Matter Anti-Matter

Wow.  I’m glad this is what the conversation about Stargate Universe has evolved into. According to i09, which has aptly named the whole affair “sexism-gate,”

Actress Julia Benson just started blogging and Twittering, and she addresses the uproar surrounding Stargate Universe’s last episode, which many claim went a little nuts with the breast happy camera angles, “for all the talk about my natural (and believe me they are 100%) assets I promise you that there is much more to my character. Who knew that a tank top could cause such a stir.”

Let me add this to the debate.  Not only was the camera “ogling” Benson’s breasts, as many i09 commenters have noted, but those breasts featured rock-hard-can’t-take-your-eyes-away-from-the-trainwreck-style nipples.

The funny thing is, while I was also distracted during the scene by said assets, I didn’t really think much of it.  (Though, come to think of it, my boyfriend and I did spend about a minute debating whether they were real or not.)  As anyone who consumes media will tell you, the strategy of flashing big boobs at us has just become another generic fixture in the industry.  Remember this?

Since the storied days of Mary Jane Watson’s super-nipples in the first Spiderman movie, such assets have become a part of the psychosexual entertainment blur.

Now, is SGU sexist because it highlights boobs/nipples in a scene?  I doubt it. But it is a somewhat hack move, and one that’ll keep coming at us until they can prove that people don’t like to look at boobs.