Posted on 12/03/2004 10:32:11 PM PST by nickcarraway
In the flesh: Today's female stars reveal 59% of their bodies to media flashbulbs - up from only 7% in the 1970s. So what will they be wearing on the red
Mae West once remarked that if you've got personality, you don't need nudity. So it makes sense that in the Age of Paris Hilton, celebrity skin is as ubiquitous on the red carpet as paparazzi.
According to a new study, today's female stars reveal a startling 59% of their flesh to media flashbulbs at red carpet events -- up from just 7% in the 1970s. If risque fashion trends persist, researchers predict celebs will be exposing an average of 75% of their bodies by the year 2010.
"Nakedness on TV, in particular, is so prevalent as to be banal," says Kim Blank, who teaches cultural studies at the University of Victoria. "But you can count on producers, marketers and fame-makers to come up with new angles -- literally."
Commissioned by cinema giant Odeon, researchers in the United Kingdom calculated the average percentage of nudity exposed on red carpets dating from the 1950s. Ten iconic photographs were chosen from each decade, then placed together on a body template to determine how much skin was on display.
Fifties stars such as Ava Gardner revealed an average 20% of their bodies, with particular emphasis placed on the upper arms and cleavage. By the '60s, that number sank to 9%, when screen sirens such as Sophia Loren and Brigitte Bardot popularized glamorous formal gowns.
?From the '70s to the '80s, the celebrity skin index shot from 7% to 13%, as red carpet fashion began mirroring the ethos of casual sex. And, in the '90s, Elizabeth Hurley -- finding an accomplice in Versace and some "designer" safety pins at the Four Weddings and a Funeral premiere -- upped the ante to nearly 40%.
"You have to go back to the Garden of Eden to understand how nakedness became naughtiness," says Blank. "Adam and Eve were tossed out of Eden because they were embarrassed and fearful about being naked. Nipplegate and red-carpet skinny-dipping suggest we never got over this."
This year, Janet Jackson's infamous nipple exposure engaged North Americans in a debate over moral values and was said by some to be a factor in the Democratic defeat in the U.S. election. But that doesn't mean the majority is strictly opposed to celebrity skin, notes an expert.
"There has always been a presence of sex within any historical discussion of moral values," explains Dawn Esposito, chair of sociology at St. John's University in New York. "Part of moral values is that you don't have sex, which is not the same thing as not looking at it."
Esposito calls it "vicarious pleasure without the sin."
Ontario's Lisa Brandt, author of Celebrity Tantrums: The Official Dirt, believes stars like Lil' Kim who "split up one handkerchief's worth of material to make an entire outfit" to be the exception rather than the rule. Although celebrity flesh attracts attention, she says most fans would rather capture an A-lister "slothing around in sweat pants than mooning [the paparazzi]."
Dismissing the study's predictions, Brandt says she finds it unlikely that bikinis and thongs will be the uniform of the 2010 Academy Awards. Blank, on the other hand, offers a different fashion forecast.
"Maybe one day medical students will be able to get their anatomy lessons on the red carpet," he quips, "rather than in their course texts."
I'll never understand how Janet Jackson, by exposing just 0.00325% of her body at last year's SuperBowl, caused so much of a stir!
I thought it was a ZIT!!
Why don't they just have small cameras embedded in every bodily orifice and have done with it?
Give me a break. If we added "not" to the preamble to the Constitution it would be less than a 1% change, so I suppose that would be no big deal?
Judeo-Christian theologies.
The unapproachable gold standard for red carpet dresses was achieved by actress Rose MacGowan's outfit at the '98 Music Video Awards.
I recall last year's Academy Awards was notable for being comparatively dignified.
When I noticed this I could see that basically these women are almost like a xerox of each other. The main difference would be hair color. I thought that it is sad that only one type of beauty was being seen. There is little to no diversity. Even among younger black female celerities their is the same straight hair and chemical coloring processes.
I know that fashion trends have long dictated what women will look like but I think this period in time has produced the biggest crop of group conformists ever seen. I think it is due in large part to plastic surgery. Now people can remake themselves into the ideal image. What is pathetic is that so much is lost by doing that. I think programs showing the wonders of extreme make overs send a bad message to younger girls. It is so much more healthy to accept one's self instead of rushing to the doctor to be remade into someone else concept of what is beautiful. If someone really has a problem that is a good reason to go. I personally can not see the beauty in frozen Botox faces. Look at Cher. She looks great, almost like a porcelain doll, but she does not look real. It concerns me that this emphasis on all looking alike combines with plastic surgery is fostering a generation of young women who will be plastic surgery addicts. It also concerns me that young men will think that any woman who does not fit the current standard should be surgically altered.
Check out Charisma Carpenter (formerly of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Angel)- one of the most georgeous women alive, and definitely not a hollywood "cookie cutter" type.
While we're on the subject of women's body types- what idiot decided that skinny butts were attractive on women? And how in the world do they accomplish that? It seems to me that there must be health issues that accompany not letting one's body develop properly.
We need photos.
Skinny butts are a direct result of gay fashion designers creating clothing for the "perfect female body" (ie, teenage boy with broad shoulders and skinny butts).
Just slap two DDD silcone balls on the chest and you have the 'Perfect Woman' for todays man (heavy sarcasm).
It started with Twiggy and has progressively gotten so bad that the majority of normally built women (with hips) now are presented as freakish cows.
Excuse me, WE are the freaks!?!
Posted here???
Sing it, sistah!
Interesting theology.
What is an article like THIS without PICS????????/
That is my complaint, so I pinged the picture princess.
Be careful of what you wish for... ;D
There's a whole new take on Genesis. I suspect it's been a while since this person had a peek at the Bible.
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