Sadly, especially in American culture, nudity is always seen as a big deal and is usually inextricably linked to sex. Also, I'm pretty sure there is more media coverage whenever a man has an upcoming nude scene.

Like you said, it isn't as sexualised like when women strip down, which makes it okay for people to bring it up in almost every interview or something. The attitude between how women and gay men perceive and respond to male nudity is very different to how straight men and lesbians react to female nudity.

I definitely agree with the last paragraph though: male actors normally get away with using fake appendices for most of their nude scenes, which is hardly balancing the scale in my opinion. Sure, women have merkins to cover their vaginas but it's a rarer occurrence to see that than a man's (fake) cock. A woman's breast, however, is another story.