As regular readers know, I’ve been watching Season 11 of So You Think You Can Dance, the mixed-style dance competition show, and have been documenting whether the women are generally expected to show more skin than the men.

The season is over, the winner has been announced — and I’ve added up the total routines over the season, to see how many of them had women more naked than men, how many had men more naked than women, and how many had rough nudity parity between the male and female dancers.

In this final roundup, I have only included routines that included both women and men: i.e., I have not included same-sex routines or solos. I have also not included guest performances. I have only included male-female routines of the competitors, in routines that were part of the competition.

The totals:

GROUP ROUTINES
Women more naked than men 8
Men more naked than women 0
Nudity parity 2

COUPLE ROUTINES
Woman more naked than man 56
Man more naked than woman 1
Nudity parity 11

(For those who are curious, I break this down by different dance styles a little later in the post. For the routine-by-routine documentation, read the individual posts in this series.)

So the answer, in short is yes. Assuming that this season is representative of the show in general, then the female dancers on So You Think You Can Dance are, in fact, generally expected to show more skin than the men.

A lot more.

In group routines, greater female nudity outnumbered nudity parity by four to one. In couple routines, greater female nudity outnumbered nudity parity by five to one. And there was literally one — count ’em, one — routine this season in which the man showed more skin than the woman.

When I started this project, I suspected that the show didn’t have nudity parity. I did this documentation project to see if my perception from past seasons were accurate, or if it was just confirmation bias. But while I expected that I’d find a nudity imbalance, I didn’t expect it to be quite this glaring.

Four to one in the group routines. Five to one in the couple routines. And that’s the imbalance between “more female nudity” and “nudity parity” — not the imbalance between “more female nudity” and “more male nudity.” Of the 78 relevant routines in this season, there was literally one in which there was more male nudity. I will say that again, in case you missed it — ONE.

I wrote about why this matters in my original post in this series, and I’m going to say it again here. A big part of sexist culture is the sexual objectification of female bodies. Insert standard rant: Women are routinely expected to be ornamental and to fit conventional standards of attractiveness: we’re often valued only when we fit these standards, and are dismissed when we don’t (while at the same time, in a no-win game, we get slut-shamed and trivialized when we do). Beauty and attractiveness isn’t just more important for women than it is for men — the standards are far more stringent. Women’s bodies are put on display in popular culture more than men’s, and this display is often objectifying, with the bodies being dehumanized (e.g., shown without faces), treated as interchangeable, treated as things to be owned or acquired, treated as tools of other people’s purposes without regard to our own agency, etc. And all of this often shows up in sexual ways: women’s sexuality in particular is often treated as more important than anything else we might have to offer, while at the same time is dehumanized, treated as interchangeable, treated as something to be owned or acquired, treated with disregard to our agency, more carefully watched and judged than men’s, more stringently controlled than men’s, etc. Standard rant over.

But it can be hard to critique all of this without seeming prudish, anti-nudity, or anti-sex. And it can be especially hard to critique this in dance, which by its nature is all about showcasing bodies and the beautiful, amazing things they can do. The art form is inherently physical, sensual, often sexual. So it’s hard to say, “Look, they’re displaying female bodies in an objectifying way,” without drawing the response, “Um…. they’re displaying everyone’s bodies. That’s sort of the point.”

Which is why I’m focusing here, not on whether women’s bodies are being displayed or even sexualized, but on whether women’s bodies are being displayed and/or sexualized more than men’s. If everyone’s bodies were displayed in much the same way, then I’m wrong, and in this instance my observation is just confirmation bias. But if women’s bodies were displayed and/or sexualized more than men’s, then I have a point.

I now feel entirely confident in saying this: I have a point.

As promised, here’s the note about different dance styles: Early in this blog series, there was some question about whether the Nudity Parity Watch was entirely fair, since some dance styles are more retro than others, and a routine with a nod to the history of that style would almost certainly reflect gender attitudes that are not necessarily current. So here is the Nudity Parity Watch, broken down by style. Please note that in every dance style but two, women were more naked than men in the majority of the routines. The exceptions were the African jazz routine, which had nudity parity, and the Bollywood disco routine, which was the one routine all seasons in which the man was more naked than the woman.

GROUP ROUTINES

Broadway
Women more naked than men 2
Men more naked than women 0
Nudity parity 0

Contemporary
Women more naked than men 4
Men more naked than women 0
Nudity parity 1

Hip hop/contemporary
Women more naked than men 1
Men more naked than women 0
Nudity parity 0

Jazz
Women more naked than men 1
Men more naked than women 0
Nudity parity 0

Hip hop
Women more naked than men 2
Men more naked than women 0
Nudity parity 1

COUPLE ROUTINES

African jazz
Woman more naked than man 0
Man more naked than woman 0
Nudity parity 1

Argentine tango
Woman more naked than man 2
Man more naked than woman 0
Nudity parity 0

Bollywood
Woman more naked than man 1
Man more naked than woman 0
Nudity parity 0

Bollywood disco (yes, really)
Woman more naked than man 0
Man more naked than woman 1
Nudity parity 0

Broadway
Woman more naked than man 6
Man more naked than woman 0
Nudity parity 0

Cha-cha
Woman more naked than man 4
Man more naked than woman 0
Nudity parity 0

Contemporary
Woman more naked than man 14
Man more naked than woman 0
Nudity parity 6

Disco
Woman more naked than man 1
Man more naked than woman 0
Nudity parity 0

Foxtrot
Woman more naked than man 2
Man more naked than woman 0
Nudity parity 0

Hip-hop
Woman more naked than man 9
Man more naked than woman 0
Nudity parity 3

Jazz
Woman more naked than man 8
Man more naked than woman 0
Nudity parity 1

Jive
Woman more naked than man 1
Man more naked than woman 0
Nudity parity 0

Paso doble
Woman more naked than man 1
Man more naked than woman 0
Nudity parity 0

Quick step
Woman more naked than man 1
Man more naked than woman 0
Nudity parity 0

Salsa
Woman more naked than man 1
Man more naked than woman 0
Nudity parity 0

Samba
Woman more naked than man 2
Man more naked than woman 0
Nudity parity 0

Tap
Woman more naked than man 1
Man more naked than woman 0
Nudity parity 0

Viennese waltz
Woman more naked than man 1
Man more naked than woman 0
Nudity parity 0

West Coast swing
Woman more naked than man 1
Man more naked than woman 0
Nudity parity 0

Another note: My final summary and analysis does not include the couple routines from the final episode (Episode 15). The final episode consisted almost entirely of favorite routines from earlier episodes, and it seems like cheating to include them — there’s no reason to count some routines twice, just because they happened to be a judge’s favorite, a dancer’s favorite, or an audience favorite. I did, however, include both of the group routines, since they were new for this episode.

Opening group number, Broadway
Women are more naked than men (women have bare legs in sheer black hose, men are completely covered).

Second group number, Top Ten plus all stars, hip hop/contemporary
Women more naked than men (dancers are in different outfits, but women mostly with bare legs and bare arms, men mostly covered or with bare forearms).

I doubt that I’ll do this project again. It was a lot of work, and it did impede my enjoyment of the show (taking notes on who was wearing what made it harder to just watch the routines and enjoy them). But I’m glad I did it. It’s been an interesting exercise, it’s generated some interesting discussion, and I like knowing that my opinions are actually based in fact. For those of you who have been following this series — thanks for your interest!