I know what you’re thinking: “Whatever happened to sexy tyre calendars? I really miss those.” You’re in luck. The 2025 Pirelli calendar has been shot ultra-sexy, with tasteful nudity/near-nudity again. This is after the Italian company spent years reacting to #MeToo and accusations of pandering to the male gaze by shooting clothed campaigns.

Annie Leibovitz was involved in taking the photos at one point. There were photos of Yoko Ono, Serena Williams, Patti Smith and more… but they had their clothes on, so who cares?

The photographer for the 2025 calendar, Ethan James Green, said: “#MeToo really forced everyone to take a pause, which is really good.” He added: “My initial thoughts when I was approached were, ‘If I’m going to do Pirelli, I want to do Pirelli. I wanted to go back to the sexy classic, like what we think of when we think of Pirelli.’ ”

It turned out that Pirelli wanted the same thing. “Which was perfect,” said Green. Perfect sounds about right. This is a perfect example of Post#MeToo creep. Look around, and Post#MeToo creep is gathering pace, and has been for some time. It’s there in the lingerie company Victoria’s Secret, as predicted, bringing back the signature wings for fashion shows. It’s in reports that there could be a resurgent appetite for sexy films and TV shows. It’s in the cyclical skirmishes when a male actor, usually an older, established one, moans about on-set intimacy........

© The Guardian