Why is the film industry hypocritical about strippers?2 min read
Reading Time: 2 minutesWhile films such as Magic Mike XXL and The Full Monty play erotic dancing for laughs, cinema tends to cast female strippers in a far less positive light. Nicholas Barber asks why.
One theme that runs through Magic Mike XXL is the question of what Mike (Channing Tatum) and his fellow strippers ““ sorry, “male entertainers” ““ will do once they’ve hung up their sequinned posing pouches and left the dollar bill-strewn world of hen parties behind them. Mike himself is returning to the hand-crafted furniture business he set up in the first film, but his fellow Kings of Tampa aren’t so sure. One of them hopes to make it as an actor, the others talk vaguely about painting, music and “artisanal” frozen yoghurt. The strange thing is that not one of them suggests the obvious alternative: they could just carry on stripping. After all, when they’re on stage, crowds of women scream with deafening delight, and when they’re off stage they never stop saying how much they love each other, so why is Mike rushing back to his hammer and lathe? As Owen Gleiberman says in his BBC Culture review, “this man may be more of an artist when he’s doing a strip number than when he’s building a cabinet”. If you ask me, there’s no “may be” about it.
The advertising for Magic Mike XXL promises an unequivocal celebration of stripping, so it’s curious that the film itself pushes its characters into other lines of work. It’s also typical of Hollywood. On the one hand, the movies can’t stay away from strip clubs: apart from primary school teacher, pole dancer is probably the most common cinematic job for women, just as assassin is the most common job for men. But on the other hand, no film can visit a strip club without a frown of disapproval on its face.
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