Best. Gay. Week. Ever! The Full Frontal Edition! Plus, Too Much Pressure on Neil and David?

TO FULL FRONTAL OR TO NOT FULL FRONTAL
When I saw the first headline trumpeting news about Justin Long's inadvertent full frontal nude scene in his upcoming movie Going the Distance, I knew how the story would end before I even started it: namely, that particular scene would not end up in the movie. Americans as a whole are still supposedly way too squeamish to actually be confronted with a guy's junk onscreen, especially in a romantic comedy like Going the Distance.

Justin Long

Which doesn't make sense given that Nanette Burstein, GTD's director, was supposedly so taken with Christina Applegate's shocked reaction to Justin's junk that she filmed the scene that way ten more times before eventually deciding not to use it. Or someone decided she shouldn't use it. BTW, imagine if this were a gay director who did that. Tongues would be wagging even though straight directors film female nude scenes all the time. In fact, out director Joel Schumacher recently faced exactly this sort of scrutiny.

Anyway, I'm guessing the "shocked reaction" was pretty funny which means it would've been perfect for the "comedy" part of romantic comedy. 

But apparently Justin's junk was ultimately deemed unfunny for American audiences. Especially for men who the studio already figures will be tough to get into the theater. It's one thing to show Viggo Mortensen doing the full monty in Eastern Promises since he's doing it while fighting and killing bad guys. That's at least macho and gives the straight guys something else to focus on. 

I was thinking about this particular topic after watching this week's episode of True Blood which finally had Lafayette and Jesus doing it ... off screen. As Steven Frank noted in his hilarious recap (read it for the Maggie Gallagher/vampire joke alone), we've seen puhlenty of Sookie and Bill doing it (honestly, if I see her sitting astride him one more time, I'm going to buy her a saddle) yet the show seems to mostly shy away from the male/male stuff that goes beyond kissing. Which is pretty typical in American pop culture.

Jesus and Lafayette, Bill and Sookie

On one hand, given the prevalent idea that gay men are all horndogs, it is great to show that gay relationships aren't all about sex, and that Lafayette and Jesus have an actual emotional connection. And the week before, we did see Eric and Talbot nekkid together right before Eric offed his one night stand. But if you compare the Eric/Talbot sex scene to most any of the straight sex scenes, the gay one was over a whole lot faster. 

And I don't even mean this as a criticism of True Blood which is light years ahead of most shows when it comes to showing same-sex sex and gay relationships. I just think it tells us something about how far along the path we are that even on this show a double standard still seems to exist. 

It should be noted that one double standard True Blood doesn't seem to be employing is getting its female characters naked more often than the male ones. If anything, TB seems to get its men naked quite a bit more than the women.

Bill and Sam, Jason, Eric

Then there is that latest Rolling Stone cover which is guy-guy-girl threeway.

In fact, of recent shows, only Spartacus has had more male nudity than TB, and both of those shows blow pretty much everything else away. I would have included HBO's Hung here for frequently getting Ray (Thomas Jane) naked (if hiding his junk with strategically placed camera work) but this week's episode included such a lengthy female full frontal scene that it only served to remind viewers we are probably never going to see Jane do the full monty. 

Still, if the other networks were as adult about this as are HBO and Starz, the world would be a more grown-up place. Nonetheless, when it comes to men going full frontal, there is still clearly very much a double standard in the U.S.

Thomas Jane on Hung

Next page! Let's all give Neil and David a little space, shall we?