There is a science to male stripping, and it’s not just about the perfect hip gyrations (although, as anyone who’s seen Magic Mike would agree, there is definitely a science to that as well). Maren Scull, a University of Colorado Denver sociologist who focuses on sex work and transactional sex, spent a year and a half researching one question: why do male strippers strip? Her finding came down to something a little surprising: self-esteem.
Scull first became interested in the subject while working on a class paper at Indiana University’s Kinsey Institute for Sex, Gender and Reproduction. She found that while a number of studies detail the social psychology of female strippers, not many discuss that of male strippers who dance for women. Do men also suffer from a gradual self-esteem downturn like women? Scull decided to research that question for her Ph.D. dissertation.
For that year and a half, Scull hung around an anonymous strip club, which she refers to as Dandelion’s, somewhere in the non-specific American west. She visited the joint almost every Friday and Saturday night and ultimately watched a total of 42 men perform. During that time she had over 60 casual conversations with both dancers and staff at the club, but always remained a “peripheral member” who “did not actively engage in stripping or tipping.” She did, however, have 22 in-depth interviews with various male strippers which lasted anywhere from half an hour to four hours and were conducted in variety of private locations, including hotels rooms and offices. Slowly, as male strippers got to know and trust her, they opened up about why they do what they do.
Scull explained to Modern Notion that for men, dancing isn’t about the money, it’s about enhancing their self-esteem, which is quite different from typical female dancers. Female strippers make considerably more money per shift, but after an initial jolt of self-esteem when they begin their dance career, ladies tend to lose their confidence, and ultimately continue their exotic dancing work just so they can pay the bills. They don’t usually get any joy out of it.
On the other hand, the men she talked to rarely made more than $100 a shift, but they still enjoyed themselves. Scull ultimately concluded, “My research finds that men who dance for women generally experience positive feelings of self-worth. So much so, that men will continue to strip even when it is no longer financially lucrative.”
Scull told Modern Notion that conducting the study was a particularly educational experience for her, specifically because she had never been in a strip club before beginning her research. She continued:
What was interesting was that once I had spent a few months at the club, it didn’t feel like a “deviant” environment (even though I know society considers it to be). In fact, it felt very normal because I was so used to being there. By the end of the study, it felt like a second home.
Scull argues that the reason men garner self-esteem as they strip has to do with their view of objectification. Men, as it turns out, enjoy being sexually objectified. Scull says they don’t experience it as much as women do, and therefore don’t think of it as a bad thing.
Go figure.
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