Strippers on the standards of male beauty
In Russian cinemas The second week shows Super Mike XXL - the continuation of a sensational story about the everyday life of American strippers with Channing Tatum in the lead role. Following the rules of the summer film season, the authors of the film carefully bypass the moral and ethical component of striptease, and instead focus on the dances and bodies of the characters, as one similar to the Greek gods. The ancient ideal of male beauty - a trained, embossed, sleek body - is one of the main requirements for the appearance of dancers from the moment when striptease was born as a genre, that is, for more than 100 years. We asked Moscow stripteasers about how it feels, when you are judged by appearance all the time, why erotic dancers have so many muscles and at what point it is worth stopping in pursuit of a perfect appearance.
Sergey Asirius
participant and director of the male show "Mafia"
Sometimes the audience is enough pumped body, meat on stage
I am a professional dancer, I work in the sphere of night clubs, I have been doing striptease for 13 years. Everything happened by chance: I often intersected with the guys who were already dancing a striptease, and at some point I realized that this was a good deal. The right physique was already, so I decided to try. Later he began to train purposefully in order to achieve a noticeable relief. I have many friends who are professionally engaged in fitness and bodybuilding. Well, 13 years in the hall, of course, give their results. Now I have my own show, I speak and put on the numbers - in general, I do everything a little bit.
In itself, the word "strip" I do not really like it. Professional artists prefer to call this genre "erotic dance." Based on the name you can imagine what the requirements of the viewer to the artist. If it is interesting to look at the dancer, then he doesn’t necessarily have to strive for the perfect body. The genre of erotic dance requires first of all artistry and charisma. If a dancer has this personal charm plus body, success is assured. If it is still at the same time beautifully, organically, plastically moving - in general a star.
Umbals in striptease are generally not welcome, because they are interested in watching the first 30 seconds when he undressed and showed his muscles, and then what? Will you rejoice at the actor on the stage, if he is not able to do anything, that is, he just walks or grimaces ugly, smiles a little or behaves arrogantly? Yes, sometimes the spectators simply pumped up the body, meat on the stage - they are already happy to see this. The other is more important our professional skills. Such is the double nature of our craft. We are often not perceived as artists at all, because there are few professionals in this genre. Mostly in the strip come pumped up boys from the hall without any experience, who decided to earn extra money. For such, only the word “striptease” is relevant, and “dance” in their attitude can be said only in quotes.
It's a shame when you are perceived solely as a beautiful attribute, but, as a rule, after my speech, everything changes. Striptease, by definition, is stripping to the music, and in this sense it is not aesthetic to go on stage with tum or fat all over the body. It is not necessary to have a mountain of muscles, just a good, well-groomed body. A man to look beautiful, you need to look after yourself: take care of your face, keep fit, so that there is no sagging skin, belly. Relief and muscles like my colleagues are optional, because we do it primarily for the sake of the profession, and then for ourselves, because it is a habit. A solarium is also optional - if you want to be tanned - although this is not very useful.
→ Team of male show "Mafia"
The only thing that sometimes infuriates me is unshaven armpits in men, but this is a purely aesthetic moment. Again, I do not advocate that the armpits were naked to zero, but there should be no bushes. Happens, a man will raise his hand, and there are thickets. Shaving the chest, legs and the rest, in my opinion, is unnecessary. Yes, someone has strong hair, someone has weak hair, but it is normal to have body hair. Artists almost all shave, but there is already aesthetics of the stage and it makes other demands: you must approach the well-established ideal of appearance. We consider Apollo to be the standard; it’s not for nothing that they say "as handsome as Apollo". It should be pleasant to look at the person on the stage, so the vegetation in life is normal, but on the stage it is ugly.
Of course, modern society has high requirements for our appearance. This is due to the current stage of human development and the attitude towards the individual as a whole. Everything happened in stages: first, they didn’t relate to the person, then the person began to look after himself, pay attention to how he works; then people began to think about the soul, its beauty and where it would go after death. Well, now we have a century of body and appearance - unfortunately, they forget about the soul and intellect. Actively promote the cult of the body and fitness, but not all of them are engaged. In my surroundings, every single person is addicted to this, but if you look around ... Take, for example, a movie: unlike Hollywood, we don't have male actors watching them, they have a maximum of a well-groomed face and that's it. That's just slowly beginning to pay attention to the body.
In my opinion, the cult of the body is good. As one philosopher said, why people do not follow that body, the vessel in which they live. Nobody wants to live in a dirty, smelly, untidy apartment, everyone makes an apartment beautiful, modern, comfortable. So why aren't you caring for the body in which you spend your whole life?
