Somehow, the media in America seems way more prudish and sexually uptight when it comes to guys than it did in the 70s, 80s and 90s. Its just something I noticed while one day, going through some old VHS tapes at my house of movies (not porn, ACTUAL movies) when I was in one of my cleaning moods, there's some tapes I found of the old talk shows that ocasionally showcased strippers and body models of both sexes. I don't really remember what show it was but there was this pretty girl was wearing this neon green bikini and this smokin' hot muscular guy was wearing a really small speedo, almost like a thong, and I thought to myself. "Wow...they would NEVER get away with that kind of stuff now!" And I really wonder, why is that? I could be wrong in the fact that the media has no qualms about showing scantily-clad women all the time, which is fine by me, even though I'm gay. But what is there for gay men and straight women to gawk at and be immature about? It seems that now, anything that has to do with the male body is demonized and regarded as the most disgusting, inhumane abomination possible. Sure you may have some guys show their abs and girls will faint over that, but back in the 80s, guys were shirtless ALL THE TIME and during some beach scenes in some really campy 80s romantic comedies, guys wore speedos as opposed to broadshorts, some of them even wore THONGS for chrissakes. Not anymore and I think I know why, Extremist right-wing Conservative Christian movements like the Moral Majority which actually strived for censoring media which promoted an "anti-family agenda" and enforcing conservative Christian values in families. They probably looked at the guys that wore speedos and most likley pulled the "Indecency" card. And it's sad really, Speedos have a purpose in the Olympics and professional swimming, and thanks to the homophobia in America, they're now considered strictly a gay thing. And even though America is beginning to come around, there will always be people that think anything that's gay is disgusting and immoral.
I love the U.S of A, I'm not bashing this country in any way, I just wish that people would be more open minded....
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Well honestly I don't think open-mindedness directly correlates to a liberal sense of decency.
Sure there are many people who exploit the decency argument for ulterior motives but in my opinion decency is a benefiting factor of contemporary society.
Essentially, even though you have the liberty to dress more provocatively or depict it in media, doesn't mean you ought to. This principle really applies to many different social issues, at least in my perspective. Liberty is not the normalisation or righteousness of exploiting every choice, but the knowledge that one is not restricted. Choices and liberty are two very different things.
Although I do agree that the disparity between the sexes should be addressed, but not in the direction of the scantily dressed women and such. As a western society, there has to be clear boundaries between the appropriate behaviours and dress of different situations.
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We all dressed differently back then. Seriously, when is the last time you saw a young man with feathered hair?
Go to a beach today and you won't see many guys wearing short shorts, go back in the 1980's and the 1970's and that is what all the guys wore.
Media depicts the current fashions, if you do not like the current fashions blame society as a whole, not the media and not the Christian Right.
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I haven't noticed that. I'm still aware of plenty of shirtless (and more) males (easy examples are movies with Dwayne Johnson or Vin Diesel, and the Charlies Angels had plenty of beefcake, and more movies come to mind even without throwing in Magic Mike) and the like, though granted it's nowhere as common females...but if you look at like old scifi covers you'll see men are often fully clothed (perhaps even armored) with a scantily clad women next to him (in the newer versions she's helping him fight, the older versions have her cowering behind him). Women are seen as sex objects first and anything else is secondary and it's been like that for a long time, and many women enjoy being sexy and men are more visual when it comes to being interested.
And sometimes it's the reverse. For example, it's been commented how many "Twilight Moms" who openly drooled over a shirtless Taylor Lautner condemned Miley Cyrus for showing a lot less skin than Lautner as being too slutty (both 17 at the time). Girls are actually very harsh on females that show too much skin...I think it was Hilary Duff who got called a slut because she got on a bed while wearing a bikini. The Bieb doesn't have to worry about that.
And the Hannah Montana movie even had Miley wear shirt & shorts to jump in a pool (lake, creek?) whereas the hot guy (Lucas Till) with her was shown shirtless next to her and that's a friggin Disney movie intended for tween girls (but no one seemed to have a problem with it, but had she worn a thin bikini you can be sure there'd have been some angry shrieks over it).
Despite that, I do think times were less prudish in the 70s and perhaps up to mid-80s. I doubt movies like The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane would be made today as it included a 13-year-old smoking and in a consensual sexual relationship with a 17-year-old (btw, this offends modern viewers even more than the extreme animal cruelty and murder), and it even had a full nude scene though that was done with Jodi Foster's older sister in her place. And The Company of Wolves is a surreal performance art on a girl becoming a woman and the blatant sexuality as the girl coming to age (and was technically underage, IIRC) and a much older man (and her running off with him in the end) wouldn't pass censors today.
OTOH, I seriously doubt movies like Hard Candy (where a girl tortures a man for much of a movie and ultimately drives him to suicide and apparently is real popular today, though OTOH they DID have I Spit On Your Grave back then...) or even X-Men First Class (granted, the sexuality would be used as an excuse but not likely to be the actual reason why it would be attacked and possibly stopped from showing by the US and USSR governments) would play back then either.
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THAT wardrobe malfunction.
Ever since that 'incident' US media have been too scared to show any flesh on public TV for fear of offending the powerful righteous who believe themselves to be keepers of the nations morality.
Just my view from the other side of the pond 
ObW
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The networks never showed "flesh" on TV, and they're certainly more sexualized now than they were even 10 years ago. It's not uncommon for TV shows to have sex scenes in them in prime time, which would be unheard of in the 70s and 80s on TV.
Pix brings up some of the arthouse and midnight movies from the 70s, when you had things like the porno chic movement. I think the problem there isn't that we got more prudish, but that single screen theatres went out of business, those movies were never all that mainstream. Even so, those kind of films still get made, Short Bus being an example of a movie with actual sex in it, and they still get distributed. It's kind of true that the public appetite for those movies declined after the 70s, but mainstream cinema has become far more openly sexual. Also, most people don't go to theatres for their porn these days.
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I have always thought US TV was more conservative than Australian TV and I could never understand why, still don't...and another thing I don't understand is that the country that seems the most conservative through TV seems to be at this point in time the country that is embrassing things like SSM the most.
It's a conundrum!
Aussies are less conservative, but most resistant to SSM. Those beautiful people across the ditch...the Kiwis, have had their shit sorted for almost a decade with same sex couples amongst other basic human rights. Kiwis should stand tall amongst us all 
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If US tv networks are more prudish today it would match the fact the US is the most highly religious of the developed nations. The fallout from the cold war; "in god we trust" thingy.
Network tv shows have a set of rules they must follow; some odd, like a story line conflict must be resolved in at least two episodes.
The generation growing up now would be more cmftortable without a tv.
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There was a huge back step in the early 2000's when it came to television being conservative
Thankfully that is passing.
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To add to that, the 80's were pretty gay... Go look at some of the 1980's music videos, pretty telling of how open we were back then.
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