What's the Big 'Deal' with Nudity?
We need to pause and really consider what's taking place.
Nudity is one of those topics that makes most of us feel uncomfortable. Even for those of you who give little thought to seeing nudity in movies, I doubt it’s something you talk about openly, like it’s no big deal. After all, the first nudity that ever occurred in the history of humanity was associated with shame and has been ever since (see Genesis chapter 3). Our lack of open conversation of this serves as evidence of the shame associated with it.
I’ve written about nudity before and will probably write about it again, because it’s one of the main concerns for families watching movies - rightly so. To dismiss the concern, or to abstain from any conversation surrounding it, is an unwise course of action.
Similarly, to never write about it, is also unwise. It’s not always as simple and as straight-forward for those seeking to be discerning. To be honest, it’s not easy for me to write about, but I’m trying to understand this myself and help those seeking to be more discerning.
If you’ve read this newsletter at all, you probably know that I’m a Christian. My theology impacts this entire discussion, because it impacts every square inch of my life. However, there are those outside of Christianity who even share concerns about nudity in films and this is part of my focus in this post. To say it another way, the concern I’m addressing today is one that’s shared among the general public.
Let’s Make a Deal
Please bear with me as I ask you to imagine an uncomfortable scenario - you’ve been warned.
Imagine someone walking up to you on the street and asking you to take off all your clothes. As you laugh it off, ignore them, or slap/punch them in the face, they take a new approach. “I’ll pay you $100 to take all your clothes off.”
I would imagine the result would be the same. However, they counter with $1,000, then $10,000, then $100,000. Wow, you think, I could do a lot with $100,000. I could pay off debt. Buy this item I’ve been wanting to buy, etc.
Thankfully, many of us won’t find ourselves in this scenario and this isn’t exactly how it works in ‘The Biz’, but a deal is made. You see, when a director asks an actor or actress to take off all their clothes in a movie, they have a ‘Nudity and Intimacy Clause Agreement’ which is often followed by a ‘Nudity Rider Agreement,’ which specifies what they will and won’t do, among other things.
Along with these agreements, there is typically an employee referred to as an ‘Intimacy Coordinator’ who oversees the scene involving nudity to ensure best practices are followed and that a level of professionalism is in place; as ironic as this might sound.
Just so you know, I used ChatGPT to create a job description for an intimacy coordinator and one of their jobs is to:
“Advocate for mental health and emotional well-being of the actors, providing resources for those who may need support following the filming of intimate scenes.”
Please don’t miss the fact that “mental health, emotional well-being, and support following the filming” are aspects of this intimacy coordinator’s job. In many ways, I guess I’m encouraged that this job is in place. In other ways, it’s disturbing this job is in place. Their job is to help the actors not be disturbed by something they should be disturbed by.
You see, it’s not uncommon for some of these actors and actresses to feel somewhat violated during these scenes. There have been numerous actresses that have spoken out about how upsetting these scenes were to film and how intoxicated they had to be in order to film them1.
Again, I’ve written about the context of nudity we need to consider, but we also need to consider the reality. While some may disagree about the “need” for nudity in various scenes in movies - there’s a lot to consider - the viewer needs to also consider the behind-the-scenes of what it took to bring that scene to the screen.
Think of the shame and embarrassment you would feel if you were naked in front of a room full of people. Well, before the scene makes it to the cinema, this is what occurred. In a studio lot or a filming location, 50 to 100 people gathered around, asked someone to strip off all their clothes and yelled, “Action!”
I’m really grateful to the work Cap Stewart has done through his newsletter, Unpop Culture.