The boobs : balls ratio There are several tests to quantify how well a narrative treats characters who are women. The most famous is probably the Bechdel test for women’s representation — two women must have a conversation about a topic other than a man in the film for it to pass. When Alison Bechdel first created the test in 1985, most films were not able to pass, but, in recent years, over 50% do. Obviously, the Bechdel test only scratches the surface when it comes to a woman’s role in a story. Other tests have since been created. The sexy lamp test, for example, tries to determine how important a woman is in the story — if you can replace her character with a sexy lamp without the story falling apart, then it isn’t good representation. These tests are flawed in many ways, but they are designed to get us thinking about what we’re seeing on screen when it comes to repre- sentation. In high school, as I started to watch more TV from around the world, I started to think about the discrepancies between the ways women and men are portrayed onscreen, especially when it comes to nudity. Seeing naked women on screen is fairly stan- dard in film and television, but male nudity isn’t as common. One 2018 analysis of over 1,000 popular films found that around 25% of women in these films had nude scenes, compared to 9% of men. I started noticing this disparity after watching the first season of “Babylon Berlin,” which featured the first televised male nude scene that I had ever seen. Male bodies were presented in sex scenes and in nonsexual set- tings, like skinny dipping and nude body search- es. It made me realize that the only bodies I had ever seen naked onscreen were of cis women, whose bodies are almost always displayed gra- tuitously. After finishing “Babylon Berlin,” I started to become aware of the boobs-to-balls ratio in the shows and movies that I watched. My experi- ence as a viewer aligns with the analysis’s find- ings: Most media that features nudity skews towards showing naked women. Few shows have one-to-one ratios and none that I’ve seen solely show men naked. One reason for this might be because of who is behind the camera. Women are subjected to being viewed through a patriarchal lens that focuses extensively on how attractive they are to heterosexual men, a phenomenon known as the male gaze. Their characters don’t inherently need to be nude to be interesting, well-rounded people, but society’s obsession with women’s sexuality devalues them if they are not catering to a patriarchal sex fantasy. A recent analysis by the Geena Davis Insti- tute on Gender and Media found that women movie leads were four times more likely to be shown naked than their male counterparts. Powerful women in film and television are often characterized by their naked bodies in ways that men are not. And the sexy, powerful woman trope can be seen everywhere — from TV to video games and even to the way women leaders in history, like Cleopatra, are seen as sex symbols. Topless women are featured in a few of Netf- lix’s episodes of “The Witcher,” and lead actress Anya Chalhotra, who plays Yennefer, appears naked twice. Her nakedness is tied to her access to power — she undresses in these scenes to perform rituals that would make her a more powerful sorceress; there is also a disturbing and misogynistic undertone to these scenes. It seems that a woman’s power is directly tied to her body and her sex appeal. Henry Cavill, the male lead who plays the titular character, does not appear naked in the same capacity that Chalhotra does. Cavill is shown naked in a bathtub, but only his torso is visible. It makes sense that he doesn’t wear clothes while bathing, but Chalhotra doesn’t necessarily need to be shown naked to perform a spell and establish that she is powerful. The expectation for women to appear nude onscreen can also have detrimental effects on actors. Emilia Clarke, who played Daenerys on “Game of Thrones,” revealed that the early nude scenes “terrified” her. As a new actress, she did not have the knowledge or power to argue with showrunners who asked her to appear com- pletely naked in front of the cast and crew. In later seasons, when Clarke refused to be naked on screen, showrunners guilted her for disap- pointing “Game of Thrones” fans, as if they were only watching her for her naked body — a dismissive view of both Clarke’s boundaries and her performance. Strikingly, there are few depictions of full- frontal male nudity on “Game of Thrones,” com- pared to the many instances of women’s nudity. When male nudity is presented, it is rarely pre- sented sexually. Instead, they are presented in regular contexts, such as pulling out a penis to pee. Thankfully, in the years since Clarke’s first nude scene in “Game of Thrones,” there have been movements in the film and television industry to change the exploitative nature of intimate scenes. Many shows now hire intima- cy coordinators, who work to make sex scenes more comfortable for actors while making sure that everything occurring on screen is con- sented to by everyone involved. The necessity to hire intimacy coordinators is especially evident after the #MeToo movement, but it can’t repair the implicit attitudes of sexualization that exist in the media’s presentation of women’s bodies. Even movies that center around sex shy away from depicting full-frontal male nudity. “Fifty Shades of Grey” has plenty of nude scenes of Dakota Johnson, who plays the female lead, but does not have a single comparable shot of Jamie Dornan’s penis. It’s strange that a movie targeted towards heterosexual women chooses to solely display the heroine naked. Similarly, “Call Me By Your Name,” another popular film with plenty of sex scenes, doesn’t feature any male full-frontal but does curiously include boob shots — a confounding decision