Ian Play
participant of the erotic show "Play" (second from right)
Everyone came to our team from different dances, that's why we have an interesting show. Pasha from breakdancing, Kirill danced with Bilan, and Yura worked in jazz modern - we called him to ourselves, because at that time he was the best in Russia to striptease. I myself have been in striptease for about six years. One of the stereotypes about strippers is that they should have a lot of muscle. Yes, if you are a striptease dance, you should have an attractive appearance and a beautiful figure, but the main thing is the ability to move and feed. We are judged by appearance, but there is nothing to be offended here. If you come to the competition of mathematicians, because there you will not be judged by beauty. So, they do not expect mental strippers, although in our team everyone has a higher education, and some even have two who are completely unrelated to dancing.
Men's beauty - in charisma, and not in some aesthetic aspects. Take the famous actors, many of them are not super-duper-handsome, but with their charisma and emotions they cause sexual feelings in the audience. There is a lot of acting skills in striptease: when a dancer goes on stage, he puts on an image of, for example, a policeman or a military man - someone he is not. Viewers have certain fetish images, and we know about them. One of the most top - an American policeman, special forces, an athlete, some lyrical angel. If you have the right costume, the image will do 50% of the work. Many are attracted to BDSM images. Or here we have a number about American football: broad shoulders, a narrow basin - everything is clear.
Sometimes we come up with non-standard, abstract numbers, but the audience is not always ready for this. We had a room with a very beautiful suit: there is one person in the center, three canvases are attached to it, and the guys are wrapped in them. The image symbolized the heart in which love and doubt live, and the attached dancers were doubts. For example, one of them is greed - we threw away money, the second - fear. And we here tore off these canvases and tried to convey the idea that you need to let go of your doubts, to free yourself and feel love. It was beautiful and cool, but at the club no one even tried to follow the story and penetrate into it, for the audience it was just a picture: well, the guys threw money, something they were caught. The viewer had just bought a beer in a bar, turned around, and then suddenly the money was flying. Still, people do not come to striptease in order to get food for the mind.
← Erotic show "Play" combines acrobatics, modern choreography and male striptease
When girls come to a striptease, they want to see something unusual, to escape from everyday life, where their men are hairy, unkempt, and do not go to the gym. Therefore, the requirements for the appearance of strippers are different, but for men in general - others. If you want to look good, the main thing, in my opinion, proper nutrition. Plus, I would go twice a week to the gym. Naturally, you need to cut your hair, shave your beard; as for hair on the body, everything should be in moderation and as you like.
We ourselves create complexes and drive ourselves into frames. The ideals that draw media to us are naturally unattainable, few understand this. All these photoshopped photos are so far from reality that in order to achieve such a form, you need to put a life on it. Take, for example, professional athletes and bodybuilders: they do not always look like the photographs - this is their peak of fitness, when they were preparing for the performance, they did not eat or drink for two days. In the offseason, they are completely different people, like everyone else.
There are two components of the body: the fact that you can change yourself in a natural way, and that which you cannot. For example, you will never be taller. But you can develop flexibility, gain muscle mass through training. At the same time, each person has his own barrier. There is a natural beauty, but there is something done - at least ten noses for yourself, this appearance will lose. All these artificial lips and noses can be seen from afar, and they do not attract. It is better to make a bet on your inner world.
Any person is a combination of factors, and a good figure is always a plus. Yes, probably, muscular guys like girls more. That's only if the guy is muscular, but stupid, he doesn’t have any purpose in life, then, most likely, the girl would prefer another - a charismatic, cheerful one who will love her and earn good money. Each person has his own goal - not everyone can fight in the ring or do math. We are predisposed to different occupations and different want from life. Therefore, if a person does not go to the gym, it does not mean that he is bad. Maybe he is a great doctor and spends all his time studying professional materials and helping people. The body is just one of the factors by which we are judged.
Dima Mr. Donato Rustic
stripper, participant of the erotic show "Status"
A man must remain a man, with a broad back and shoulders
I have been doing striptease for more than six years, although I have never planned to become a stripper. It all started from student days: I came to Moscow, I had to earn something, so as not to sit with my parents on the neck. I decided to find a job to study during the day and work at night. Stumbled upon a vacancy on the Internet "need guys with a sports figure in the club for women." It turned out to be a strip club, where they recruited children with or without work experience. I decided to try my luck at the casting, it took place in the form of a dance in front of the guests who chose the winner. It was my turn, I went out and danced, jumped as best I could. I almost didn’t go to clubs at the time, I didn’t know how to dance, it was morally difficult and frightening to go on stage and something else to perform there. In the end, I was offered a job in the club, where I learned to perform both solo and as a member of the group. And later, after leaving, I decided to create my own erotic show "Status". Now I work for myself, touring in Russia and the CIS countries.
