It’s probably been 20 years since I was in a male strip club. I think I went twice in all. The atmosphere is lively, but it’s not really my thing. I like a guy who can dance, but he can keep the gyrating to private showings, if you get my drift. Still, the lure of Magic Mike hit me last week and I heeded the call, no arm twisting necessary.
As is very often the case, column ideas started popping into my head as I watched. Sometimes predictable is just what I need and when it comes in a pretty package like this film or, say, Burlesque, I’m all in. Channing Tatum, I dig thee. There’s no denying that’s the biggest appeal of Magic Mike. But Mike’s story courtesy of Steven Soderbergh resonated on several levels.
Today’s Game Plan: The Journey of ‘Magic Mike
As a college professor working in social science I am thoroughly disgusted by your fawning review of rank pornography. How could you think that the movie Magic Mike is harmless fun? I can tell you directly that it has caused significant psychological injury to many young men and older boys who see this as a tragic blow to their self esteem and to their sense that the world makes sense for them. Of course you would never applaud so passionately such pornography were it WOMEN stripping so explicitly: our young boys know this and feel devasated by this sense that by trhe sense the world is against them. And the entire idea of male stripping is repugnant to young boys–most of whom, of course, are not “stripper-grade” kids, shall we say– and are struggling with their sense of self-worth. How can you not see this? As a life coach, you would really endorse this filth? What kind of advise could you possibly give with such little insight into the psyche of developing young boys and men? Magic Mikle is moral poison, as it is a dagger of malice thrown at the heart of boys struggling to matutre into responsible manhood. Your fawning over such public pornography is simply unbelievable. How much damage this movie and our celebration of sexual exploitation of men is doing, is incalculable. But apparently you do not care.
My messge is too important and your blindness to this moral posion too butal for me to stop posting this. So please open yourself and your viewers up to this important criticism.
I have no problem sharing your feedback, Professor. Here it is. I appreciate you taking the time to write.
Nancy