Boomers, do you remember back in 1968, when the musical Hair made its debut on Broadway, and there was much to-do about the nude hippies in the finale of Act 1? The show’s nudity was a first for Broadway.
Over time, naked celebrities and nude scenes in movies and other public venues has become so prevalent that it is boring. Perhaps that is why, in 1991, photographer Annie Leibovitz and Vanity Magazine got creative and decided to one-up things by putting a seven month pregnant Demi Moore on the magazine cover. Since then, pregnant celebrities have been jumping on the Lamaze bandwagon to go with the flow.
African American actress Nia Long is now following the trend of Demi Moore, Britney Spears, Mariah Carey, Erykah Badu,Tia Mowry and a growing list of other celebrity women who, while in advance stages of pregnancy, bare their naked bodies on popular magazine covers.
Long, whose resume includes playing Will Smith’s girlfriend on The Fresh Prince of Bel Air (1994-1995) and a supporting role in Boyz in the Hood, also won the NAACP Image Award for “Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series” in 2004 for her performance on Third Watch. Her naked baby-mama-to-be pose is featured on the November issue of Ebony.
Judging from comments I have read on other sites, some people approve of the bun in the oven magazine covers while others ask “What were they thinking?” And “Why?” Are they just attention-craving narcissists under the delusion that they are the first women to ever conceive a child? Reality check, please!
Any woman (including myself) who has given birth has seen a naked pregnant body, as well as has nearly every other adult woman, man, and numerous children. So, what is the point? Aside from increasing magazine sales, I see no value in photo spreads featuring a famous woman’s nude, protruding belly. I can only guess that the photos are intended to attract a male audience. Since I am a woman and I don’t think like a man, I decided to ask one.
I showed a male friend the Nia Long cover and asked what he thought of the photo. I did not want to influence him, so I did not share my own viewpoint. “What’s your very first thought?” I asked him. “Give me your honest opinion.”
“Nia is fine as hell! He emphasized “as hell.” Then he added, “I wouldn’t mind seeing her naked body in a non-pregnant state, but that pregnant picture does nothing for me. Nothing.”
So, there you have one man’s point of view. However, another male commenting on another site about nude pregnant celebrities in general had the following to say, “These magazine spreads are just another manifestation of our voyeuristic/exhibitionist culture in which, as a celebrity, you’re not relevant unless you have either a sex tape or naked pictures in circulation.”
Whatever your feeling, apparently, the movement toward featuring naked pregnant women on magazine covers is a sure fire money maker that will continue to create a booming business for magazines. Who’s next – Beyonce?