mikeThis sumer’s sexiest, most fun-loving movie is also this decade’s most profound statement of how women and men are relating these days.

Magic Mike elevates women to new heights while the movie’s beefcake males struggle with earning a living and finding love. In this movie, the girls have the bucks while the boys have the bodies. Consider these scenes:

* Channing Tatum, every woman’s dream bedmate, is sensitive, hard-working and the stuff of underwear ads…But his dream girl Bonnie turns him down and leaves when he proposes on his knees “with bacon and champagne and pancakes”. (Note: I’m quoting the names of characters and their lines from memory, and I may not get them exactly right.)

* We’re given a tour of “Domina,” (from the Latin for “master,” and also a popular name used by Dominitrixs). In this pleasure palace for black women we see hoards of “real” gals (besides the female stars, the movie pointedly keeps the eye candy mostly male) being serviced by males whose abs have more ripples than an egg carton. The women are in charge, throwing their abundant money at these guys. My first thought: What a change from the 70’s film “Flashdance,” in which a young woman works as a wielder by day but strips at night, eventually swept off her feet by guy with a Porsche.

As one reviewer said about Rome, the female “madam” of Domina, she “eloquently expresses and caters to the primacy of female pleasure”. At one point Rome says something like, “Every once in awhile you’d like to be able to tell that man what you want…and then have him give it to you…and then ask you, “How’d you like that?”

* “These women deal with men all day that don’t even ask them what they want,” says a young rapper/stripper. “All we have to do is ask…and it’s beautiful…it’s like we’re healers.” Meanwhile, this talented, beautiful, sensitive young man is hoping his new album will go viral on the internet, but laments it’s hard to get noticed there.

* The boys show up at mansion owned by a divorced southern belle. She laments: “I lost my virginity to my husband at 17…he was the only penis I’ve ever known. I’ve wasted (myself) on one penis. And then he turned out to be gay.” She says, “I tell my daughters play the field until you find somebody who knocks their (f______) socks off.” After spending the night with “Big Rick” and taking “every inch” of his oversized penis, she gives the boys the keys to a Rolls Royce for their trip to a male stripper’s convention.

* Mike’s love interest in the movie has “lost her smile” because a photographer in Miami lied to her, hiring her as an “assistant” only to use her to cheat on his wife. She’s dissolutioned by (presumably successful) men, but Mike suggests the cure is hanging out with your friends at a male stripper’s convention.

* In the movies’ climatic scene, where the boys get to show their stuff, comes perhaps the most telling scene of all: Big Rick, dressed in a tux, walks through the throng of hot women with money in their hands. He picks one to be his bride, there’s a brief marriage ceremony, and after they toss back shots of  Petron. Then Rick carries his new bride to their wedding bed: A sex sling, where he ravishes her with abandon and she squeals with glee.

In a time where successful men are either lying cheats or gay, this is what every woman wants: To  let go and be ravished. There’s enough to do at work. Every girl deserves some leather and lace

* What does Magic Mike mean for women and men these days? If you’re a woman, feel your power. You’re in control now. The world has changed, and you’re in the driver’s seat. If you’re a man, short of spending half your day at the local gym and learning to dance or sing, you’d better learn how to make women laugh. And forget about the Porsche…if you own one you’re probably a scum bag, anyway. And you’d better ask women what they want, and then give it to them.  But here are some clues the film gives: they want to be treated like queens. Whether you sing to them, dance for them, ravish them, surprise them, make them laugh. They work hard for the money. You need to work harder if you’re going to get them to smile.

What do you think?

I’d love to hear from you!

Blessings,

Dr. Leonard