There is not enough male frontal nudity on TV. You’re far more likely to see a naked woman than a naked man. It’s only [seen as] rude because the rest of television is rather tame — it doesn’t actually talk about sex and our bodies and how we feel about them. I’m not out to shock.”
— Russell T. Davies, creator of Queer As Folk and the new series Cucumber, preaching to the choir in a new interview with The Telegraph
Horse Lips
I’ve been calling for more full-frontal male nudity for YEARS!
Kieran
He can’t be talking about America where we even a bare ass on TV is verboten.
Desert Boy
What? The scary, powerful peen on TV? Please. Even ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ is said to be a peen-free movie. It’s utterly ridiculous but, this is America.
polarisfashion
Remember the uproar over Janet Jackson’s boob flopping out of her costume during the Superbowl Halftime show ten years ago? If a bare flaccid penis was whipped out on TV all the conservatives’ heads would explode! Hey that’s not a bad idea; let’s go for it and show a full on raging boner!!!
Ladbrook
I’ve always had this theory: The primary reason we don’t see much dick on TV or in American films is because the vast majority of male actors are incredibly insecure showing off a flaccid penis. Think back to the “shrinkage” episode from Seinfeld.
Gay men understand that a flaccid 2-incher can quickly become a 7″ monster, but of course no one wants to acknowledge basic issues of anatomy, so showing off a shrunken dick for the camera is something actors don’t want to do. I’m sure they’re thinking “I don’t want anyone to think I have a small dick.”
The whole thing is just silly. Euro actors drop their briefs without question. Americans, not so much.
Ron Jackson
Our Puritan heritage is still fucking with us 200 plus years later. It’s time for America to grow up.
Cam
The thing that is so crazy about the Motion Picture Association Ratings Board and the TV ratings is that they will show somebody killing multiple people, but showing a nipple will give them a stroke.
They have some incredibly messed up views on life.
JaredNorthcutt30
Can people get it through their thick skulls that breasts do not equal peen? Holy hell, it’s like swimming in sea chock full of dumb fish. That said, I want to see a dripping vagina on teevee.
Tobi
The UK version of Queer As Folk crashed through a lot of taboos even for British television. I know my jaw dropped at a young Charlie Hunnam (Sons of Anarchy) playing a believable 15-year-old being rimmed and then ejaculating over a mobile phone. It was definitely the first time I saw cum dripping on broadcast television! I also think a lot of television and film has the full frontal nudity edited out for US consumption, Alexander, The Fluffer, etc. etc.
john.k
I remember a programme on one of the British |TV channels about sex on TV. It concluded that full frontal male nudity was possible in certain circumstances but erections were forbidden. The presenter said the penis could not be higher than the “Mull of Kintyre position”. Have a look at a map of western Scotland if you want to see what that means.
MarionPaige
when people turn on their tv, is it with the desire to see nudity?
I may be alone but I hated Queer As Folk, it was like one of those jungle nature docu-series only instead of tigers and lions gay men were the Predators. However,
On the subject of BLACK MALE NUDITY, ?Omari Hardwick is always naked on the Starz tv show Power.
heavylifter
@Cam:
That’s an exaggeration. Even how violence is depicted is censored.
Cee
How about we start with more gay relationships on TV? Almost every TV show and movie is based on relationships between heterosexuals. What does that tell the gay youth? Same with Blacks, Mexicans, and Asians on TV. It’s always a token Black, Asian or Mexican. That’s not real. I live in California and when I walk outside I see all races. I don’t see 99% White people and 1% Black or 1% Latino or 1% Asian. So why do all of these TV shows have 99% White people? Gays are represented even less. Only a select few shows throw in a token Gay character and the character is usually a stereotypical queen or some sexless gay. You won’t see them kiss another of the same sex or even having a same sex relationship, but you’ll see the heterosexual characters kissing, ripping clothes off and humping all over the place.
heavylifter
@Cee:
Huh?, I thought there was a tsunami of gay programming, all the gay media are flooded with gay stars/celebrity gossip and the latest gay TV shows and movies.
And so what if most programming is dominated by white straights. Guess what? They make up the majority of the population, ESPECIALLY the ones with the most discretionary spending.
I’m not crying my eyes out and wailing about being “oppressed”. There are a million gay themed movies I can access online, or at that sunset technology, the local video store.
