Ask ArcRoyale #6
Another week of motion, another question. Let's get on it, shall we?
Today's question goes something like "Dear ArcRoyale: I think the reason that male nudity is used for humor most often is because it challenges their masculinity, that is, it emasculates him and thus is funny because of that, which is kinda hard to do with a woman. What're your thoughts on that?"
That's almost not a question, but I'll try and answer it.
Two things throw a monkey wrench into this argument. First, there's male nudity used to titillate the audience just as their female counterparts are. You know, stuff like The Martian, X-Men: Days Of Future Past, or most of the Terminator movies. That kind of thing uses a lot of attractive guys for sexual purposes, making it pretty similar to female nudity of the same kind.
The other is scenes where the humor comes from the fact that the guy is too comfortable in his own skin. Aside from boys in cartoons, there's also stuff like Stephen Fry in the Sherlock Holmes sequel. The thing about those is that the humor comes from one of two things: embarrassment over the guy being hot and people drooling over him, or disgust at the guy being ugly.
Believe it or not, there are both of these cases with regards to females as well. A scene in the [adult swim] show The Oblongs uses an ugly girl's nudity for comedic value; and while the attractive nude girl in Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates is covered, the unattractive one is out in the open. Examples of the girl being "too hot" need only look no further than Not Another Teen Movie, where Cerena Vincent plays a nude foreign exchange student.
Now here's the pickle: A lot of my examples come from R-Rated or at least PG-13 stuff, stuff for adults. Children's media still keeps female nudity mostly hidden, yet male nudity out in the open. Despite the covers being unveiled for adults, they're hidden for kids. How do you explain this discrepancy? Unless, of course, the answer is "The producers think the female body is 'inherently sexual'," which simply isn't true.
In our current society that's pushing really hard on feminism, deflowering women doesn't sound fun. It'll take a while for this to really develop. So while humor over emasculating men may be okay right now, deflowering women isn't quite just yet, since we're currently in the phase where we try and lift up women as powerful. I have faith things will level out eventually, but only with a lot of time.
So I just listed three examples that show the argument is nonsense. Yet, it's still used. Maybe things will change soon, but it won't start by just assuming things'll get better automatically. We gotta take the first step. Once there, only 999 more miles to go!
Rated NSFW due to mention of R-Rated movies.
Today's question goes something like "Dear ArcRoyale: I think the reason that male nudity is used for humor most often is because it challenges their masculinity, that is, it emasculates him and thus is funny because of that, which is kinda hard to do with a woman. What're your thoughts on that?"
That's almost not a question, but I'll try and answer it.
Two things throw a monkey wrench into this argument. First, there's male nudity used to titillate the audience just as their female counterparts are. You know, stuff like The Martian, X-Men: Days Of Future Past, or most of the Terminator movies. That kind of thing uses a lot of attractive guys for sexual purposes, making it pretty similar to female nudity of the same kind.
The other is scenes where the humor comes from the fact that the guy is too comfortable in his own skin. Aside from boys in cartoons, there's also stuff like Stephen Fry in the Sherlock Holmes sequel. The thing about those is that the humor comes from one of two things: embarrassment over the guy being hot and people drooling over him, or disgust at the guy being ugly.
Believe it or not, there are both of these cases with regards to females as well. A scene in the [adult swim] show The Oblongs uses an ugly girl's nudity for comedic value; and while the attractive nude girl in Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates is covered, the unattractive one is out in the open. Examples of the girl being "too hot" need only look no further than Not Another Teen Movie, where Cerena Vincent plays a nude foreign exchange student.
Now here's the pickle: A lot of my examples come from R-Rated or at least PG-13 stuff, stuff for adults. Children's media still keeps female nudity mostly hidden, yet male nudity out in the open. Despite the covers being unveiled for adults, they're hidden for kids. How do you explain this discrepancy? Unless, of course, the answer is "The producers think the female body is 'inherently sexual'," which simply isn't true.
In our current society that's pushing really hard on feminism, deflowering women doesn't sound fun. It'll take a while for this to really develop. So while humor over emasculating men may be okay right now, deflowering women isn't quite just yet, since we're currently in the phase where we try and lift up women as powerful. I have faith things will level out eventually, but only with a lot of time.
So I just listed three examples that show the argument is nonsense. Yet, it's still used. Maybe things will change soon, but it won't start by just assuming things'll get better automatically. We gotta take the first step. Once there, only 999 more miles to go!
Rated NSFW due to mention of R-Rated movies.