Why is it OK for women to ogle men in Calvin Kleins but not the other way around?

As an underwear ad featuring FKA Twigs is banned for ‘overly sexualising’ a woman, one featuring actor Jeremy Allen White is busy breaking the internet with women declaring it a fantastic day to have eyeballs... Is this what feminism was meant to achieve, asks Rowan Pelling

Two Calvin Klein adverts with two very different reactions (PA/Mert Alas)

Remember when everyone talked about how Kim Kardashian “broke the internet” in 2014 with a raunchy photoshoot for Paper magazine? Well, if she broke social media, Jeremy Allen White also blew it to smithereens last weekend, like the eruption of a lust-fuelled Vesuvius. For those of you living in internet Siberia, the 32-year-old US star of acclaimed chef drama The Bear just appeared in a Calvin Klein boxer ad, where he flaunts his naked, ripped torso and prominent, cotton-covered package as he cavorts gymnastically on a high building top in NYC. Typical comments on Instagram left by female fans include “yes chef!”, “this feels illegal”, “what a fantastic day to have eyeballs”, “Thank you Mr Calvin Klein, sincerely yours, my uterus”, “a tear just went down my leg” and “I want him in a way that’s concerning for feminism.”

Perhaps we should all be a bit concerned for feminism. We often talk about the pernicious effects of the male gaze and how it objectifies the female body. Indeed the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned a recent advert featuring British musician FKA Twigs, after receiving two complaints that the images were “overly sexualised”, offensive and irresponsible because they objectified women and were inappropriately displayed.

So, is it really progress when women do the exact same thing to men? After all, Allen White’s swooning fans arrive hot on the heels of an army of women who appear unhealthily fixated on the body of 31-year-old Barry Keoghan, the anti-hero of Saltburn, who dances willy-wobbling and butt-naked at the end of the movie. There’s also “that” scene (spoiler alert) where he ruts the earth on top of a freshly filled-in grave.