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.