in a movie about gay men’s intimacy. Women’s bodies are often shown in both sexual and casual settings, like when they’re lounging at home, but when men are put in similar positions, the camera shies away. Film- makers are only comfortable placing women in these vulnerable positions. Women are typi- cally represented as more delicate and therefore more defenseless than men, and nudity may be a literal way to characterize femininity. It is unfortunate, though, that femininity is defined by men in film through a naked and conven- tionally attractive cis-gendered body as if that is all women have to offer to the screen. There is an inherent sense of dehumanization because women’s bodies are represented as the most important part of their being. Recently, there have been efforts to close the gap and make the boobs-to-balls ratio more even. HBO’s “Euphoria” shows 71 penises in its eight episodes, with one scene alone having almost 30. Although there are still scenes of naked women on the show, the sheer amount of male nudity is shocking because viewers aren’t accustomed to seeing it. In “Euphoria,” male nudity is presented in a way that’s similar to the historical ways naked women are shown on screen. While the nude reversal of gender that “Euphoria” employs is interesting, it does call into question how necessary these scenes are, especially given that the characters depicted in them are mostly minors. Movies are also selective in the type of bod- ies that are shown on screen. The naked women we usually see on screen are conventionally attractive (skinny and white), as most of the women in the film industry are. Transgender characters are rarely seen in films from major studios. Bodies that exist outside of the gender binary also deserve to be well-represented but are unfortunately dismissed from most main- stream media. Actors have also recognized the boobs-to- balls disparity and have called on each other to close it. In 2015, Kevin Bacon noted the gender disparities of nudity and started #Freethe- Bacon, wherein he encourages male actors to free “your weiner, your balls and your butt.” Mark Duplass, who appeared nude on HBO’s “Togetherness,” said that he believes in what he calls balls equality, and the need to show naked men on TV not as sex symbols but just as regular people. “If boobs or a vagina come out, a penis or a set of testicles should go along with it,” Duplass said in a 2016 interview. “It should be 50/50 in this country.” While Duplass championing for balls equal- ity is commendable in closing the gap, it won’t change the gratuitous and harmful always in which nude women are represented. It might be impossible to divorce the framing of these nude scenes from patriarchal gazes — “Fifty Shades of Grey,” the mainstream erotica that doesn’t have a single penis in it, was directed by a woman. Even a female director portrays women characters as objects of desire and sexu- ality for men, further complicating ideas about representation. These issues of objectification are deeply entrenched in social norms and the film industry in general, and more conversa- tions must be held for progress to be made. Nudity in film and television is a complicated topic that needs to be understood from multiple angles — from how gratuitous it is to how much power an actor has in the scene. And persisting media trends — who is shown naked, how much and when — often point towards objectification of women’s characters. Evening the ratio isn’t just about showing men naked, it’s about reduc- ing the gratuitous depictions of nude women, too. Women, though, are more than just their bodies. When filmmakers decide to highlight only women in vulnerable or sexual positions, they reinforce gendered stereotypes of what women can be. And even if the boobs-to-balls ratio approaches a perfect one-to-one, we must still contend with how women are written and how much agency they have in the stories we’re watching. The only piece of media that I have seen with a one-to-one boobs-to-balls ratio is the third season of Netflix’s “Castlevania,” which also features well-written women. In the show, nudity is presented sexually and non-sexually but fits well within the narrative. In one scene, a prisoner is shown naked and the camera shows his entire shivering body, including his genitals. And while seeing a flaccid penis in a cartoon is a little unsettling, it adds dimension to his condition and highlights how depress- ing his imprisonment is. What “Castlevania” doesn’t include is gratuitous depictions of naked women. Boob shots only appear in sex scenes alongside bodies of naked men. What makes season three of “Castlevania” so compelling isn’t just its even ratio, it is also the depth of the women characters, includ- ing lesbians and women of color, who all have distinct personalities and aren’t relegated to simply being sexy. There are plenty of shows with amazing women characters, including “The Witcher” and “Game of Thrones,” but the misogynistic ways in which these shows por- tray women by hyper-focusing on their bodies prevent them from being truly great examples of representation. “Castlevania’s” director even refused to show one of the most powerful women in the show topless, moving away from the ever-present sexy powerful lady trope. SAFURA SYED MiC Columnist Read more at MichiganDaily.com Read more at MichiganDaily.com “Ujima,” meaning collective work and responsibility in Kiswahili, is a concept that defines the importance of unified action to create change. The term often materializes by way of strikes, sit-ins and other forms of protest. Integral to Black activism at the University of Michigan, Ujima has inspired visible change, including the formation of alliances between student groups, the establishment of an academic department for Black students and uplifting