Source: BBC.com

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Full-frontal male nudity in all three series of The White Lotus has provoked waves of reaction and comment. Why does showing a penis on screen still have the ability to shock?

Episode four of The White Lotus season three, which is set in Thailand, saw the increasingly agitated millionaire dad Tim Ratliff (Jason Isaacs) sit down for breakfast in a loosely tied dressing robe. His family are unaware that Tim is wanted by the FBI for illegal financial dealings and will likely end up in prison – and that he’s been popping tablets of anti-anxiety medication Lorazepam like sweeties. 

Warning: This article contains language that some may find offensive

“Everyone at the club…!” he mutters to himself in horror, and, imagining his acquaintances finding out about his crimes, he puts his hands up over his head, accidentally exposing his genitals as a result. “Oh my god, Dad!” his three near-adult children cry out in disgust. “Your balls!”

It might have been only a flash of male genitalia in this third series of Mike White’s hugely successful dramedy about one-percenters on holiday, but it instantly became a much-discussed moment on social media. “Jason Isaacs I was unfamiliar with ur game,” one person posted on X, while another added: “[the] full frontal made me spill my soup I wasn’t ready.” Others connected Isaacs’ nakedness back to his other famous role as Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter films. “Well, I didn’t expect White Lotus to show Lucius Malfoy’s wand tonight, but here we are…” one user quipped. 

But this was far from the first time the male anatomy was the focus in this series. In the first episode, Isaacs’ on-screen son, Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger) was shown flashing his penis and buttocks while announcing to his younger brother that he was going to masturbate to pornography in their shared bathroom; and the two prior series have also been replete with naked men. 

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In fact, it’s become a running theme: every opening episode from each three White Lotus series features a penis set loose. Hawaii-set series one had Steve Zahn’s Mark Mossbacher ask his wife to inspect his testicles as he believed he had cancer. In the first episode of series two (set in Sicily) cocky finance bro Cameron (Theo James) goes to his friend’s partner’s hotel bedroom to borrow some swimming shorts, then changes in full view, giving her and the viewers a glimpse of his penis. “What do you think? A little snug, right?” he says of the shorts to Harper (Aubrey Plaza), once again directing the gaze downwards.

Back to the current series, this week’s episode saw one of resort-worker Valentin’s Russian friends, Vlad, stripping off and waving his genitalia around on a night out, while elsewhere across all three series there have been other nude male characters, either masturbating or having sex, such as Adam DiMarco as Albie and Will Sharpe as Ethan (both series two); while both series one and two each had genuinely jaw-dropping, bombshell all-male sex scenes. Series one saw a drug-fuelled sex session (featuring Armond the hotel manager [Murray Bartlett] and younger White Lotus staff member, Dillon [Lukas Gage]), while season two’s big reveal was with two men, Quentin (Tom Hollander) and Jack (Leo Woodall) having sex, who had claimed to be uncle and nephew, but were really client and sex worker.   

There’s no doubt that White uses male nudity and sex scenes to provoke. And it works: season three is averaging 12.2 million viewers per episode – up 78% from the same season two time frame – and it frequently trends on social media, going into overdrive when any male nakedness pops up. But the fact that these scenes still generate headlines from news outlets around the world shows that while male nakedness might be becoming a little more common, it’s still seen as a taboo, and worthy of comment, which in itself, speaks volumes as to how comfortable (or uncomfortable) many feel about seeing naked men on screen.

‘The exception rather than the norm’

European film and TV has traditionally taken a more relaxed approach to showing full-frontal male and female nudity on screen. In the US and UK it’s a very different story. Strict Ofcom guidelines in the UK have a “watershed” rule of no nudity permitted before 21:00 (BST). And while that may mean bare bottoms have occasionally appeared on TV in the late evenings, penises didn’t really appear until the 1990s, with Eurotrash, a late-night magazine-style programme on Channel 4 that featured the exploits of the weird and wonderful people of Europe, and casually showed penises and vulvas; or the sexual adventures of the gay men in the groundbreaking Queer As Folk in 1999. But even now, seeing male genitalia on UK TV is still the exception, rather than the norm.

