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Totally appropriate: why there should be more male nudity in costume dramas

ITV’s new adaptation of Jane Austen’s Sanditon has come under fire for filling the screen with naked male bottoms. But Austen herself wouldn’t have batted an eyelid

ITV’s new Jane Austen adaptation, Sanditon, made a splash at the seaside this week. While the female characters used a bathing machine to change into long red Handmaid’s Tale-style smocks before taking to the waters, the men stripped off and plunged in. ITV stopped short of showing anything frontal, but more refined viewers may have found themselves reaching for the smelling salts as naked male rumps filled the screen. Bottoms in Austen! Whatever next? Let’s hope there were some smelling salts left, for next was a scene that hinted at a handjob.

Anne Reid, who plays Lady Denham on the show, expressed dismay (with tongue in cheek): “It’s the times we live in,” she told the Radio Times: “There are a lot of naked males around and I think it’s unnecessary.” The screenwriter Andrew Davies, who also wrote the hugely influential 1995 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, said that his wife wanted him to show more male nudity to balance out the ubiquitous female nudity on TV: “I thought it looked so beautiful,” he said.

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from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2NBf33A
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