Op-Ed: On Why Ashley Judd's Boobs and 'Lesbian Sex Scenes' Have Conservatives in a Tizzy

Rumors that actress and activist Ashley Judd will make a bid for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s seat have been swirling for quite some time. But leave it to the conservative bloggers at The Daily Caller to whip it all up into some frothy, misogynist double standards based on information culled from Mr. Skin.com.

Alyssa Rosenberg of Think Progress pointed out that the Daily Caller’s “Entertainment Editor” Taylor Bigler appears overly obsessed with 42-year-old Judd’s on-screen nudity, rightfully accusing Bigler of attempting to “slut shame” the actress for doing her job. But Bigler’s also in a twist about a supposed “lesbian sex scene” Judd had with Salma Hayek in 2002’s Frida – a scene that does not exist. How cruel and unusual of a conservative site to tease the lesbians with promises of an Ashley Judd/Salma Hayek sex scene that NEVER happened – but more on that later.

After pointing out that Judd--who received a Master’s degree in Public Administration from Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Business in 2010--has been meeting with “deep-pocketed” donors in her home state of Kentucky, presumably to make her run for McConnell’s seat, Bigler asserts the actress has nothing left to show the public because of her on-screen nudity. Because, as everyone knows, once you’ve seen someone’s tits on a 50-foot screen, you know everything about them.

Ashley Judd attends Ashley Judd in Conversation with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime at the United Nations on March 14, 2012 in New York City.

“We are used to knowing just about everything there is to know about serious political candidates,” Bigler writes. “But will Judd be the first potential senator who has — literally — nothing left to us?”

Although the public has not been privy to the privates of Republicans renowned for sex scandals, it’s safe to say that Judd’s baring of her body in the line of her duty is more palatable than the bad taste collectively left with the American public after being exposed to the salacious details of irresponsible hypocrites like Sen. Larry Craig and his public bathroom antics, Mark Foley wielding sex and power over young male interns and John Ensign paying off a married staffer with whom he had a fling.

But Bigler fails to mention any of that.

If drawing a line between Judd’s nudity and the salacious details of a Republican Senator’s sex scandal seems like a stretch, consider former California Governor (Republican) Arnold Schwarzenegger. With him, you get it all. On-screen nudity in Terminator, on the page in the magazine After Dark--not that there’s anything wrong with nudity, but a little parity on Bigler’s part would be nice--and you get a sex scandal in which the good ole married Gov. impregnated his housekeeper, resulting in an a love child. But, by all means, zero in on Judd’s gauzy nudity in Norma Jean and Marilyn.

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To prove the extent of Judd’s celluloid transgressions Bigler then launches into a chronicle of the Emmy and Golden Globe nominee’s on-screen nudity that is fervent, if not fetishy.

“In both 1996′s Norma Jean and Marilyn and 1999′s Eye of the Beholder, Judd went full frontal and bared her behind,” Bigler writes, based on what she’s read from Mr. Skin.com (the largest free nude celebrity archive). Bigler continues, “She went topless for 1996′s Normal Life and went topless and bottomless in 1999′s Double Jeopardy .” For anyone who ever wanted a quick and dirty guide to Ashley Judd’s nude scenes, Bigler has done the hard work for you.

If the inherent sexism in Bigler’s and the Daily Caller’s breakdown of Judd’s nudity weren’t egregious enough, she’s compelled to end the piece with a mention that Judd did a--gasp--lesbian sex scene in Julie Taymor’s Oscar bait Frida Kahlo biopic Frida that starred Salma Hayek as the titular character.

Indeed, Hayek’s bisexual Frida did engage in possibly the big screen’s sexiest tango ever with Judd’s character, Tina Modotti (an Italian photographer, model and political activist).

They kiss when the dance is over, and it’s a good one, but to the collective sighs of lesbians across the universe, alas, there is no sex scene. That of course means that Bigler either got it wrong, or she’s under the impression that lesbian sex is all sexy dancing and butterfly kisses. When there’s no man involved it’s tough to know what actually constitutes sex anyway – right?

Well, there is a lesbian sex scene in Frida but it’s with a character simply called “Paris chanteuse,” played by Tony nominee Karine Plantadit, according to IMDb.

For Bigler, and anyone else confused about what constitutes lesbian sex, here are Judd and Hayek dancing and kissing.

Here are Hayek and Plantadit in the film's only lesbian sex scene:

Any questions?

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