In the US, the first penis on TV is believed to be a split-second shot of a naked horse wrangler in 1989 miniseries Lonesome Dove, based on the Western novels by Larry McMurtry. But it was the advent of cable and broadcasters like HBO and Showtime that began to push the boundaries of the naked male body; in the 1992 HBO series Tales from the Crypt, one character jumps up after having sex, displaying his penis; then portrayals of the full naked male body continued in shows like Oz (from 1997) and Game of Thrones (from 2011), all the way through to a reported 30 penises shown in Euphoria’s mens’ locker room scene in 2019 or a talking penis on Hulu’s Pam & Tommy in 2022. 

“I would argue that the naked male form has become more normalised on screen over the past few years,” says Santiago Fouz-Hernandez, a film studies professor in the School of Modern Languages and Cultures at Durham University, who specialises in gender, sexuality and the body on screen. “But the audience reaction from scenes from The White Lotus proves the point that it’s still not seen as ‘normal’, it’s not something common and that’s what Mike White is slightly exploiting in his decision to devote repeated screen time to it.” 

But if there has been a rise in male genitalia on screen, why has television shied away from it in the past? “There’s the idea of the ‘phallic mystique’,” suggests Fouz-Hernandez, “which [film studies professor] Peter Lehman wrote about in the early 90s and is a fascinating perspective. The penis and the phallus are two very different things. The phallus is not a polite way to refer to the penis, it’s a concept, and symbolic; it’s the idea of male power and the privilege that comes from having one. Lehman, among others, like Susan Hunt or Susan Bordo, have argued that patriarchy relies on keeping the penis out of sight, otherwise if it was visible or normalised, that idea of power could be debunked and men lose their power. The phallus is what being masculine and what being male is about.” 

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This certainly tracks with the vulnerability of two of The White Lotus men, Mark and Tim. “The penis is a very vulnerable organ in itself,” Fouz-Hernandez explains – and perhaps, as older men going through some sort of trauma, they are past caring about upholding the notion of the powerful phallus. Whether accidentally or on purpose, they’re exposing themselves fully to others. Faced with bigger problems, their need to uphold their status takes a back seat. 

The opposite seems to be true for the hyper-masculine characters of Cameron and Saxon, who actively parade their penises to others, whether they want to see them or not. They position themselves as being such alpha males, so well-endowed and overly confident with themselves that they don’t need to bother to keep up the pretence of keeping the phallus covered. “What have I got to hide?” they seem to insinuate. But there’s also a predatory, threatening note to these two men displaying their penises to assert sexual authority; the recipients of these full-frontal shows are a woman who Cameron has only just met, and finds herself alone with him in a hotel bedroom; and Saxon’s younger and physically smaller brother, who is also in a vulnerable position as Saxon bullies him and mocks him for being a virgin, telling him repeatedly about his aim to get him “laid” this holiday. As Evan Romano wrote in Men’s Health in 2022 about Cameron, they are “weaponising male nudity”.

All these on-screen genital reveals are set up to be a moment of “shock”, something that Peter Lehman identified as a common trope when it comes to full-frontal male nudity in films, says Fouz-Hernandez. “They established the concept called ‘the melodramatic penis’, where when there’s a full-frontal moment on screen, it’s not simply just casual or ‘normal’ at all, as it’s usually accompanied by a shock, or drama around it. There’s a dualism of having it on the screen. It’s normalised; but it’s also not, as there’s drama connected to it. This is true for the reveals in The White Lotus: when we see the genitals, it’s accompanied with a case of potential cancer [in one instance], while another character fears his life is about to be exposed, and in another there appears to be a love triangle unfolding.”

A ‘double standard’?

Each case of nudity in The White Lotus helps move on-screen representations on from the male gaze, which traditionally used the camera to look voyeuristically at the female body. David Opie wrote in Digital Spy that many nude male scenes in The White Lotus were “important” as they “exist to deconstruct masculinity in relation to sex, status, and misogyny, while flipping the script in a world where women are still objectified more than men”. Meanwhile, Isaacs told Decider that he thinks White is “trying to right the balance of how many naked women I’ve seen growing up on every television show and film. Nudity is the thing,” he added. “He uses it sometimes for comedy, sometimes for sex, sometimes for manipulation. It’s a good TV moment.” 

