Stripper Gimmick

I read somewhere that they recently filmed a movie about male strippers called Magic Mike — to be released in June this year.  To add some true size and strength to the act, they cast wrestler Kevin Nash as an aging stripper named “Tarzan” — (I like the name!)  You can see in the above photo that the pretty-boy actors/dancers look like a couple of Baby-Faced jobbers compared to big, beefy veteran wrestler…

The stripper gimmick is so common in pro wrestling, it’s almost a cliche. Every federation, it seems, has featured at least one cocky stud or Tag Team with a sexually explicit name and the stereotypical costume of an erotic dancer.

The dancer/wrestler is one sure way to get some cheap heat from the crowd.  Most wrestling strippers are villains — arrogantly believing they are too sexy for their clothes.  One exception was the “Fabulous Ones”  who were fan favorites who just happened to enjoy sexy, homo-erotic dancing.  They seemed to really get off on dressing up in the sexiest little costumes and striking suggestive poses for the camera.

Pro wrestling and stripping have many things in common, so it makes sense that wrestlers often settle on this gimmick.  Both activities involve well-built, spectacular men who are not ashamed to show off their bodies.  Both involve revealing, wild costumes and demonstrations of muscle, flexibility, and sexually alluring positions.

Both involve the placement of the man as the object of the (male) gaze.  Wrestlers and strippers are looked at, admired, and perhaps lusted after.  This is traditionally the female role, but Wrestler and Dancer are two of the rare male professions where a man acts as the object of desire.

The heterosexual male wrestling fans have a troubling relationship with the stripper wrestler.  The physique and the dance moves are entertaining and impressive.  At the same time, his unbridled arrogance is a slap in the face, and the possibility exists that the stripper will entice (and steal away) the spectator’s woman — thereby emasculating the man whose body couldn’t satisfy her.

The hetero fan must also deal with, and some how avert, the sexual potential of the stripper wrestler.  After all, how can the hetero wrestling fan explain (to his buddies, his girl, or even to himself) his attraction to a sport that involves so much bare male flesh and muscle bumping and grinding??

The stripper wrestler is a threat to hetero male viewers who may appreciate and enjoy his antics but must look away, must feel disdain for the nearly-naked male, to avoid being outed as a fruit, fairy, or sissy.  When a pro wrestler adopts the stripper gimmick, he potentially drags the viewers out of the closet, possibly outing them against their will.

His alluring dance moves and revealing clothing force the viewer to confront why he attends or watches wrestling events in the first place.  It’s difficult to avert your eyes (and your desires) if some scantily clad and appealing stud is shaking his bulging trunks right in your face.  Many fans will jeer the stripping wrestler and shout insults in an attempt to avert his sensuality.

The “punishment” of the stripper is desired and expected by the homophobic fans.  Many men have been conditioned, starting from a young age, that it is wrong to lust after another male, to turn one’s gaze onto another dude.

So the sexually conflicted viewer fully expects the Stripper/Wrestler to have to “pay” for his enticing behavior.  When the inevitable physical destruction of the spectacular male begins, the crowd will erupt in excitement because the show-off is being taught a lesson for trying to seduce us all, for trying to drag the male viewer unwillingly into the uncomfortable admission that he looks hot.