You might have seen previews for a new show on Lifetime called "Black Magic". This show stars Vivica Fox, a well-known Hollywood actress and businesswoman, who hopes to create the perfect girls night out scene that includes exotic male strippers with the goal of landing a spot in Las Vegas. Now what could be so wrong with a bunch of sexy, sweaty, half-naked hunks thrusting, flexing, and humping the stage floor in front of millions of wide-eyed screaming women to make profit for Fox? Would the show be expected to be such a hit if the strippers were female and Fox was male? Or would there be more of an uproar?
It's no secret that men who go to strip clubs are usually criticized or at least looked at disapprovingly because they're encouraging the objectification of a woman's body. They hoot and holler as the girls dance around the stage, removing pieces of clothing as they go, with the eyes of men of all different ages watching every move. Money starts flying out their pockets and into the lingerie of the strippers, ultimately making a profit for the person in charge of the girls. These girls are under the stress of keeping the "perfect" body, which usually requires a strict diet and exercise routine, and even surgery. And now women around the world who are fighting against the sexist idea of an ideal woman's body are also bringing to light how degrading the idea of women using their bodies to make money is.
But when we have men do it, it's okay.
In fact, let's make a TV show about it.
A show where a woman is in charge of these men, telling them that they "need to keep it tight and right" (Vivica Fox, Lifetime). A show where one of the guys auditioning is told by a female judge that she "would've loved to see a little more definition" (Eurika Pratt, Lifetime). A show that takes the cruel words that women have heard over and over again and places them on men, because after all, isn't it only fair?
Vivica Fox recently brought three of her male strippers on The Steve Harvey Show to give the audience (a bunch of women of all ages fanning themselves with money) a little taste of what the show will be like. Now if these were female strippers going up into an audience of men who were all googly-eyed and having hot flashes, I don't think Steve Harvey would've been receiving the reviews he was looking for, but because it's apparently okay for women to be drooling over men's bodies, I'm sure that episode was quite the hit.
There are certainly other beloved shows and movies, like "Magic Mike" and "50 Shades of Grey" that embrace this sexualization of the male body in order to pleasure girls in the movie theater. But a movie that focuses on the sexual attraction to the female body in order to pleasure men? Oh no, that's sexist and disgusting to be pleasing such pigs like that.
Now I could try to explain how people could possibly think like this, but Vivica herself actually sums it up perfectly: "It is so awesome for the shoe to be on the other foot" (Vivica Fox, Lifetime). In today's society, we think that in order to fight against and conquer the problems and unfairness that we face, we can just simply place those burdens on the other person. But that doesn't make you the bigger person or the "winner"; it just makes you a hypocrite. It doesn't solve the overall problem; it just puts it in someone else's hands. You're stooping down to the same low level of the person you're accusing of being unfair, unreasonable, and mean. You can't fight racism towards blacks by excluding whites. You can't accuse other religions of being hateful when all you do is judge everyone else's actions. And you can not be a role model and an advocate for women's equal rights if you think that using men as sexual objects is okay.
Like all other reality TV shows, I'm sure "Black Magic" will have ratings through the roof because a little drama goes a long way. But in terms of a show that doesn't degrade people in the process, I think we'll all have to take a rain check on that.
