![]() Not that the first Magic Mike film is exactly carefree. Not that female customers can't be handsy or obnoxious but there isn't the same amount." There's also more leeway for male stripping to be celebrated in popular culture, she believes: "there's less at stake with male strippers. But what is the cultural footprint of the Magic Mike Industrial Complex? Is the franchise's appeal as simple as hot dudes dancing or is it in fact something more profound, a conduit for a positive brand of masculinity?ĭr Bernadette Barton, sociology and gender studies professor at Morehead State University and author of Stripped: Inside the Lives of Exotic Dancers, says its appeal really lies in the fact that it's "still very novel for us to see male bodies be portrayed as objects of desire". ![]() And at the centre of it is Channing Tatum, a dancer, actor and producer who has elevated the cinematic beefcake into an art form and morphed from the star of the films into the architect of the whole global Magic Mike brand. The Magic Mike brand promotes female empowerment via hot men and a good night out. However even though the Chippendales are still performing to millions of people every year, it's Magic Mike that's become eponymous with the modern male stripper – who typically prefers to call themselves a "male entertainer" these days. Since that podcast, the story has also been revisited in a four-part documentary Curse of the Chippendales and given the high-budget glossy fictional treatment with last year's Hulu series Welcome to Chippendales, starring Kumail Nanjiani and Murray Bartlett. The multi-pronged franchise, which comprises multiple films, live shows around the world, and an HBO talent show, has single-handedly given the male revue a glossy new allure: last week, the third and supposedly final movie, Magic Mike's Last Dance hit cinemas.Īt the same time as the Magic Mike Extended Universe has boomed, there's been a notable interest in exploring the darker side of the profession too, with 2021 blockbuster podcast Welcome to Your Fantasy recounting the true crime origin story behind the Chippendales, the first US all-male stripping troupe, founded in 1979, who became a national success catering mostly to female audiences. ![]() Nowadays, though, the profession has gone through a complete image overhaul – and that's all thanks to Magic Mike. Male strip shows may have been popular a choice of entertainment among hen parties et al, but the male stripper was seen as a laughable figure within popular culture – you only have to think of hit British film The Full Monty (1997), whose humour rested on the fact that a group of ordinary steelworkers were "reduced" to taking their clothes off as a result of being in dire financial straits. Until recently, the world of male stripping was not perceived as an aspirational one, or a particularly deep one. One does come to a Magic Mike film for the plot. ![]()
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