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Guys Gone Wild

Cotuit

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Cotuit Megalopolis

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Hunks Take It All Off For `Guys Gone Wild'

July 13, 2004

By GREG MORAGO, Courant Staff Writer

GGW.jpg

It doesn't take much nudging for the average, healthy American man to shed his clothes. At the slightest provocation most guys are only too willing to strip down to nothing and cavort in their birthday suits for everyone to see.

Yet why do we see so little male nudity in popular entertainment? Count on your fingers the number of full frontal male nudity scenes in the movies; TV reluctantly shows us a few unclothed boy backsides (and when they do, lucky us, it's Dennis Franz). While T&A is de rigueur, society has slapped a permanent fig leaf over David's manhood.

Leave it to the guys at the "Girls Gone Wild" factory, however, to turn the tables. Mantra Entertainment, which produces the wildly popular "Girls Gone Wild" videos of spring break breast flashing, is doing its part to shift the cultural tide in favor of everyday guys dropping trou.

Today, Mantra releases "Guys Gone Wild," the company's first video showing party boys swinging their stuff or, as the liner notes state, "the hottest young hunks willing to show off their young, ripped bodies and much, much more." Move over bare-naked ladies, it's time for bare-naked boys.

"It's not hard to get them to take off their clothes," Mantra spokesman Bill Horn says of filming these eager bucks. "Sometimes we have to leave the space because guys won't put their pants back on. According to our cameramen, their experience is that guys take their clothes off much more often than the girls do who are asked."

Which begs the question, why did it take so long for Mantra to produce a "Guys" version of their famous videos, which have become a cultural phenomenon? Horn says the company's tremendous growth in seven years is partly to blame.

"Seven years ago the operation we had is nothing like it was today," he says. "There weren't the resources to do it."

But that didn't stop customers from asking about a "Guys Gone Wild."

"Yes, we learned there was a demand for this, an audience for it and people have often asked for it," Horn says, estimating that one in 10 people who have placed orders for a "Girls Gone Wild" video (of which there are now 115 titles) have inquired about a guy version.

While some people might consider "Guys Gone Wild" a bit of turn-about-is-fair-play business (however unsavory the outlet), there are those who see the video as unnecessary sleaze.

"The `gone wild' phenomenon in general is an unfortunate sign of the times. It reflects two trends, really. The first, obviously, is the no-holds-barred approach to sex and media these days, where whatever has already been done has to be outdone," says Elayne Rapping, professor of American studies at the University of Buffalo. "The second thing is the really deplorable rate at which media, especially TV, as been devolving into sheer stupidity and the celebration of mindless, tasteless behavior."

Rapping says the "Guys" video shouldn't be seen in any kind of "fair play" mode that equalizes the sexes, let alone furthers the feminist agenda. In fact, she says, it further confuses what the '60s-inspired sexual revolution was all about.

"In the '50s, sex was heavily repressed, especially for women, and the feminist movement brought a reaction to that which was meant to liberate women from this repression so that they could also enjoy and control their own sexuality," says Rapping, who specializes in gender, women's and media studies. "These days, with that period ancient history to young people, and even those in their 30s, it's been distorted into a kind of anything goes attitude about sex in which behaving in these ways is, sadly, seen as a kind of rebellious, hip, liberated kind of thing."

Mantra, however, is banking on big sales of the $19.99 video (also released today are two additional male nudity titles, "Guys Gone Wild: Spring Break" and "Guys Gone Wild: Frat Boys). Horn says the customer for this video is 18- to 39-year-old women "who have a slightly different view of sexuality and nudity. ... And also there is, we realize, a gay component to the demographic for this film." <DUH!, Ya think!?

So what's next? "Gays Gone Wild"? (Imagine it: Lusty lesbians baring their tattoos and piercings! Buff gay guys eager to display their Brazilian bikini wax jobs.)

Don't count on it. Still, the "Girls Gone Wild" franchise has made a fortune giving the public what it wants: people happy to bare it all. Horn says the franchise's fans probably will enjoy this bit of "what's good for the goose is good for the gander."

"Yeah," he says, "I think women who roll their eyes when they see a `Girls Gone Wild' video might go, `OK, it's my time. My turn.'"

From The Hartford Courant

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Cotuit Megalopolis

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Edit: Interesting... For some reason I clicked on Cotuit's profile, and we have the same birthday.. February 24.

But I'm much much much older than you! :lol: Well OK, I'm not that old really. But 1980... my little brother was born in 1980.

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