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

[JeffE]

Oh, please! Pornography? Talk about a Rorschoch test! Three beautiful woman are photographed withouth clothes and now, and suddenly, it's about your self image, exploitation, unrealistic expectations, yada, yada, yada... There is a physical ideal, just as there's an intellectual ideal, an ideal fruit tart, an ideal slam dunk... etc. We've got bigger problems to deal with than your tush envy. Folks like to see pretty people naked. End of story.

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

I just had this conversation with my wife, and consider myself sensitive to the topic (moreso since I/we have a daughter) but we are not always in full agreement.

My take (not hers):

Sexism? In spades.
Using sex to sell magazines? Duh.
Double-standard? Yep. (No guys a la Burt Reynolds pose.)

But "pornography?" Let's not devalue the term.

Wha, they couldn't get Salma?

[lilian101]

Lets see if Hillary Clinton or Oprah WInfrey could make any moeny selling naked pics.

[londondungeon]

I see nothing wrong with celebrating the beauty of a fit female nude, especially when tastefully done. It has been one of the central preoccupations of art for centuries. Also, I see nothing wrong with encouraging young women to aspire to this beauty. That they may choose the route of anorexia or bulimia to accomplish this goal is not the fault of these kinds of photos. It is the fault of having a lack of information about how to properly exercise and eat nutritionally. Women may also lack the conviction that these conventional routes to fitness are effective--doubts likely caused by the fact that the results are not immediate like everything else in our instant gratification culture.

Contrary to the sentiment expressed in this article, I often think there is not ENOUGH pressure on women to stay fit. "How to look good naked," for example, deludes women into thinking of themselves as beauty queens when the vast majority of men simply do not agree. The result: the woman leaves her spouse, convinced she can do better. But none of the men within her new unrealistic standards want anything to do with her. Everyone is left unhappy.

If women were inspired to improve their looks/fitness, and were given the proper guidance on how to do so, the aggregate happiness of the world would increase. A world full of more beautiful women will mean happier, more self-confident women, and happier, more dedicated and inspired men.

[myoungholt]

Re your last para, the world would be full of sillier, more superficial, less intelligent, LESS confident people who don't relate to reality, as you obviously don't.

Life is not about perky boobs and how sexy one can look spread out naked on a bed. That's some of the stuff that leads to all sorts of perversions.

[londondungeon]

Would you rather spend the rest of your life camped out along side the New Jersey Turnpike, or on sands of the Virgin Islands? I'd bet your answer would be the former, and one of your top reasons would be that Virgin Islands are infinitely more beautiful. Beauty is not an end all be all, but it enhances the quality of life.

"Life is not about perky boobs and how sexy one can look spread out naked on a bed. That's some of the stuff that leads to all sorts of perversions."

Uh, like the perversion of enjoying earth shattering sex? I think you may be the one who's sexuality is a little screwy.

And please explain to me how an increase in beauty would lead to less intelligent people.

[Kremfresch]

Unrealistic? I know a whole lot of women that fit the"ideal" or close to it. If they didn't form a large percentage of the population there would be MORE stores for fat people than there are for fit people. There aren't. On the other hand, take a look at Youtube sometime. Plenty of fat girls are showing themselves off and getting plenty of positive reinforcement. So are plenty of anorexic girls, and plenty of healthy big boneded girls and plenty of EVERY kind of girl. Don't let YOUR own demons cause you to lose perspective. There IS a physical ideal for the human body. Humans find this ideal attractive because, well, it's attractive.
This is written by a 400 pound man who has experienced plenty of descrimination, but who also sweats putting on shoes, and breaks furniture, so I can't really blame anyone else for MY problem.

[sabrina76]

Why do Americans never see shorter women, women with thick calves, wide hips, or any other type of body in the nude? I'm pointing to the fact that, even if these women maintained a healthy diet, exercised, and took excellent care of their skin, we never see them photographed and published in mainstream media. To the author: would that be considered pornography?

Many married women are told by their husbands that they are gorgeous the way they are. So, is the argument that Americans are too prude and Puritan to accept images of a semi-nude 'normal' body? We only want to look at the 'hot' ones?

Or, would the author's argument be that women like this do not exist. As children they had a healthy self-image, but now they are shoveling down mini cupcakes and slogging themselves with whips, gaining weight and losing confidence the entire time.

America is in many ways a 'sick' (i.e., disgusting) country. We will glorify 'the perfect female body,' not allow women to breast-feed in public (I don't get the people who are 'offended' - aren't most nursing boobs attractive?), and allow obesity to rage rampant even in children as young as 8.
Where is the common sense in all of this?

Why won't "Allure" won't ask someone like my next door neighbor, who is attractive and petite, to pose nude? If she were willing, wouldn't that be such an outcry? Shield your eyes, everyone - nudity from the general public!

[ramblin jack]

Your porn is another person's art that simple.

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

I'll know it when I see it.

As opposed to art.

[imfedup]

The intense pressure on women to define themselves based on their attractiveness to men and their "perfect" bodies is exceptionally damaging. The media seems to worship beautiful women, but in fact it demeans women and diminishes their status. It reduces them to pretty faces and bodies. It's not prudish to object to this trend. No one is asking the men of Food Network to strip for Allure Magazine. It would be ludicrous even to imagine it.

[writerjohnny]

The wife and I enjoy a bit of porn now and then and both genders sport bodies that we will never have. Is the statue of David pornography? Is pornography inherently bad? Self perception has WAY more to do with your parents and family than glossy mags and internet sites. I am not familiar with the other women posing for Allure but Chelsea Handler appears to be a strong and intelligent woman. If Ms. Handler wants to pose and it's her choice I say it's empowering to women. Plus she's hilarious and hot.

