Nipples! Thanks to Bitchery reader Susanne vai Boingboing, nipples are Photoshopped off of male wrestler mantitty for billboard in Florida.
Nipples, it may be, are against the law in Florida. Not having them. Just showing them (remind me, next time I go to Florida, to bring a lined bra and leave at home a few specifically nipple-friendly t-shirts I own). Fascinating discussion of why no one takes sociology seriously anymore follows the original post—my response? Hey, romance novels and man titty aren’t either, and lemme tell you. Man Titty is serious business!
Also, I would like to officially state that “heteronormative” is my new favorite word, and I’m going to use it at least six times a day.
Oh my. Doesn’t that billboard look like a photo line-up/audition for romance cover models? I can envision covers featuring each of these gentlemen, although the guy with the one-strap singlet would have to be re-clothed (toga, perhaps, or caveman animal skin?).
And I’m laughing so hard at this: “the nipples were removed by the advertisers to tone down the sexuality”! Another lesson for publishers considering romance cover art.
I look forward to some comparisons to this billboard in future cover snark.
sigh… I live in Florida and I heard about this the other day. You would think that in a state where the economy is driven by bikini clad tourists nipples wouldn’t be such a big deal but most of the residents are retired people. I have lived here for 12 years and I have yet to figure out if they are so offended by thongs and nipples why do they move to a state where bike week and spring break are such big draws? But fear not, they don’t cover up the nipples on romance novels, so our mantitty is bountiful with nipples and glistening hairless chests. So, despite some nipple crazed old biddies all is well in the land of sunscreen and sand.
Me likey the man-pointies.
They stay pebbley without milk.
This is so odd. I have a bunch of 1950’s Science Fiction and Fantasy magazines where the cover (especially when inspired by Fritz Lieber) had nippless nude woman—smooth nudes there were called. It was a ridiculous idea then and it’s a ridiculous idea now. Nippless men?
Oh, that is just creepy. That is just pumped-up Ken doll, one-step-away-from-android creepy.
I think it’s toes that should be Photoshopped into oblivion. And certain people’s earlobes.
Do nipples really make someone more naked? or more… uh… smutty? This is the most bizarre thing, but then, people really freaked out about Janet Jackson’s nipple.
Oh lord. Lordy lordy lordy I can’t stop laughing!
Nipples = de trop sexuality?
Here’s something better, if fellow bitches will HaBO…
Please help a struggling pseudo ex romance writer who can’t get her shit together by visiting my blog and taking my sexy survey. Not nipple free.
Thank you for supporting, er, democracy.
http://www.polldaddy.com/s/E3B7599A2EFFA10A/
I remember when I was a kid that the cartoons I watched like ‘Hercules’, ‘Tarzan’, and such – always drew the shirtless men without nipples. I always thought that was rather bizarre. Did they think we as kids would be sexualized early by the existence of nipples? I mean, when we would go to the pool the boys’ nipples never magically disappeared, so what was the deal?
There is subtle man-tittie on cartoons now.
You’ll have at least 6 times during the day when ‘heteronormative’ is appropriate. And very likely more than that…
I see this in manga and anime a lot, too. Japan’s laws regulate the showing of nipples insofar as manga ratings and the shirtless manga boys all have these weirdly smooth chests. Same with the ladies, if a situation calls for a boob-shot. Somewhat disconcerting, until you get used to it and recognize it as something unique to the art style.