spaces for minority students on campus. To capture the practice and impact of the concept, the Department of Afroamerican and Afri- can Studies‘ Program Manager Elizabeth James, LSA senior Solomon Lucy and U-M alums Kai Dotson and Justin Williams from the Black Student Union curated an exhibit using its name — “UJIMA: Collective activ- ism at the University of Michigan.” Located at the south end of Haven Hall, the exhibit includes descriptions, posters and photographs from as early as 1853 and as recent as 2017. It presents multiple cam- paigns and activist groups that aimed to address discrimination against Black stu- dents through community organization and coalition-building. Those unable to visit UJIMA in person can still engage with the exhibit by visiting the virtual gallery, which provides just as illuminating of an experience. Administra- tive Coordinator at DAAS Arielle Chen, who managed the creation of the virtual gallery, noted that she and her colleagues aimed to make the gallery accessible to a wide array of people, including neurodivergent indi- viduals and people with visual and audi- tory impairments. When speaking about her motives behind creating the virtual gallery, Chen stated that “art tends to be for the elite,” but by making the exhibit public and accessible, students and other members of the Ann Arbor community could actu- ally benefit from it. With access, viewers can learn about the several Black student-led movements that have shaped the University for the better. Among these student-led movements was a sit-in following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., held on the day of his burial, April 9, 1968. On the same day, members of the then-newly established BSU locked themselves inside the Administra- tion Building and demanded an increase in funding and Black representation amongst faculty. The sit-in pressured the University to establish the Center for Afroamerican and African Studies — now called DAAS — which serves as an academic department devoted to Black studies. However, the num- ber of Black faculty had barely increased by 1970, sparking a wave of protests known as the first Black Action Movement. This time around, not only did the BSU play a critical role, but other Black student organizations — such as the Black Law Student Alliance, Black Medical Students, Association of Black Social Work Students, Black Psycholo- gist Organization and Black Educational Caucus — did as well. And, in 1970, after administrators disregarded demonstra- tions for months, then-University President Robben Fleming agreed to meet with the aforementioned groups. Collectively, the organizations issued a list of demands to the University: 1. 10% Black enrollment by fall 1973. 2. 900 new Black students by fall 1971 – 450 freshmen, 150 transfers, 300 graduate students. 3. An adequate supportive services pro- gram, including financial aid to finance Black students’ education. 4. Graduate and undergraduate recruit- ers (9) to recruit Black students. 5. A referendum to the March Student Government Council ballot to have students vote on assessing themselves $3.00 for one year for the Martin Luther King Scholarship Fund. 6. Tuition waivers for minority group students who are also residents of the state of Michigan. 7. The establishment of a community- located Black Student Center. 8. All work of a permanent nature on the Black studies program is to be halted until an effective input is fully developed by a community-university forum. 9. The creation of a university-wide appeal board to rule on the adequacy of financial aid grants to students. 10. A revamping of the Parent’s Confiden- tial Statement. 11. There should be one recruit for Chica- no students to ensure 50 Chicano students are admitted by fall 1970. 12. Black students are to be referred to as Black, not Negro or anything else. More than half a century since the pro- tests erupted, the University has not satis- fied these demands. Despite the University’s inaction, BAM demonstrated the strength of collective action, successfully advocat- ing for the establishment of the first minor- ity institutions on campus. Black students demanded the establishment of a commu- nity-located Black Student Center, which led to the foundation of the Trotter House and Ambatana Lounge — the first spaces dedicated to minority students on campus. Today, a newly-renovated Trotter Multicul- tural Center exists in these buildings’ places after Black students campaigned for a more accessible institution in early 2014. Wednesday, December 8, 2021 — 7 Michigan in Color The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com by A n d y N a k a m u r a YOUR WEEKLY Scan this QR code to see your full horoscope! UJIMA: Collective work and responsibility at the University of Michigan NEIL NAKKASH MiC Columnist While in quarantine during the sum- mer of 2020, I turned to binge-watching as my central form of escapism. Many mornings began with laying on my couch and watching at least a few hours of tele- vision. I indulged in all of my favorite sit- coms, from “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” to “Everybody Hates Chris.” The humor of these shows was a perfect distraction from the uncertain realities of a peak-pandemic world. My absolute favorite sitcom to watch is “Living Single,” which depicts the lives of six friends exploring their 20s in Brooklyn, N.Y. What I really love about this show is how multi-faceted each character is. While they’re all pursuing their own careers in the professional world, none of the characters fall into the “token Black character” trope as they still have their own faults and areas for growth and there are no central white characters in the show that their narratives revolve around, making them very fleshed- out characters. For a 30-minute sitcom, each