For striptease, you need a beautiful relief body, and the ability to move, but the appearance is more important. Imagine a slim skinny guy, but with a beautiful plastic ... What can be said about him - well done, he moves beautifully, and that’s all! It turns out the guy with a developed muscles, brutal, in a well-chosen image - let it move worse, but a couple of movements can be done to beat the image, and that's enough. Once he begins to take off his shirt, shirt, as the girls will not care for his dance and his plastic.
In our country, not only strippers are judged by their appearance, but a stripper should even look an order of magnitude better than anyone else. It is his job to keep track of his appearance: five days a week he works on himself and his body, and for two days, on Friday and Saturday, he performs for girls in the club. The better it looks, the more in demand it will become.
→ Dmitry Selsky performs both solo and in the erotic show "Status"
Beautiful body is not so easy to do. Who has ever tried, he knows - for this you need a lot of knowledge, effort and financial investment. Not everyone is given and not everyone can achieve it. I have been involved in various sports since my childhood, at the age of 16 I went to the gym and by the age of 18 I already had a sports figure. When I started earning striptease, I began to purposefully work on my body, appearance and change for the better.
Now I do not have any particular ideal of male beauty. But in childhood, Schwarzenegger was an idol, and even now I think that this is how a man should look like - with a good sporty appearance, with similar life goals. A peasant should remain a peasant, with a wide back and shoulders, and not weigh 60-70 kg and with legs like matches. Once in the summer on the beach, you can make good conclusions about what our society has requirements for appearance: everyone marks the end of the working week with beer and chips in front of the TV.
I do not understand people who are indifferent to their appearance and who, instead of doing something, come up with excuses. I think a person should love himself, strive to become better, and not degrade. If you don't love yourself, who will love you? It's enough just to play sports and start to watch what you eat. If girls didn’t like guys with good forms, they wouldn’t have photos of sportsmen and models on their phones and computers. I do not think that someone dreams of a husband with a huge belly.
Myles McCarthy
dancer club for women "Caprice"
There is no shame in leveling your eyebrows, doing manicures and caring for bristles.
I have a father from America, and my mother is Russian. Fifteen years ago I moved to Moscow and now I’m shaking back and forth. In striptease, I recently - a month and a half. Prior to this, seven years engaged in dancing. When I came to dance a striptease, it turned out that I was the largest and most prominent of the guys, taller than all - I was 1.96 m tall. And still in the team there is no one taller and wider than me. In parallel, I speak in beach bodybuilding, now in Russia such direction as Mens the physicist is unwinding. In December there will be second competitions. I spoke at the previous, in November, and took second place.
The profession of a stripper is interesting for young people of 20-25 years old who want to hang out, go deeper and earn extra money at the same time. This is well shown in the movie "Super Mike", by the way, I really want to watch the second part, but I can’t get out in a movie. Striptease is the same club where you usually come to drink and meet girls. Plus it is quite a profitable business, quite comparable in terms of income with the average office work.
Of course, one cannot escape from the fact that strippers are generally regarded as beautiful objects, but otherwise. I now have a second job - a modeling business, and everything is the same there, only the name is different. But strippers are not always evaluated solely by their appearance. There are guys who are not directly "wow" look, but they are cool on the stage and this gives them a chance to get ahead.
For someone, the ideal man is a prince on a white horse, for others - a well-groomed husband, good, loving, sitting at home. For me personally, the sporting reference point is Jeff Seid - this is such a young American bodybuilder. Brad Pitt also likes being an actor and a person with already developed behavior on stage.
I have never been either thin or full and calm towards people with different figures. People with great weight, as a rule, are very kind, I have many such acquaintances. As a nutritionist, I can advise them something if they want. If a person is just chubby, like and not against losing weight, but he still can’t do it - so he doesn’t suffer, there’s nothing shameful about being plump. Another thing is if you really are overweight, and every day you go to McDonald's and you say, “I have a wide bone,” then yes, this is already in minus.
We live in Russia, our society is one step, and maybe two or three, behind Europe and America. Nevertheless, we are trying to follow fashion trends, follow the global show business and try to somehow push off from it. The previous generation, people 40-50 years old, look at us and equals - the same torn jeans and tattoos now do not confuse anyone. I think for a man there is nothing shameful in correcting eyebrows, doing a manicure, caring for bristles - it's all just a plus of appearance. As for the hair on the body, in the work of the stripper everything depends on the client's request. Sometimes, girls want, roughly speaking, a bumpkin - big, with a hairy chest, stubble - a sort of machoman. In life, I do not see anything wrong with a man doing hair removal. Why not. Time is now that an ordinary guy can do anything with his appearance, and at the same time not engage in any striptease and not be a model.
Photo: Show Mafia, The Play, Андрей Вишняков, Wildberries