For men, bottomless is the new topless. Male nipple privilege is the ability to strip to the waist in public undeterred in a way females would generally not experience. Men often don’t care about being topless, or otherwise do care and wear their nudity as a suit of armor.
If people do look, we are strong and invulnerable, and even among gays, often untouchable. Even going shirtless in a gay bar does not guarantee acceptance of touch. There is a bravado in the topless male (even if purposefully submissive and seductive) however earned or not.
So fashion model (yes he’s a model star not a porn star) Hugh Plummer invites us to see bottomless as the new topless. For those of us for whom male eroticism is not exclusively genital, it would not be a shock to have bottomless males stake out their territory in public. We’re already looking at other body parts that are equally, or sometimes even more, erotic (arms, legs, chests, lips) and those are not hidden.
Bottomless males can simultaneously convey bravado and vulnerability.
I see an industry for waist ties — patterned, soft fabric expressions for that nude day at the office. I see cheek ovals — sturdy, cushioning fabric that covers only the part of the bottom that touches seating. I see gender equity in nudity. I see nudity meaning both bottomless and topless.
I see Hugh Plummer making it all okay.
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