CMV: Male actors take more of a personal risk than actresses by doing full frontal nude scenes.

You may have noticed in general that male nudity is not as frequent as female nudity in film and television, even in shows produced by HBO, Starz, Showtime, etc. This issue seems most prevalent in articles discussing nudity in Game of Thrones.

Some people see this as a kind of male privilege, and bemoan the fact that actresses are unfairly imposed upon to do nude scenes when their male co-stars almost never have to do it aside from showing their posterior.

I have a pet theory for why this is the case. Now, this will all sound comically prurient to some people, but comically prurient is definitely in my wheelhouse.

Starting with the premise that generally all or most actresses are already attractive, there is nothing a nude scene can reveal about them to harm their appeal.

So, When an actress does a topless scene, there are no real surprises. You generally know what her breast size is just from seeing her clothed, and have an even clearer idea if you see her in lingerie or a swimsuit. The only unknown is the areola / nipple appearance, which has little aesthetic impact in general, unless something really unusually is going on.

If the scene has her without a bottom, as well, again, there is nothing to see that will negatively effect the actress. All pubis mons, either smooth or covered in hair, are relatively similar, and no film or television show will show anything further than that.

However, with male actors, there is a great deal of mystery to unveil that could make or break their reputation as a heart throb. Let's take Kit Harrington (Jon Snow) as an example. Since GOT has become a phenomenally popular show, Kit Harrington's appeal as a studly actor who makes all the ladies and some men swoon has grown along with it. Yet, like most of the actors on GOT, Harrington has not done a nude scene, despite intimating from actresses Emilia Clarke and Natalie Dormer that the boys need to make things fair in this regard.

However, Kit Harrington has more to lose in such a scene. As I explained above, Emilia Clarke and Natalie Dormer are already attractive, and we know their body type and bust size just from seeing them in an award ceremony gown, so there is nothing to be revealed which can impact them negatively.

But with Kit Harrington, what if he decided to do a full nude scene, and his penis was a bit small? Wait, we will even go with the scenario that his penis is a completely normal size when flaccid, but since many people (especially women) do not seem to understand much about penis sizes or their flaccid states, it is my view that his fans would likely be extremely disappointed and vocal about it in a way that actresses could not imagine, with humiliating memes to follow.

In fact, just from the show itself implying that Jon has a small penis (from the infamous Tormund joke), I have seen myself on Twitter and elsewhere female fans expressing their heartache and disappointment at his lack of impressive anatomy, and this is without a nude scene even occurring. So just from the idea that he might not be so well endowed, Jon Snow's sex appeal has been diminished with some fans.

It for this reason that I think Emilia Clarke's nude scenes are in no way as personally costly as it would be for Kit Harrington to bear it all, or for any male actor in general.

Now, we known sometimes nude scenes are achieved with CGI / body doubles, but this is almost always made public knowledge, and for a male actor to have his member modified through CGI would be just as "shameful" and costly a revelation as just doing the scene au naturale.

Therefore, it is no surprise to me that many male actors are not keen to take part in nude scenes, because their "brand" as an actor could be more damaged by the results.

FYI: Make your comments in good faith, please.

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