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TAYLOR LAUTNER'S SHIRTLESS PICS: A HOLLYWOOD DOUBLE STANDARD?
Thursday October 29th, 2009

Community.livejournal.com:

Remember the huge uproar in April 2008, when 15-year-old Miley Cyrus appeared in "Vanity Fair" wrapped in a sheet, with her right shoulder and the top of her back visible, implying that, under the sheet, she wasn't wearing a shirt? That week, the cover of the New York Post read "Miley's Shame," the Christian Coalition called for the Hannah Montana star's employer, Disney, to reprimand the teenager, and finally Miley was forced to apologize in a statement to People Magazine, saying: "I never intended for any of this to happen, and I am truly sorry if I have disappointed anyone." The pandemonium was so huge that critics ranging from the ladies of "The View", to Bill O'Reilly, to Miley's fellow Disney star Joe Jonas all expressed their disapproval over what they saw as the sexualization of a child to sell magazines.

Now, with the premiere of his movie, "The Twilight Saga: New Moon," less than a month away, magazines, websites, and TV are blanketed with images of 17-year-old star Taylor Lautner, shirtless and showing off the body he trained for months to perfect for the role. And yet, none of the cultural critics who turned Miley's photos into a full-blown "scandal" have said a word about the sexualization of Taylor, who, at 17, is just two years older than Miley was during her "scandal" and is also a minor. So, does Hollywood have a double standard?

Actress Kristin Davis, who worked with Taylor in 2005 in "The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl 3-D," has so far been the only major voice to raise questions about the photos. But even her remarks from last week seemed more about her own working relationship with a much-younger Lautner: "I feel protective, like what is he doing without his shirt on?" she said. "And then I hear he's dating people, and I'm like, 'Ahh!'"

Interestingly, the biggest critic of these pervasive images seems to be Taylor himself, who said this week he hopes never to take his shirt off in a movie again, saying, "It's so uncomfortable knowing that so many people are seeing pictures of me shirtless... It's weird. It's kind of embarrassing."

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