MarionPaige
@Tobi:
Most of Charlie’s sex scenes on QAF made me wonder where Charlie’s parents were. However, the handjob scene was kinda cute. As I recall, Nathan actually says: “Can I give you a hand?” when he first enters the room where the guy is.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?x-yt-cl=84503534&x-yt-ts=1421914688&v=gI8Sy5nmAgg
jason smeds
I don’t think there is full-frontal female nudity on TV, so I don’t understand what Russell T Davies is going on about.
In any case, I don’t want to see American TV turn into a porn movie. There’s enough porn around on the internet etc.
If you introduce full-frontal male nudity you will then have to show full-frontal female nudity. When this happens, the pornographers and female prostitutes take over. Female nudity will then become more prevalent than male nudity because pornographers and female prostitutes are more likely to sell female bodies to males than they are to sell male bodies to females.
Then you will have a new oppression, not unlike that you see in the porn industry right now where the female body takes precedence over the male body and where female-female is considered normal but male-male is segregated.
As history has shown, every time you liberalize attitudes to nudity and sexuality, the female prostitutes and their pimps take over, and then you end up with a new oppression of male nudity and male-male sexuality.
In a nutshell, beware what you wish for.
jason smeds
Porn provides us with an example of what would happen if you allow full-frontal nudity on TV.
You will end up with naked female bodies everywhere but naked male bodies reserved to a tiny time period (maybe an hour a day) for the “gay” crowd. It will create a new imbalance and oppression of male bodies.
The reason for this is that women in general don’t chase male nudity in the same way males chase female nudity. It’s a biological double standard. Allowing total nudity on TV will unleash the double standard and make it much worse for those who admire the male body than the situation which exists today.
The nudity double standard always manifests as the bisexual double standard, a double standard which says it’s OK for women to touch each other but not men to touch each other.
jwtraveler
I haven’t seen any naked women on TV, but I don’t have cable. As far as naked men goes, I’m for it, but I don’t really need it. There’s always porn.
jason smeds
Nudity is not, by definition, pornographic. For example, if I decide to go nude at a nude beach, which I sometimes do, it’s not an act of pornography.
Pornography is when you take nudity and turn it into a money-making scheme. When society relaxes laws so much that it allows unfettered nudity on the screen, the sleaze balls of the world will take it and market it to the masses. In the real world, male viewers chase female nudity far more than female viewers chase male nudity. Therefore, any marketing scheme will always be biased in favor of the straight guy fantasy – i.e. with lots of female nudity at the expense of male nudity.
Do you really want to live in a world where every time you turn on the TV there’s a female nude staring at you? Think about it.
broadshoulder
To be honest we need more gay people on TV. We’ve got Cucumber on TV at the moment and thats about gay people. 99% of the shows on TV are for heterosexuals…..god its boring..
Zodinsbrother
You can get away with a lot on British TV in the right context. For example factual shows have a few times shown full erections on Network TV and I saw one that even featured a close up of an ejaculation.
Things are a bit stricter on Network TV Drama. Rear nudity is common and frontal nudity isn’t especially rare. It happens. But satellite TV I’ve seen the movie channels broadcast erections and masturbation in dramas. It’s very rare but it does happen. It seems the major restriction is the willingness of “proper” actors to do it. They are happy to show peen but baulk at erections.
Cee
@heavylifter:
A million gay themed movies? That’s a lot and yet you haven’t named a single one. I bet you can’t even name 20 gay themed TV shows or movies without looking them up.
Why is it acceptable to you to be restricted or limited to accessing gay themed movies online or at “sunset technology,” or a video store?
You seem to be okay with having to go out of your way to access gay movies vs. being able to simply turn on your TV and choose from any number of gay themed TV shows or movies the way heterosexual people can turn on their TV and choose from thousands of straight themed TV shows or movies.
Fact is gay men are disproportionately represented in Television and Film.
You really jumped out the window with your comment.
I think you should think before you type next time.
QJ201
What is the point of nudity on TV when anyone connected to the internet can google penis anytime they want?
tdx3fan
@MarionPaige: Surprise, shock, surprise, you are in the minority. There was nothing wrong with QAF and your description of it is warped. That being said, the British version is still my favorite.
tdx3fan
@heavylifter: Are you high or something? It has long been common knowledge that the group with the largest disposable income (often around 90%) is the gay white males. Use your own brain, do you honestly think a straight couple (where the woman stays at home with the 2.5 children) has more disposable income than a gay couple where both men work and share expenses?
tdh1980
Unrelated, it’s somewhat eerie how similar young Charlie Hunnan and Randy Harrison look to each other.
tdx3fan
@jason smeds: Damn dude, I feel sorry for your brain…
-See problem A-Z
-Find a way to blame the women for it
-Blame women for problem A-Z
Must be hard to exist in your little world!