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Let’s not forget White’s use of nudity for comic effect: in episode five of The White Lotus season three, Vlad helicopters his penis by the pool in a way that’s highly unlikely to signify anything else other than capturing a silly, drunken moment. Part of the show’s appeal, says Henry Wong, senior culture editor at Esquire, is White’s ability to jump from the funny to the serious in these exposing scenes: “Any redressing of the balance between male and female nudity feels like a playful side effect rather than a primary goal to me. Maybe the nudity is supposed to be threatening – I am sure that many viewers can imagine themselves in similar, sinister situations – or sexy or funny, or all of those things at the same time. White isn’t too definitive about it, and that’s for the better.”  

However, Wong notes: “I do think it’s interesting how the male actors often have to mention that it’s a prosthetic on press cycles. Does that show a lingering discomfort or awkwardness around male nudity and specifically penises?”

Indeed, each time a White Lotus actor does a nude scene, they’re asked about it. “I didn’t even have to do that part,” Zahn told The Hollywood Reporter. “It’s somebody else wearing a prosthetic. That’s about as absurd as it gets, right?”. Theo James also used a prosthetic, telling Variety that he asked the make-up artist: “I just wanted it not to be distracting. It needs to be ‘Regular Joe’. Because the scene, you know, it’s not about the pee pee, it’s about power play and sex… She says, ‘I got you. Yeah, I got you. Regular Joe.'” However, when he saw it, he added: “It’s like she stole it off a donkey in the field! The thing is ginormous.” Isaacs’ on-screen children, Sarah Catherine Hook and Sam Nivola, both confirmed to TV Insider that the scene they shot with Isaac was filmed using a prosthetic in place. 

However, in an interview with CBS Mornings, Isaacs took umbrage at the questions around nudity. “I think it’s interesting that there’s a double standard for men, but when women are naked, Margaret Qualley in The Substance, no one would dream of talking to her about her genitalia or her nipples or any of those things. So, it’s odd that there’s a double standard… 

“I genuinely think it would be odd when there are characters – and some of the women are naked in here – it’d be odd if you were sitting here. And you would never dream of discussing their genitalia, not for a second.” As he continued to be asked questions on the subject, Isaacs added: “What is your obsession? Mike White is a brilliant writer, it’s the best series on television for a long time. And what is the obsession with penises? It’s an odd thing.” 

A few days later, Isaacs clarified his comments, telling Variety: “I said the wrong words in the wrong way. I used the phrase ‘double standard,’ which I didn’t mean at all. There is a [different] double standard – women have been monstrously exploited and men haven’t.” But he added: “I had been asked so many times in the same day by journalists, ‘Are you wearing a prosthetic?’ Which means, ‘Have I seen your actual penis? It’s very important for me to know if I’ve seen your penis.’ It just strikes me as a bit weird and slightly obsessive. I thought I could have fun batting it off, but I batted it off very poorly.”

There are further issues with using fake genitals on screen, says Fouz-Hernandez. “On one hand, it’s great that Mike White is giving visibility and normalising male nudity,” he says. “And I understand the idea of contracts and that actors might not want to show their real genitals for close-ups, but the use of prosthetics and digital effects is disappointing, because in a way, they defeat the purpose by contributing to perpetuating the very phallic imagery that male frontal nudity could debunk, creating an unrealistic representation. It would be good to see more realistic diversity of sizes and shapes… The series is therefore perpetuating the phallic mystique by revealing a penis that isn’t even real, which is problematic.” 

With two more episodes of the current season still to air, it’s likely that there are a few more shocks in store for the guests at The White Lotus resort in Koh Samui. Of the sex acts – and presumably the depiction of the naked male form too – in The White Lotus, White told The New Yorker that he likes to portray them as transgressive, not to condemn them, but to connect them back to the idea of where we all evolved from: “It’s not all harmless. But it’s not inherently harmful. It’s inherently very natural. We’re animals.”

The White Lotus is available to stream on HBO in the US or Sky Atlantic/NOW in the UK

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