If you follow celebrity news, Tom Hiddleston's name has been popping up a lot lately. And yes, it probably has something to do with those Taylor Swift dating rumors. But way before Hiddleswift became a hashtag, The Avengers star had been building a pretty substantial career of his own. When he's not playing Loki, the 35-year-old stars on AMC and BBC's The Night Manager. In the August issue of W, the actor stripped down to his underwear. Seemingly fitting the theme of those photos (which you can see below), Hiddleston talked about nudity being edited out in the U.S. version of his show. In other words, he got candid about his butt and made a great point in the process. He told the magazine,
I was surprised to hear that they cut my butt out! I'm here to tell you that my butt is not dangerous. And there are many, many more dangerous things that people are happy to broadcast. I don't know what that says about the world we live in, but it probably says something.
Sure, that quote may make you LOL. To hear him say his butt isn't "dangerous" feels a bit ridiculous, but in actuality, he's right. When it comes to media in the U.S., there's far more caution surrounding sex and nudity than violence. According to The Washington Post, the 2015 Parents Ratings Advisory Study found that parents are more concerned about their children seeing sex on-screen than violence. Another example of content being edited would be when the TV series Skins came to the States. I remember watching episodes of the British version, which frequently featured nudity. But the MTV edition was quite different and much more tame. It really highlighted what types of content make the cut here, versus abroad.
It's certainly interesting to think that people are more OK seeing people hurt one another than show their anatomy. Remember when people freaked out when Justin Bieber shared an image of his butt on Instagram? The same can be said of the reaction to new mothers breastfeeding in public. For some reason, there's much more opposition to showcasing the human body than images of violence. Why is this the case? To me, violence seems way more offensive — and potentially "dangerous," to borrow Hiddleston's word choice. Of course, I'm not saying TV shows should forego censors and broadcast nudity all day. But I think the occasional body part shouldn't cause an uproar, especially if the same scenes were OK to air overseas.
The moral of the story? Hiddleston's butt is not dangerous. I'm glad he cleared up that misconception. But if you want to see it, you'll have to take a trip to the U.K. and watch Night Manager there.
Images: Mona Kuhn for W magazine (2)
