The Boy - Germaine Greer

Since the elevation of the female nude as the subject of the artist's gaze, we have become curiously insensitive to the short-lived beauty of the young male. Though male nudes display their genitals (as female nudes never have done) we do not admit to ourselves that they too may be objects of heterosexual desire or that women have eyes to see. By censoring their response to stunning depictions of ravishing boys, perhaps presuming that they are designed to appeal only to homosexual men, women deny themselves a wealth of refined and complex pleasure.