T-shirts off: male bare torsos invade series

BarcelonaFor decades we have seen women's breasts in series and movies alike. Almost every time there was a sex scene, it was the female performer who had to go all out and show her body. A good example of this trend is Game of Thrones, often accused of extreme sexualization of both the main protagonists and the supporting actresses, and even extras. In recent times the trend has reversed and we can say that we have entered the era of naked male torsos. Many of the recent great series hits do not need many excuses to show their protagonists shirtless and with well-defined pecs.

Outlander and Bridgerton can be considered as the series that laid the foundations for this explosion of naked torsos, although we could also find some shirtless men in previous fiction (such as, for example, the telenovela Pasión de gavilanes). Both productions are adaptations of romantic sagas and are clearly and obviously aimed at a heterosexual female audience. These two elements are essential to understand the change: if before what predominated was the male gaze, now what reigns is the female gaze. Platforms have understood the power of the female audience – women have revealed themselves as voracious consumers – and are betting on fiction where men are the sexualized figures. The fastest way to do this is by showing torsos worthy of Greek sculptures.

Three premieres this year, two of them very successful, follow this path. All three, moreover, are adaptations of romantic sagas. The first is Més que rivals (Movistar Plus +), the gay love story that has made a fortune especially among the female audience. There are many sex scenes in the series and, as could not be otherwise in a quite explicit production, the protagonists appear naked very often. The characters' bodies are so relevant in the series that Connor Storrie, who plays the Russian hockey player Ilya Rozanov, decided to do the test video for the role shirtless. "I took it off, even though they didn't ask for it. I was shirtless the whole time because I thought 'if we're going to do this, you have to see what these naked people look like,'" he explained in an interview with Variety. The strategy worked for him: he got the role and has gone from being an unknown actor to being famous worldwide.

Also set in the world of hockey is the second series this year, plagued by well-toned and exposed male bodies. Off Campus (Prime Video), centered on the loves of different players on a university hockey team, begins with male nudity. In the first scene of the series, the protagonist is delighted when, by mistake, she sees Garret Graham, the team captain, showering. Here we not only have a close-up of torsos, but also a full frontal nudity shot from the back. During the series' promotional tour, Belmont Cameli, the main actor of the first season, admitted that he was sexualized in the fiction, but downplayed it, assuring that he considered all the nude scenes to be justified. "I've always felt that the fact of wearing little clothing served the story; we wanted the series to be passionate, sensual, and attractive to women, while maintaining an authentic and honest thread about the stories," he said in an interview with Bustle. In the same conversation, he emphasized that they wanted to maintain the female gaze that the books on which the series is based have.

Cameli is not alone in the challenge of showing off with little clothing, many of the other male characters in the series appear showing off their pectorals. His castmate Stephen Kalyn also has many scenes with his torso bare. The actor explained that being shirtless "in almost all scenes" was strange and a bit uncomfortable initially. "After doing it I feel like I can conquer the world," he finished. While in Off Campus many naked male bodies can be seen, those of the female protagonists have been more protected, especially that of the main actress, Ella Bright. It should be noted that at 19 years old she is the youngest in the cast.

Finally, the latest series to join the trend of bare male torsos has been Todos nuestros años, also from Prime Video. In this case, it is an eminently romantic fiction in which sex has less relevance. Even so, the creator, Amy B. Harris, has found a way for viewers to see male torsos. Without much justification, the protagonist's brother, played by Michael Bradway, takes off his shirt every now and then.

As has historically happened with the representations of female bodies in fiction, this trend of showing male torsos also opens the debate about unattainable beauty ideals. All the men who appear in these series have defined abs and strong arms, something uncommon in real life. In fact, aesthetic pressure on men is increasing, which has translated, on the one hand, into many gym sign-ups, even at very young ages, and on the other, into a growth in the use of cosmetic surgery. According to the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ISAPS), between 2018 and 2024, the number of surgical procedures in men increased by 95% and non-surgical aesthetic treatments in male patients grew by 116%.