Cam
@heavylifter: said… “That’s an exaggeration. Even how violence is depicted is censored.”
______________
That absolutly isn’t true. Movies like Terminator, etc… are shown on regular TV, even sows like Law and Order, and Southland show multiple people being beaten or shot, but somebody taking of their shirt is shocking.
demented
@jason smeds: Clearly you have never met a woman if you think they don’t care about male nudity. If they don’t “chase” nudity like men, it’s because society has conditioned them.
Is there a single thing in the world you don’t blame women for?
richard s
I work behind the scenes on a television show doing stylist work. I can tell you that the majority of the men in television have a freakin breakdown if they’re asked to even take off their shirts. There’s a huge double standard in Hollywood which everyone knows about. Women are asked to strip down constantly. Women wear stick on “pedals” on their nipples during love scenes. Really? That’s their modesty covering. Women show their pubes and yet most men/actors freak out over showing some chest. The older the actor, the bigger the freak out. The older the woman/actress…doesnt matter…strip it off lady. Most actresses stay mum on their discomfort because they WILL be labeled as difficult. Actors…not so much. But look at the pairings on television…farty not fit men paired up with hot wives and girlfriends. And the hot wives are usually younger. Check it out…you’ll start to see the trend. Plus, actors are so freaked out over the size of their dicks that they just wont show them. Huge insecurity but they get away with it. Actresses arent allowed to be insecure…they’re told to go get a boob job and shut up.
OzJosh
@jason smeds: You couldn’t be more wrong. There’s been female (and male) full-frontal nudity on TV in many parts of the world (Scandinavia, much of Europe, Australia) for years and it has not led to widespread porn, outbreaks of prostitution or the downfall of civilisations. Indeed, most of these places are far less hysterical and moralistic about sex – including less homophobic – than the puritan USA. Try doing a little research before you start spouting absolute rubbish.
Bob LaBlah
I was watching Empire the other day and noticed how low the pants were hanging on the gay character in the show. He has an ass so round that you could sit a cup of coffee on top of it and it wouldn’t spill. I would LOVE to see that in the raw, or in the buff as we used to say back in my day.
jason smeds
demented,
That is absolutely not true when you say that “society has conditioned them” ini relation to why women don’t chase male nudity to the same extent as men chasing female nudity. Absolutely not true.
It’s due to biology. Here’s some facts even you won’t be able to deny about human sexuality:
Fact no. 1 – a man has to be aroused in order to produce a pregnancy, a woman doesn’t
Fact no. 2 – a man can produce billions of sex cells (sperm) each month, a woman generally produces only one (egg)
Fact no. 3 – a man can get many women pregnant at one time, a woman can be pregnant only to one man
Fact no. 4 – a man can produce sex cells all his life, a woman’s sex cells stop being produced at around 50 years of age
All these facts condense into the reason and consequence in relation to why men chase female nudity far more than women chase male nudity.
No matter how hard some women – particularly of the feminist mindset – argue, it’s not going to change the above facts. You can argue til you’re blue in the face – it’s not going to change any of the facts I’ve listed.
jason smeds
OzJosh,
Oh, please, don’t start on homophobia. Australia is one of the most homophobic places on earth, It doesn’t even allow gay marriage in any of its states.
If a gay male couple tried walking down a street in a suburb of Melbourne or Sydney holding hands, they’d probably get their heads bashed in. And I’m not talking about Oxford Street in Surrey Hills, by the way. Try doing it out of your enclaves and in the western suburbs of Sydney and let’s see what happens. It’s a very homophobic place, sad to say.
Stache99
@tdh1980: Yeah, young, blonde, and twink. At that age allot of them look similar. Now they look nothing alike.
Cam
@jason smeds:
Why make up stories? The Australian govt. hasn’t passed gay marriage, but the various states have pushed back hard to give what rights can be given without Federal law interfering. Sydney has one of the largest gatherings in the gay world with Sydney Mardi Gras.
I don’t get why you would make up facts to back up a point when they can be so easily looked up and dismissed.