I Just Have One Question

And it’s not rhetorical – I really want an answer!

What is UP with all the ads with practically naked women with fully clothed men? I just don’t get it. Not that anyone wants to see Will Ferrell naked. Egads. But still. You never see ads the other way around, with naked men and fully clothed women. Is it a voyeuristic thing? Some kind of teenage fantasy I don’t get? Can someone explain this to me?? Thank you.
PS> I was going to point out the ridiculosity of playing basketball in a bikini and GoGo boots but I can only shake my head so many times before I sprain my neck.
For an interesting & positive perspective, read Stephanie’s take on the SI Swimsuit Edition.

14 Comments

  1. Almost naked women sell more product than almost naked men? That’s my guess. Half-naked women appeal to both men and women, whereas half-naked men only appeal to women?

  2. Gena, I’ve seen some studies that support what you’re saying.

    I’ve also seen a study that shows that if you show a man a picture of an attractive woman, he tends to be a less effective negotiator. That probably has something to do with it, too.

  3. I think you guys are right – WIll Ferrell has definitely lost his ability to negotiate. Not to mention play basketball;)

  4. I know! What’s up with that?!

    Honestly, my opinion: Men are attracted to half-naked women, and sex sells. Women see that unrealistic body image plastered all over and since women want to be that, they are in some way interested. Hmm…

  5. Also, in reference to what Gena said: Women make up the majority of consumers. So half-naked women must be bringing in some females..

  6. My wife put it pretty simply. Men like seeing women nekid. Women don’t much care to see men nekid. If it wasn’t already apparent this movie is marketed towards men, or at least their pubescent counterparts.

    Plus our whole society has become accustomed to seeing mostly nekid women everywhere.

    Most women don’t fight the degrading images anymore and most men just respond to their basal instincts.

    *shrug*

    US=complacencypwnt

  7. This really bothers me. My husband and I watch movies often and he bring movies home like this quite a bit, we can’t get away from them!!! What also bothers me is how come the girls keep getting hotter and the guys keep getting uglier…whats up with that?!

  8. I agree with tj, I know that I would not like to see most men in a speedo running up and down the court. (maybe my hubby, but we would have to see about that)

    I would love to see women being more respectful to their own bodies and just say no to the scanty clothes, but we have to wait for some of those women to get to hollywood.

    Charlotte and Allison can be the first!

    Candice

  9. Along those lines why is it too that we mostly see in the media the fat husband with the hot wife yet you never see the tables turned with a fat wife with hot hunky slim husband?

    Thank you for the link too 😉

  10. I think the answer lies in the history of the feminist movement. Feminism–in its basic sense of women wanting to control their own minds, bodies, money and other temporal circumstances–has been around since the medieval period. (Read any Chaucer lately?) But it wasn’t until the twentieth century that women finally started making headway. In the 1960s the modern feminist movement took off. This movement coincided with the sexual revolution. Suddenly women were speaking out of both sides of their mouths–the wanted to quit being seen as sex objects with no purpose beyond child bearing, but they also wanted to be as sexually free as men have been. Anyway, long story short, forty years later the washout from the politicalization of the female form has been that to be powerful a woman MUST also be sexual, but only in a non-biological way (if it looked more biologically sound then women would be reminded of their ability to give birth and women don’t seem to like that). Somehow women gave up the greater fight of being taken seriously for their minds and abilities, and settled for recognition for their bodies. Talk about unfortunate.

  11. Good lord, i cant believe how far they took it, its borderline playboy no? anyhow i think that like tj said, men like seeing naked women, and almost anything plastered in a media outlet like that needs to look “impeccable”. I mean even food has to have a stylist when on the cover of a magazine. It just sucks that it makes women feel as if they need to look like that, because in reality, its so airbrushed, it might as well be a cartoon.

  12. Weeeeellll, out here in San Francisco, half-naked men sell stuff, as well. And of COURSE they’re super buff, no body hair, full head of hair (unless it’s shaved), young hotties. Also an ideal most men won’t meet, at least not age 20.

  13. Oops, I mean not AFTER age 20. Another thing special here is that they often find a way to profile their package, never directly showing it, of course, but think Speedo.

  14. I just feel bad for men. Fed all this air brushed rubbish (I mean, if you have to air brush bodies that are as close to perfection as possible there is something seriously wrong with you) since they pick up their first magazine, men have this sad image of what beautiful women look like. Then they finally meet a real woman and either have to accept that they have been fed a life time of lies, or live a very unsatisfied life. This is why porn is so popular and why super models can’t keep husbands. No woman, not even the model herself, can compare to a digitally enhanced image.