasure, they probably won't complain as much about 70 cents on the dollar, or health care for their families, or affordable childcare or college educations for the children, or more job opportunities during economic rough times for the various populations within women as a group, altogether. So i am agreeing with you, and saying that it's about disempowering and controlling.

[Gidster]

It is the same for men!
I am not 6'4, dark haired, dark eyed, tanned slender and rich.

In modern media, and to women, that means I am worthless. So suck up the sour grapes, my wife likes me the way I am, and I like me, mostly......

[shylove2]

I think the general repression of bodies, sensuality, and sexuality is what we should be concerned about. Yes it also allows the marketing of sex symbols we love to see and also tear down too. I find that the reactions always somehow seem to turn out as morality plays for more sexual repression rather than freeing us from these idealizations.

Our mind-body split as a human race in trying to supress instinctual and emotional needs and focus on conceptual ideals which we use as excuses to cut loose in wars and taking the gloves off could lead to our extinction as a failied evolutionary formula.

Our civilized life is so repressive and our idealized representations so one dimensional that we look for excuses everywhere to ignore complex problems and just cut loose in hysterical outbursts of anger and hatred. Rape and pillage doesn't help build a global village.

An example is our religious dogma created toxic nuclear family where couples hide from their instincts of attraction and diversity of human emotion and sink into abuse, depression, isolation, substance abuse.

We could use larger parental family structures that aren't over consumptive for our 21stcentury eco-economy.These bucky ball family structures could weather the stresses of economic hardship and the severity of global warming while reducing population growth and adjust dynamically to gender and age needs like more men than women in China by pooling f several adults in relationships having a boy&girl could work and still limit population.

[the steamer]

I'm reminded of an old 'Dilbert' strip regarding societal norms. It noted that although there are rules against public displays of affection, they don't apply to attractive people, who can engage in any sex-related activity without repercussion and, indeed, with praise.

[Moejj]

Ok, so allow me to rewrite my comment which was never posted. These women in the photos, since they are attractive, are committing a horrible travesty because they are indeed beautiful. Dear writer, would YOU look at a nude photo of a sloven man, beer belly, balding OR would your rather prefer to look at a photograph of a strapping six pack male with a full hairline? COME ON! I'll never be the perfect body type, but I work it the best I can with what I have. Do I have a destroyed image because I'll never be able to grace the cover of GQ? No. It seems to me you have some kind of vendetta against attractive women being photographed. Perhaps it is YOU which is harmed by these photographs? You seem to be pretty upset about it, and I can see you do not like the reader response you are receiving.

[Lysianthus]

So hey there Moejj. Do you happen to have a daughter? Would you like her to see these pics? Would you like her to pose for them? Just asking.

[The Ghost]

Most fathers would be happy if their daughters NEVER dated, let alone had children. That whole argument is based on the irrational fears of an overprotective parent. If we allowed the parents to make the all the rules and decisions for their children, no one would ever procreate.

[KillTheMessenger]

I don't have such a daughter. But could you tell me how a father would stop his daughter from seeing these images? So if there is no way to suppress that, not to speak of any responsible father wanting his daughter to make her own decisions in her own life (it's not his for sure), why would such a father obsess about it? Would it help himself or his daughter? And if he found out that she had made such pictures, should he love her any less? Can he tell her that he doesn't like it? Sure. But then what?

[GalapagosTortoise]

This is what is termed, in the industry, "soft pornography". So those who wish to portray it as other, and as a basic premise in your argument, know that it falls apart and is not accurate. The women in question are not reality based in physical appearance, and, they are not being portrayed as self-willed individuals, but commercial objects and commodities for someone else's sexual or power-based drives.

If you visit art museums to admire the real beauty of the human form, you would be more educated, too, about the difference I am referencing.

These are not examples of real womanhood for young women, and sorry examples for young men.

I support the free speech rights and expression here, but it doesn't mean that it's intelligent or representative of what real beauty and substance is.

[mredder4]

"So what should we tell them about those things?"

No fat chicks.

LOL, just kidding. Seriously, though, what we should tell kids is that media is not a representation of real society. Parents should support their kids with compliments and confidence-building activities, since sometimes parents are a worse influence on their kids than any magazine. Face it, there are over-critical moms and dads that don't like that their kids genetics will predispose them to a non-glamourized body type, and they are often the ones that are most insulting to their kids about that. (Who wants to admit and blame their own genes, after all, when they can make snide comments to their kids instead?)

The point is to have parents who are present in their kids' lives and are actively countering these influences. It's only when parents abdicate their responsibility that magazines and TV shows are allowed to become serious influences on children's lives.

[Wonderwheel]

It’s not porn just when the woman or man is naked. The pornography I worry about most is the porn on TV and print commercials that sell anything and everything, form cars to cardigans, from farm products to pharmaceuticals, with sexy models. The social deception is the worst thing about advertising porn.

[newunderground]

Face it women are their own worst enemy, body-wise. Most men accept their own physical imperfections. Women seem to fixate and tear eachother apart over them. Most men I know love the naked photos,but are reality based when it comes to real women. Most of us will never sleep with a perfect 10, but we can fantasize and appreciate.

[chaz]

I agree but like most people you clearly underestimate the negative effect the body image has on men. I firmly believe the negative effect is far greater on men. I could go on and on defending my opinion but instead I will leave you with one word.

Steroids!

[MGhamma]

I buy Playboy for the articles.

[amenophisX]

Yeah, sure! I like Jack Daniels, because the bottle looks good on the mantle.

[KillTheMessenger]

How many unopened bottles do you have in your collection?

:-)

[TheAtomicPunk]

I agree, if these pictures were truly a celebration of the female body there would be a variety of body shapes and types, but they all look suspiciously similar. Someone who isn't thinking critically could easily reach the conclusion that this is what women are supposed to look like to be attractive in our culture. I'd rather people spend time exercising their minds, there are far more stupid people than fat people in this country.

[Freddy Nager]

From a Reuters article http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE50863H200901099):

"Numbers posted by the National Center for Health Statistics show that more than 34 percent of Americans are obese, compared to 32.7 percent who are overweight."

That's two-thirds of the country that's overweight. Now THAT is obscene.

Perhaps we need more nude photos of fit healthy people.