Male Strippers in Nashville: When did this Profession Start?
When the movie Magic Mike wiggled its way to more or less $50 million at the box office in its first week, it was not the first time that men are stripping on the silver screen. Male stripper stories have been a recurring plotline in most movies in recent decades, shedding their clothes in every movie, from Full Monty to Summer School.
Not only that, even television series and memorable Saturday Night Live acts have been caught up with this phenomenon. These past years, even the New York Times declared male stripping has finally hit the mainstream. The big question is, “When did stripping for men started professionally?”
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The 1970’s
While big, muscled men have been paid for flexing their pectorals and showing off their toned and ripped bodies since the late 19th century, it is only in the ’70s that stripping for money became a profession for both genders. Before 1970, there are only a few known reports of men working as a stripper.
The early appearance of the word “male stripper” came out in 1973 outside Big Ben. Another early appearance comes in a 1974 report, mentioning men working as a stripper during a “Marginally Illegal Occupations and Work Systems” reports.
Through the mid to late ’70s, men who work as a stripper were likely to receive citations for public indecency. But at the end of the decade, male dancers have become a regular attraction at strip clubs all over the United States. There are strip clubs that have a few nights every month for exclusive make stripping shows, usually with “ladies only” audience.
Between the mid-’70s and early ’80s clubs went from having a couple of strippers or dancers to having at least a couple of clubs with dozens of male dancers. In the start of the ’80s, traveling groups were stripping their clothes in places as far as Nashville, Tennessee, where bachelorette parties are starting to be popular.
Clubs in Nashville TN male strippers are beginning to overflow with ladies, who are either in that club to celebrate their birthdays, bachelorette party or just having a night out with her group of friends. For example, the Concord Performance used a prevalent strategy of limiting its clientele to ladies.
They charge women $1, while they charge $15 for men. Usually, men who performed fully dressed at first, and as they danced with the music, they start to strip their clothes one-by-one. Gay strip clubs began to operate around the same time. By the mid-’70s, the Gaiety Theatre in New York featured stripping men to entertain other men.
Unlike other shows that are centered towards entertaining women, the shows are regularly featuring men doing full-frontal nudity on the shows. But still, these shows were quite similar to the shows entertaining straight men or women, although there is a big chance that you will see drag, as well as other gender-play shows.
Gay or straight, a lot of people are still unsure of what to make off with this new phenomenon. The sudden growth of male shows, as well as men strip clubs, took place while a massive cultural movement is also happening. That includes feminism’s second wave, the dramatic rise of LGBT pride, as well as the sexual revolution.
Popular women’s magazine, Playgirl, started in the early ’70s as a feminist answer to men’s magazines like Penthouse and Playboy. But despite all of the improvements in the situation, male stripping is still facing a lot of resistance for various communities, groups and organizations.
Religious groups, feminist organizations, even gay groups, are still questioning the morality and legality of male stripping. There are also recorded cases where club operators and organizers are being sued because of discrimination and refusal to admit male clients in their shows.
It was not long ago before television, and the silver screen caught on with the hype. In 1979, the New York Times made their first mention of male strippers, when their article described the television show The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo.
In this television show, a corrupt sheriff and his cohorts agree to protect a disco club and are surprised with the fact that the club they are protecting is a male stripper club. Clubs showing male strippers have become a popular television and movie plots throughout the ’80s, starting with Ladies only, a 1981 NBC television show. It continued with movies like A Night in Heaven, a 1983 movie by Christopher Atkins.
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Before the ’70s the male body was usually eroticized in the movie and television entertainment, but its sex appeal was seldom shown as an explicit attraction. Even if people consider it as one, there is a small chance that the attraction will involve dancing.
During the late 19th century, vaudevillian organizers figure out that if they invited fans during show breaks, they found out that the fans like to see muscular men in their sexy outfit. During that time, an actor by the name Henry E. Dixey appeared in a risqué musical called Adonis, and at the end of the show, he appeared on stage wearing nothing but skintight white underwear.
Pageant for men who like bodybuilding called Mr. America became very popular in the middle of the century. Some of these men would dance behind famous personalities like Jayne Mansfield. But despite all of these, the contribution of males in these performances was not usually sexually explicit.
A dozen male dancers and strippers in their underwear would start dancing in cages, bars or clubs in the ’80s, but again, they don’t usually show their private parts. All over the world, strip clubs are starting to appear as sex show attractions. Pornographic movies are also beginning to appear in the early 1900s. But only at the middle of the 20th century (60’s and 70’s) that pornographic theaters can legally show pornographic films.
Before men can show stripping in television shows, movies or on stage, they had to be eroticized. Studies suggest that male strippers are less likely to enter the prostitution industry, although there is a big chance that they will date their clients. When asked whether they will recommend their job to people they know, all the male subjects responded yes.