[jade7243]

Ms. Donohue makes a semi-valid commentary about the media promoting an idealized female form. While porn wants you to think that big, plastic boobs are ideal, fashion mags want you to believe that rail thin, perfectly smooth, hairless, flawless, tall and whiter/lighter skin is in. But her argument falls flat if "it's porn," is the message.

The problem with Allure and other mainstream fashion mags is not celebrating those "lucky" enough to fit the fashion ideal of the moment, but the constant bombardment of the "fixes" one must apply to be considered "beautiful" now. Allure, Vogue, others only use models of a certain height/weight combo that doesn't reflect the women buying the clothes or the products. Seventeen year olds don't need wrinkle cream. And most wrinkle creams don't work. Next you'll need shin lengthening implants to go with your liposuction, butt lift, boob implants, facelifts, hair weaves, acryilic nails and lip plumpers.

It's not the nudity, it's the fake messaging that's damaging. "You're only worthy when you reach this weight or this clothing size, and you are an abject failure if you can't. And if you're not worthy, you can't wear this overpriced clothing that will be out of style by the time you diet your fat and flabby ass down to where you can."

[BlackJAC]

Define "idealized form." Taste is thoroughly subjective, and everyone has their own ideal unconsciously formed at some early age.

[jerrypl]

I didn't see any porno in those pictures. You can see just as much as was revealed on any beach in CA or FL. What to me should bring up the outrage is television programming. The continuous depiction of both men and women being displayed as stupid and inept, while their children are often shown as smarter than the adults.

To me Fox is the true depiction of intellectual pornography. That should be the outrage. Naked bodies? I don't think so. Violent pictures against people--of course, yes.

I don't own a TV and have not had one for nearly 30 years. I say trash them. Stop paying for TV cable if you want to stop the porno messages. The continuous erotic messages displayed on TV is stronger and more harmful than in some of these "nudie" magazines. The magazine message is static, but the outrageous negative messages on TV are dynamic.

She talks about eating disorders. That begins in Teen Magazines, and TV. That is where the bombardment occurs. It does not begin in adult skin magazines mostly viewed by adult men in their bathrooms.

I think Jennifer has her priorities misaligned.

http://eye-on-washington.blogspot.com

[OtayPanky]

Let me see if I get this.

You're looking for people to be OUTRAGED by the publication of nude photos in a magazine, because the subjects are women with beautiful bodies?

You're worried that young people will somehow be scarred by the publication of these photos, and others like them?

And you think that publishing these photos (and others like them) is a reason people have eating disorders?

Otay!

Now that we're on the same page, I have an idea: Let's close down all our beaches, or at least ban revealing bathing suits. And, while we're at it, let's require women to wear loose fitting, full length garments at all times, when out in public.

That should fix the problem, for sure!

[The Ghost]

I hear Burkas are available at wholesale.

[luzcannon]

"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?"

Teach them to think for themselves. Tell them that women can do whatever they please with their own bodies. Tell the about Photoshop. Tell them to love and care for their bodies and have self-respect based on things beyond the superficial.

I'm female. I make porn, because I like to. These photos are not porn. Kinda sad, certainly shallow, but not porn.

[Blissable]

Sad, shallow? How so? In one sentence you say that women should have the power to do whatever they please with their own bodies, then right afterwards you say these images are sad and shallow? What kind of logic is driving that?

[luzcannon]

Good questions! Because I don't see or feel the immense power that real naked women and good art have {That, maybe, is the real kernel of what is truly obscene - stripping away another human's humanity}. Because they're retouched and blandly stylized. Because I've already forgotten their names and that of the photographer. Because there are no naked men, barely covering the tips of their penes, in the batch. Because it's a little sad and shallow that we're still having this discussion thirty years after the women's movement came to power ( and evidently left it somewhere in the 90s). Because they don't look strong - cute, yes, but not thrumming with vibrant being.

I've done some weak s**t in my life - crappy, hopefully forgettable craft , massaged to be pleasing to a common denominator, and I think it was kinda sad and certailny shallow.

Thanks for the query. I see the disjunct you see, and could have chosen better-targeted language. I appreciate the challenge to think more and better. Have a great day, full of powerful, beautiful whatever you enjoy.

[mediamarv]

Americans are such prudes... the Europeans have a much healthier attitude.. they can appreciate a beautiful woman's nudity for what it is and not make such a big deal out of it. Being sexy is an attitude above all else and if combined with a great body, wonderful but that's not the defining criterion.
Visiting the beaches of southern France and N Spain where bodies of all shapes and sizes (tho biased toward the thin) can be seen, people enjoying life and not worrying if they don't meet some "standard of beauty," is a healthy reality that more Americans should experience.

[Blissable]

Agreed, and you can see the same thing on the regretfully few clothing optional beaches here in the US. Go to Haulover in North Miami and you'll see hundreds and hundreds of women and men who don't have the same negative body issues as are being expressed here. Fat, thin, lumpy or scrawny it's amazing how fast your own misconceptions about what makes a body beautiful melt away when you are in that environment.

[lsloan]

I've only seen the pictures posted here on this website, not the magazine itself. What I've seen doesn't look like pornography to me. In fact, it shows less of the female body than does some classical art from Europe and Asia. Besides that, what's wrong with pornography?

As to the question of whether these women represent unrealistic depictions of the female form, I think they do not. As far as we know, they worked hard at getting and keeping themselves in shape. It's true that not everybody can achieve the same results, but does that mean these women shouldn't be seen? At least these women don't look like anorexic nightmares.