How Zac Efron controls your life

High School Musical is a guilty pleasure, because watching Zac Efron half-naked as Troy is almost incestuous – I saw him grow up, and it’s weird.
Nowadays, we see young men in the media with less and less clothes. Are we using men’s sexuality to sell more products? And if so, is it working?
It’s definitely working for some companies, as Dolce & Gabbana ads have become increasingly oriented towards male nudity. Context: A naked man is lying on the floor. Next to him is a second man, opening his jeans. A third, much older man watches the scene.
At first I thought it’s about time we see naked men instead of women. I thought I’d finally have a break – that I would no longer have to watch, “I’m your fire, your desire” commercials featuring bikini-clad women with legs the length of dolphins.
No more quasi-naked women was good for my sanity, because I have seen my share of female skin in 20 years of hetero-normative life.
Not that I have a thing against women’s skin, but I’ve seen far too many long, tanned legs paired with nice hair and extra-voluminous lashes.
Everyday, I see what I am supposed to look like on my television, on the street, on the subway. Men should too – they should be held up to the same impossible standards of beauty that women are.
To tell you the truth my initial reaction was to equate seeing a man with lustful eyes, shirt open, muscles flexed, advertising the newest Prada perfume, with victory.
I thought, “sell me products, sell me their sexuality.” Sex sells and I’m buying.
In reality, now that men’s bodies are also considered objects by society doesn’t erase that women have been discriminated against for years by being treated as objects themselves.
This is not a big step towards equality for women; it’s just sex in my face, all the time, everywhere.