Male Nudity is Not a Remedy for Hollywood’s Infatuation with Female Nudity, Says PTC

LOS ANGELES (April 18, 2022) – The Parents Television and Media Council (PTC) called the new TV and film trend of increasingly showing male genitalia, as reported in Vanity Fair and The New York Times, a disturbing trend and an abnormal response to female sexualization in the post #MeToo era.

“Most of us were in kindergarten when we first learned that ‘two wrongs don’t make a right.’ So why is it that Hollywood believes the remedy to its longstanding grotesque sexualization of women is to escalate its sexualization of men? This would be laughable if it wasn’t so tragic. The rightful remedy for Hollywood’s sexualization of women is to cease its sexualization of women, not to sexualize men – or children – in equal portions,” said PTC President Tim Winter.

“Our research shows that full-frontal nudity in entertainment is rapidly increasing, only blurring the lines between mainstream TV/film content and the pornography industry. Even more troubling is that teen-targeted shows are now part of this trend. For example, HBO’s Euphoria – a show about teenagers in high school – has shown male genitalia throughout both seasons. Euphoria has also shown female nudity of both adult and teenaged characters. The showrunner has even heralded how much nudity he inserts while some actors on the program have challenged him for doing so.

“Hollywood is using graphic nudity primarily for shock value, not to tell a better story. In fact we hear the creative community defending its new fixation on the full-frontal nudity of men as being ‘authentic’ to its storytelling while, quite ironically, depicting ‘unauthentic’ prosthetic devices.

“Hollywood must understand that increasing graphic nudity – no matter the gender – is not a path forward, especially on teen-targeted shows. Rather, it is a massive regression with potentially tragic long-term consequences.”