Naked and unafraid: Men get ogled, too
What a terrible summer to be a man with an average body.
Personally, I blame Chris Pratt’s biceps. Or maybe Channing Tatum’s abs. Scott Eastwood’s deltoids, the star of a new campaign for Davidoff Cool Water, can also shoulder some of the blame. As can the relentless barrage of underdressed photos male celebrities keep oversharing with the world as if an unseen ghoul is whispering in their ears: “Strip down and snap another selfie. Do it.”
Consider a few recent headlines: “Nick Viall Shares Shameless Shirtless Photo of Himself Drinking Coffee — See His Surprisingly Hot Bod.” “Holy Abs! Shemar Moore, 45, Shows Off His Sexy Shirtless Bod in South Beach.” “Muscular Calum Best Shares Another Shirtless Snap Of His Heavily-Tattooed Physique As He Works Up A Sweat At The Gym.” “Watch A Shirtless Shia LaBeouf Freestyle.”
No, thanks. I’m too busy doing sit-ups under an inspirational poster of Zac Efron on the Hawaiian set of his upcoming film, Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates. Efron, who has won an MTV Movie Award for “Best Shirtless Performance,” is swinging from a lagoon rope. The guy is photographed bare-chested more than Elton John is shown in gaudy spectacles.
He could now go incognito by just throwing on a cardigan. And he’s not alone. From movies such as Magic Mike XXL to TV shows such as Fox’s The Last Man on Earth, from advertising (“50 Cent’s Bulge, Coming To a Billboard Near You”) to marketing stunts (“Explore Terry Crews’ Pecs With a Ridiculous Old Spice Video Game”), half-naked males are flexing their way into popular culture, one ripped torso at a time.
They are getting reduced to anatomical parts, as if their “pecs,” “abs” and “glutes” are independent stars with their own agents: “We’d love to cast Ben Affleck’s thighs in this superhero flick.” Hollywood males, long given a free ride and separate cabin on the Objectification Express, are now getting a severe ogling on the platform.
We are scrutinizing their bodies with glee, exposing them to the same corporeal judgments women have endured for decades. The big difference, though, is these buff dudes think this is just great.
In an interview last month with Radio Four’s Front Row, Pratt said he felt “totally objectified” after losing more than 60 lbs. to land starring roles in Guardians of the Galaxy and Jurassic World. He used “totally objectified” the way my 8-year-old daughters blurt out “totally awesome.”
“I think it’s OK, I don’t feel appalled by it,” said Pratt. “I think it’s appalling that for a long time only women were objectified. But I think if we really want to advocate for equality, it’s important to even things out.”
Instead of not objectifying women, he argues, we should simply “objectify men just as often.” So the next time Bill from accounting strolls into the office in new chinos, be sure to compliment his buttocks. When your neighbour Tim mows the lawn this weekend, point at his calves, whistle and flash a thumbs up.
And if Bill or Tim object to being objectified, quote Pratt: “We’re just big bags of flesh and blood and meat and organs that God gives us to drive around.”
Tatum, meanwhile, recently echoed Pratt’s comments during a media junket for Magic Mike XXL, a sequel about male strippers.
As he told CBS News: “We’re just doing our part to objectify men because women have been objectified enough.”
Both actors were widely praised for supporting “gender equality.” This says much about the state of “manjectification.” It also raises a question: Does a sudden outbreak of shirtless hunks really amount to progress? Men objectify women. Now men are objectifying men. This suggests men continue to hold all the objectifying power. This also means Pratt and Tatum’s “two wrongs make a right” logic is a bit suspect, as if they’re arguing, “People rob banks so we’re going to even things out by knocking over convenience stores . . . in our underwear.”
And just like Paul Rudd, who gave himself a six-pack stomach for Ant-Man, it’s easy for Pratt and Tatum to strike a noble prose because they look great.
As for the rest of us with mushy middles and gaudy spectacles, this summer of manjectification doesn’t feel like an egalitarian dream.
It just feels equally wrong. vmenon@thestar.ca