KLEARANCE CANNABIS COLLECTION
The HBO Max Show, “Minx” and My Thoughts on Frontal Male Nudity
The show doesn’t shy away from it, or does it?
Content Warning: Spoilers and analysis of the first episode of the first season of the HBO Max series, Minx. It also includes some personal thoughts on male nudity in general.
The Matriarchy Awakens, the birth of Minx
If you don’t have HBO Max, you should get it just for this workplace comedy-drama, Minx. It’s about a sexually sheltered feminist named Joyce (played by Ophelia Lovibond) in the 1970s who has had a dream since she was younger to start her own feminist magazine. The original name she pitches for the magazine is called “The Matriarchy Awakens.” Her pitches by various publishers are viewed as aggressive and angry, which is a common conception of the second-wave feminist movement inspired by Gloria Steinem, her hero.
Reluctantly accepting the compromise and her feminist magazine dreams
Men aren’t taking her seriously enough as she tries to get a magazine out there that will inspire and educate another generation of feminists. She starts to realize that she may need to compromise her dream though as she has been trying for years to no avail. She meets who she views as a sleazy, cheap salesman who runs a slew of successful pornographic magazines in the San Fernando Valley named Doug Renetti (played by Jake Johnson, Nick of New Girl fame). His company is called Bottom Dollar Productions. His opening pitch to Joyce goes something like, “How is very feminist for men to be able to have access to 12 different titties but women have no place to see a dong?”
Because of her sheltered, modest background, she is definitely hesitant at first. You can see a part of her is interested but only because he’s the only one who sees her potential early on. Their personalities are definitely different. She reluctantly agrees at first but wants to do it her way. She wants to “hide the medicine” as Doug words it at the beginning.
A diverse cast of characters
She still wants to put her feminist articles in the magazine with the picture of a centerfold showing off his dong, if she must. At Bottom Dollar Productions, we meet a diverse cast of supporting characters at the operation including his secretary and de facto partner in the business, Tina (Idara Victor), one of his models, a centerfold consultant, Bambi (Jessica Lowe), and his photographer and makeup artist, Richie (Oscar Montoya). His crew is a very diverse one as Richie is gay and Hispanic and his secretary is Black and all of the characters are sex-positive and certainly closer to the definition of “feminism” than the actual main character, Joyce, is, in the beginning.
Honest male nudity should be commended
The part when this show actually shines is when it does a montage for the auditions for the male models. It is brief and you may have to pause it a few times to see anything meaningful but you get a scene of about 20 different but very real frontal male nudity. The great part about this scene is that you can tell that these men are really nude on the screen. The sizes, shapes, and ages of the models are all different and so are the male members that are shown. There is also a good amount of diversity within this montage.
Fake dong and pure hotness
The only part that bothers me about the nudity shown in the show is when they pick their model. He just happens to stumble in at midnight thinking that the auditions were at 12am instead of 12pm. He automatically attracts everyone in the room. It definitely doesn’t hurt that he is already fully nude because he was told by someone out in the lobby to come in that way. The dong that they show in this scene is clearly fake. It’s way too big and is attached to a very attractive and muscular specimen. The male model centerfold they choose is a fireman named Shane (played by Taylor Zakhar Perez). While this is definitely visually appealing for the audience, it doesn’t really show an honest depiction of male nudity on TV.
Modest background
Growing up, my approach to male nudity, in general, was very much like Joyce’s. She states at one point that she’s seen exactly 2 1/2 penises in her life before coming in to see the male models who are auditioning for the role of centerfold. I hadn’t seen very many penises outside of my own and the accidental here and there as a kid. Much like the main character, I was very squeamish and uncomfortable with the idea of male nudity.
Female nudity was conditioned into society as more acceptable to show, even as viewed through the eyes of a gay man
I think, as a society, we’ve been conditioned to be more accepting of the idea of female nudity as opposed to male nudity. Even as an adult, I still get uncomfortable at the idea of being seen naked even as a gay man. Seeing other men nude in public makes me feel like I’m intruding even if I’m not seeing anything more than a moment of brief nudity. The fact that audiences of the show, “Minx” were briefly exposed to it was about my comfortability with it. I think seeing the brief, honest nudity was much more rewarding and valuable to me than seeing a huge, fake dong attached to an extremely attractive man.
More honest nudity and not so many male models
I want to be able to see more honest nudity on screen. The show misses the mark in the long term but should still be commended for even including the montage featuring the everyday, regular nude men as opposed to the glossed over the beautiful idea of the male figure. This, I think, is a huge reason why men have insecurity issues that aren’t talked about as much as they should be in society. It’s because if men don’t look like Shane’s fireman character then they are not accepted as being attractive or desirable by society. It’s important that television if it wants to continue to go in this direction, realize that the male form should be shown in all of its forms and that it’s okay for the male model to not be the “perfect man”. Maybe then I could personally become more comfortable with seeing male nudity in general.
