How did Tom Wesselman's Great American Nude series use images of sex symbols?

In the context of Pop art, Tom Wesselmann’s Great American Nude series utilized images of sex symbols by presenting them as flat, direct, and faceless figures.1

By stripping these iconic representations of their individual identities, Wesselmann emphasized their role as standardized objects within the visual language of mass media and consumer culture. This approach aligned with the broader Pop art movement’s tendency to present iconography taken from advertising and popular media objectively and with overwhelming immediacy, often without explicit praise or condemnation. Through this technique, Wesselmann transformed the familiar, idealized form of the sex symbol into a stylized, impersonal element of the American landscape.1