of the central characters had a fully round- ed-out story arc and the show had plenty of drama, making it the perfect series to binge all through my summer. While watching these shows, I couldn’t help but wonder as to why current Black TV lacked the same sort of effortless authenticity as some of my favor- ite shows from the late 90s and early 2000s. There seems to be a disconnect between older and more recent depictions of the Black American lifestyle; Many of the more recently produced Black TV shows, specifi- cally ones created in the past several years, seem to be more directed towards white audiences. In considering contemporary Black TV shows with questionable levels of authen- ticity, shows like “BlackAF” or “Black-ish” come to mind. While I do enjoy shows like “Black-ish” to an extent, many of these shows seem to be greatly catered towards white audiences, as they take time to explain aspects of the Black American experience that would otherwise be implied in a show that was simply just for Black people in America. Most episodes of “Black-ish” begin with the main character and patriarch of the Johnson family, Andre Johnson (Anthony Anderson), explaining some aspect of the “typical” Black American lifestyle. The audi- ence for these monologues is seemingly non- Black, and more specifically white, viewers. This speaks to the larger commercial suc- cess that is seen when Black narratives are watered down to be made palatable to white audiences. However, this comes at the cost of sacrificing more elaborate depictions of Blackness. Wider audiences outside of the Black community may not understand the implied facets of Black American lifestyle and its niche cultural references, so these typically have to be spelled out for the sake of more widespread comprehension. While these may seem like insignificant sacrifices to make, this ultimately diminishes a piece of the tasteful charm of Black TV and some- what reduces the standards to which Black stories can be told on television. The Catch-22 of Black TV UDOKA NWANSI MiC Columnist Read more at MichiganDaily.com With Mars moving into Sagit- tarius and your seventh house of part- nerships, now is a great time to socialize, which is one of your favorite activities anyway. The seventh house rules over all kinds of relationships, not just romantic ones. Even if you’re not searching for love, you can still gain a lot from a new platonic or work relationship, and you may develop a bond with someone you hadn’t expected to get along with. When Mercury enters fiery Sagittarius and your eighth house of rebirth, your passions may become reignited. If you’ve been wanting to start a new project, now is a great time. Be realistic with your expecta- tions; otherwise, you may be too discouraged to continue if your plans don’t blossom into fruition. This week’s celestial events perfectly align to favor academic success for your sign with the end of the semester quickly approaching. Now is a great time to dedicate your relentless drive to your studies so you can learn all that you can. With Mercury in Cap- ricorn and your seventh house of partnerships, you may feel more willing to form new con- nections, especially in regard to work relationships. Now is a great time to get to know your coworkers on a deeper level. Mars shifts into fel- low fire sign Sagittarius and your ruling house, the house of creativity. Now is the time to pursue your wildest ideas. Don’t be afraid to let your imagination sway you into new directions with your artistic process; you may unexpectedly create some- thing extraordinary. Mars enters Sagittarius and your fourth house of home and family, spurring you to turn your attention to your home. Now is a good time to initiate a renovation plan or reach out to a family member. Now is also a great opportunity to start working on projects you’ve been planning for a long time. This week, Mars enters your sign and your first house of the self. At this time, you may feel more invigorated to pursue anything you’re passionate about. Especially with a new semester starting soon, if you’ve been wanting to take a class out- side of your major or join a new organization, this is a great opportunity to do so. When Mars enters Sagittarius and your second house of love and finances, you may develop more confidence in speaking candidly to others about both romantic and monetary matters. Scorpios can often be very guarded, but now is the time to let down your walls and express your honest thoughts. Since Mercury rules over intellectual pursuits, this is a good opportunity to ask your instructors any final questions and form a study group before finals. When Mercury enters Capricorn and your fourth house of home and family, you should talk with your family and reach out to childhood friends. When Mars enters Sagittarius and your twelfth house of the subconscious, you may enter a state of great optimism. This is a wonderful time to work on creative projects. And not to bring down your mood, but you should also be sure to manage your expectations since it is easy to be too optimistic and somewhat careless at this time. This is a great time to connect with new people or deepen your existing bonds. Mars enters Sagittarius and your ruling house, the eleventh house of group dynamics. This could bring a sudden surge of energy in your social life, as well as ease any possible anxieties you may have when talking to people. Now is a great time to confidently introduce yourself to new people. When Mars enters Sagittarius and your tenth house of career ambitions, you’re potentially taking a new course of action to achieve your career goals. Pursuing a field of study or extracurricular activity un- related to your career goals may provide you with an important transferable skill you may other- wise not have developed.