What did you most enjoy about this year’s Oscars? Seeing all the great and good of the acting world honoured for their skills and expertise? Having a little giggle at Jennifer Lawrence taking a tumble up the stairs but marveling at how she brushed it off and at how nice and down to earth she was when she accepted the best actress award? Or seeing Seth McFarlane open the show with a song called We’ve Seen Your Boobs? The boobs, to be precise, of many of the women sat before him, including Charlize Theron and Anne Hathaway.
You may well have enjoyed MacFarlane’s hosting, and in particular his opening number. But if you did, the chances are you were in the minority.
Because that “boob” song has (rightly, in my opinion) upset quite a lot of people – men and women alike – for its apparent disregard of the talent these women have. For the fact MacFarlane, in a few minutes, completely undermined their skill in a tasteless, juvenile and pathetic way.
Of course, some will say you should expect this type of humour from the man who created shows such as Family Guy. Maybe.
But his We Saw Your Boobs song was so widely off the mark for a number of reasons, not least because he performed it on the biggest night of the year for the performers he named. Actors at the top of their game. Actors who, in one fell swoop, were reduced to nothing more than an appearance of their breasts.
It’s interesting to note that MacFarlane couldn’t have written a We Saw Your Penis song if he’d wanted to. Because, unless you’re watching porn, men’s private parts aren’t generally shown on screen
But while there is a lot of anger towards MacFarlane, perhaps it is not him we should be directing our anger at. Perhaps his song represents everything that is wrong with the television and film industry today.
An industry in which women are still fighting for equal roles – with a survey finding in 2009 that for every female character on TV there are two male ones.
An industry where roles for older women are still scarce, despite the fact a massive chunk of the audience is older (and female) and would like to see themselves represented on screen.
And it’s interesting to note that MacFarlane couldn’t have written a We Saw Your Penis song if he’d wanted to. Because, unless you’re watching porn, men’s private parts aren’t generally shown on screen.
So why are women’s breasts so prominent? I am sure there are a number of reasons why an actress might show their breasts on screen. Is it for “artistic reasons”?. Or is it that there is a pressure on them (that we don’t know about) from the predominantly male directors making films for them to do so?
Whatever the reason, it’s clearly not seen as a problem to sexualise women on screen. To objectify them.
And how comfortable are performers with this, really? I heard only recently that a young actress was required to show her breasts for a scene in a TV comedy, and that she had to think long and hard about whether or not she was prepared to do so. In the end, she decided she would, but it was not easy, or necessarily comfortable, for her. And now, when you Google her name, the first thing that comes up is a picture of the scene in question, showing her naked breasts.Isn’t that tragic? A young, talented performer has quickly become a picture for men to lust over. Never mind how good she was in the series – look at her tits! What a great shame.
Perhaps the industry needs to reassess how freely productions allow women to be naked on screen, and ask why it continues to be accepted that the private body parts of women can be shown so regularly, while the modesty of male actors is always protected?
It seems to me that it is only exacerbating the wider problems facing women in the industry, and is doing nobody any favours.


Jobs & Auditions
Comments 6 comments
Not sure about this, Matt. I mean, get past the watershed and you are as much likely to see men’s backsides in a bedroom scene as you are women’s breasts. Do we ever question whether or not the man was pressurised into it? Probably not.Report comment
Too right. Women are shown naked, sometimes with full frontal nudity but not the a man’s posterior let alone the penis. Very sexist and very exploitive. Either both sexist nude or both keep their clothes on. I don’t know McFarlene’s intent but his song was spot on. I went to the Moulin Rouge where the more highly paid the female, the more clothes they kept
on. We shouldn’t be ashamed of bodies but I wish more men took it all off. Like the play Hair or The Judas Kiss.Report comment
I didn’t see the Oscars. I do agree that women’s breasts are frequently displayed gratuitously. I’m not prudish in the least but frankly what is the point? You rarely see sagging ones do you? I’m never really convinced that sex scenes in movies are necessary. Even where sex must have occured.
So there must be pressure on the acting profession to bare all which cannot be comfortable. All those crew members watching? Ghastly. I wouldn’t do it, and I don’t see why others should feel that they should do it unless it can be shown that without the breasts the story will come to a grinding halt!
MaryReport comment
“Get Your Tits Out for the Lads – why is it okay for women to be naked on screen?
- Hemley on TV – The Stage” truly enables me personally think a somewhat extra.
I personally admired every single section of it.
I appreciate it ,JasminReport comment
Sander3997,
You sexualise by commenting. Down the beach, mall, training, men have shirts off all the time…..should we go bottomless to even out the gender wars….get real…boobs are boobs…we are all conceived female hence why we all have nipples….build a bridge and get over it!Report comment
Further more……if females want equality in regards to frontal nudity with males, there should be EQUAL shots of male and female genitalia. Watch shows everyday that promote male posteriors and all we get to watch are “boobs”, which are shared by both genders!Report comment