Self-Esteem in Male and Female Strippers

Daily Mail reports in The science of Magic Mike: Researchers reveal why male strippers take their clothes off(and say its NOT for the money) that male strippers perform for their enhanced self-esteem.

Maren Scull at the University of Colorado Denver did a few years study where she concluded what I already know from experience—men and women experience objectification in different ways.

Women often have experienced objectification much more than men, and oftentimes in a more negative and even threatening or violent way, but when men are objectified, they perceive it in a much more positive way.

Men can actually enjoy the experience because it’s not in their everyday experience to be negatively objectified everywhere they look, so they are able to gain positive boosts to their self-esteem.

“'Initially women who dance for men may experience a boost in self-esteem, but after time they suffer from a diminished self-concept…Because stripping is a stigmatising occupation, it has the capacity to negatively affect exotic dancers' self-definitions,' Scull said.”

I would agree that I definitely had more positive self-esteem when I began as a stripper and the direct objectification was still new and somewhat thrilling. The longer I stayed in the profession though, the worse I felt about myself.

All the negatives added up and worked to demoralize me and dehumanize me.

Thank goodness, for the joy I was still able to feel at certain moments when my audience was civil, adoring, and throwing money. I became the dance; I became my sensuality and I burned. Unfortunately, a fire always burns itself out.