When watching a movie with a PG-13 rating or higher, audiences may get a glimpse of an uncovered chest or naked backside. Most of the time, it’s a woman.
While brief nudity is allowed in a PG-13 rated movie as long as it’s not sexual, when it’s in a sexual situation a movie gains an R rating, according to the Motion Picture Association of America.
An R-rated movie consists of adult themes, adult activity, “hard” language, intense or persistent violence, sexual nudity, or drug abuse so the warnings are to be taken more seriously, according to the Motion Picture Association of America.
A study led by sociologist Stacy L. Smith in 2012 reported that there is a lack of aspirational female role models.
The report stated that “women are stereotyped and sexualized, a clear employment imbalance exists” and female characters are sidelined. Oftentimes, similar shows tend to sexualize women more than men.
When it comes to nudity in a film the nudity is either depicted as natural but the character’s story and plot are still the dominant elements, or nudity is utilized to appeal to the male gaze.
The male gaze describes when women are sexualized in film to empower men and objectify women, according to Dictionary.com.
The woman is positioned as an object.
Women, gender, and sexuality studies professor Tanya Bakhru, said if the story is being told by men for men, the male gaze is prominent.
“You’re going to most likely see nudity of objectification rather than part of the narrative,” Bakhru said.
Galia Foglio, interior design junior and self-proclaimed movie enjoyer, said the line between male gaze and storytelling has to do with the way the body is presented.
“Nudity as is shouldn’t be something that’s taboo because it’s just a human body, it shouldn’t be an issue but it really depends on the context,” Foglio said.
Context comes down to the director, who is in charge of foreseeing everything that happens to their film.
Sydney Sweeney, the 24-year-old actress who plays Cassie Howard on HBO’s “Euphoria,” recently said there’s a stigma against actresses who get naked on screen in a Jan. 20 2022 Independent magazine article.
“I'm very proud of my work in ‘Euphoria.’ I thought it was a great performance. But no one talks about it because I got naked," Sweeney said. "I do ‘The White Lotus’ and all of a sudden critics are paying attention. People are loving me. I was like, 'Did you not see that in ‘Euphoria’?’"
“The White Lotus” is HBO’s satirical drama television series created, written, and directed by Mike White. It follows misadventures of people and employees at a tropical resort.
Erik Martinez Gonzalez, radio, TV and film senior and aspiring producer said filmmakers need to be aware of the subtle distinction between having a human body on the screen for the sake of the story and having a body on the screen to please audiences.
“That’s a very fine line that needs to be understood and respected,” Gonzalez said. “But sometimes it’s trying to set a tone that a film is sexy, different, and has this raunchy energy to [create] shock value, that’s where it starts crossing the line.”
“Euphoria” deals with high schoolers and triggering topics including violence, nudity, recreational drug use and sexual activity.
Art is a reflection of culture, but it also contributes to mainstream media like television and movies.
In the U.S., women and girls are often depicted in sexualizing ways, according to a “Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls” report by the American Psychological Association in 2007.
Sexualization of women is a standard for female characters globally, according to the UN Women website.
In media, UN Women said that “girls and women are twice as likely as boys and men to be shown in sexually revealing clothing, partially or fully naked, thin, and five times as likely to be referenced as attractive.”
UN Women is an extension of the United Nations dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women, according to the UN Women website.
Women’s bodies have been used to grab attention for things like cheeseburgers and cars.
Gonzalez said it’s very easy to tell whether the director of a show or movie is male or female based on the way that they present nudity.
“With ‘Euphoria’, I’m aware the director is a male,” Gonzalez said. “. . . Issues start becoming prominent [when] you can sense, oh, this is more of a hypersexualization thing, rather than this is a director trying to tell a story,” Gonzalez said.
Women working on the top 250 domestic grossing films made up 21% of all directors, writers, producers, executive producers, editors and cinematographers, according to a 2020 Celluloid Ceiling report.
The Celluloid Ceiling Report is a series of reports created by Dr. Martha Lauzen at the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University. The reports have tracked women's behind-the-scenes employment on top grossing films since 1998.
“The more women, not just generic women of the homogenous group but, more Black women, Latina women, more Asian American women, more trans women, intersections of identity the more we have diverse storytelling,” Bakhru said.
