AIBU about the movie Magic Mike

[ScarletLadyOfTheNight01]

I'd like some opinions on this please.

Don't you think it's a bit weird that it seems perfectly fine to have a film about male strippers and have women drooling over Channing Tatum etc I mean visibly foaming at the mouth at the prospect... Whereas if it was a film about women strippers it would be looked at as a bit sleazy and cheap and the men going on about it might be looked down on?

AIBU? Does anyone else agree or am I being a bit of a party pooper? I just don't get it....maybe I'm weird >_

i dont get it either,

but then again im not one to watch films like that

x

Whilst I see where you are coming from and partly agree with you... There are that many films/music videos/TV programmes with scantily clad women in them I think it's about bloody time we had something with some rather hunky men in (Spartacus aside ). Also in Magic Mike the male strippers all have the biggest roles are seen as real people with personalities and lives, in most films where women are scantily clad or naked the women don't have personalities or real lives they're seen as real people just decoration there for the benefit of the male folk. When we get a film about male strippers (which is rare, I mean the last one I can recall was The Full Monty and they weren't exactly Adonises), it's always about the male strippers as the main characters they're seen as real people, women like to see the man behind the muscle, whereas the film companies seem to think that men don't need to see the women behind the naked bodies.

*not seen as real people

I see your point AxlRose - I wasn't sure if my thoughts on it meant it should be fine in both cases of NOT fine in both cases...it just seemed like unfair double standards IYGWIM?

I agree that there's nothing wrong with seeing scantily clad people...maybe I just have more of an issue with how women are portrayed generally in cinema than anything else.

I'm not sure what you're asking really.

It's not unreasonable for a film to be about male strippers, there have been films about female strippers also.

Is it unreasonable for people to foam at the mouth about either type of film? No, I don't think so. It's not what I would do and I find people who are overly excited about such films (whether male or female) a bit embarrassing but that's just me.

Well, there has been Burlesque... and Striptease.... we got the Full Monty which was quite shit. This one looks quite good if you're a sad middle-aged cow like me

By the way, I wouldn't be 'foaming at the mouth' about any of em. Just appreciating them in an arty way

It is a 15 rated film I doubt it will graphical

Reminds me of the Diet Coke Break ads.

But there are loads of films where men go to foam at the mouth at the female form. Jessica Alba, Natalie Portman and Salma Hayek have all played strippers, for example.

Salma Hayek was proper hot in Dusk 'til Dawn.

I suppose the rise in popularity of Burlesque and Pole Dancing classes etc has made the whole thing a bit more acceptable for women, I hadn't thought of that. I was just trying to imagine there being a film the opposite (in terms of gender roles) and there being the same reaction from men.

I'm not saying everyone is foaming at the mouth, I just saw a conversation somewhere with lots of women doing just that and moaning that their husbands/partners wouldn't go to see it with them...I was just trying to imagine it the other way round

I saw it last night. I was absolutely not foaming at the mouth beforehand because I find male strippers ludicrous. I was invited to go with some friends and was really looking forward to the Nandos and beer beforehand, more than the film.

However, I enjoyed it because there was a decent storyline and some very funny dialogue. Matthew Maccaughey was hilarious. The stripper scenes were very cheesy and non-erotic and more than a little camp. I think that's a fairly normal response to male strippers although I would say there were a few older ladies in the audience who were probably hoping to see some cocks.

I was amused to see my next-door neighbours there last night- a male/female couple- who appeared to be there with about 8 friends (all women). Felt a bit sorry for my male neighbour.

You've never heard of men foaming at the mouth at the portrayal of the female form in any film? Scarlett Johannson in a catsuit in the Avengers, for example? God, the amount of films that are sold to men on the sexiness of the female characters.

Fair enough waterlego. It's really not my sort of film at all, it just raised some questions for me. I can understand maybe IWBU a bit...

Matthew Mcconaughey

Of course men do it, I'm not saying they don't. I just know more than one woman that might be a bit funny about their significant other being like that, yet it seems far more socially acceptable (in general, I'm not saying everyone's the same) for women to be like that. Sorry if I'm not being clear, maybe I should have worded it better.

I dont view male strippers as being in the same league as female strippers male strippers tends to be in humour and pretty cheesy female strippers is far more sexual and sleazy, men are not belittled and objectified in other aspects of life in the way women still are i just dont think its compareable tbh

Totally agree noblegiraffe. Female sexuality is used to sell almost everything.

Tis a good film. And believe me, I was really really cringing before I went because I thought I would hate it. Anyway, there's a micro pig in it which makes it worth seeing, if nothing else. :)

NB Micro pig not a euphemism

Totally fair point latterlov3r, I guess the point I was making was that this film brings up all those things you mention, which I do agree are important. That's the double standard I was talking about.

I agree it is double standards.

When the Chippendales were in their prime, nobody said a word about women flocking to go and throw their g-strings at them, yet if a bunch of blokes said they were going to a strip club, they would get filthy looks and told they were perverts..

I like this picture What If Male Superheroes Posed Like Female Ones

Magic Mike is unusual in that it panders solely to female sexual desires. If you ever read a film magazine like Total Film, it is obvious how the film industry is marketed around what men want, from the posters on the front, to the sexline ads in the back of the magazine. Men don't need a film about female strippers (although they have been given plenty of them) to get them going as most films cater for their interests anyway. Films like Magic Mike (and Bridesmaids) stand out because they are for women, and they don't fall into the usual insipid romcom cliche that is usually churned out for women. No wonder women are going mad, it's so unusual to be catered for in this way.

As for men being called perverts for going to strip clubs? Bloody hell you're wide of the mark, it's pretty mainstream entertainment, no? Expected of stag dos, some businesses have come under fire for doing corporate entertainment at strip clubs like Spearmint Rhino.

It's also a double standard that female strippers are pitied and considered very low-class, probably prostitutes and probably with a drug habit. Whilst male strippers are considered guys who just want to have a good time and show off their assets for a bit of beer money.

Having said that, I'm still drooling at the thought of seeing Channing Tatum's sexy body and moves in the movie. Here's a clip if anyone needs to know what I'm on about. Magic Mike trailer. I could watch 0:40-0:50 several times over. Not that I would or anything.