La Bare, the club, is in Dallas. La Bare, the movie, is a fascinating backstage look at the dancers, who they are, what they’re about. It was directed by actor Joe Manganiello, who was in Magic Mike, not to mention True Blood (his role in Magic Mike made him curious to learn more about the world of the mostly-straight male dancers in these strip joints). Some interesting things here about objectification, sexuality, female fantasy, and the difference between strip clubs catering to men and those catering to women. You know, right up my alley. I enjoyed the film. I very briefly dated a Chippendale’s dancer in my 20s. The guy was a RIOT. On our first date we went to see a documentary playing at The Music Box in Chicago, something super-serious and earnest, and afterwards, as we walked to get ice cream, he regaled me with stories about the Chippendales and he made me laugh so hard I was in tears. During a rehearsal, the dance coach said bluntly to my date, “You’ve got a little too much Liza going on.” It was not a compliment. Like, he was doing jazz hands and stuff. I’m laughing as I type this. I’m still friends with that guy on Facebook. He’s good people.
After seeing the doc, I’d like to visit La Bare. Looks like fun.
La Bare opens today.
//Some interesting things here about objectification, sexuality, female fantasy, and the difference between strip clubs catering to men and those catering to women. You know, right up my alley.//
Apropos of all that, the English Lit. professor whose oral history I linked to in the SPN “Devil’s Trap” comments had a long term friendship with the Nobel Laureate Richard Feynman and made these comments about him
“Somehow we got a boat ride away from the camp to the Isthmus, Richard Feynman and I. I always called him Richard—I know other people called him Dick. It might have been Mildred and Murph [Goldberger] who actually took us and dropped us off. And I remember that Richard pretended all evening that he was French, and he spoke very bad French all evening. I’m now thinking he was adumbrating Jean-Lou [Chameau, current president of Caltech]. He was in such high spirits. He was simply one of those men who understood that flirting was a universal, natural part of human interaction, and he seemed to enjoy it so much. It was mostly verbal. I can’t remember who said it—it might have been Oscar Wilde—who defined flirtation as attention without intention. I think that’s very nice and I think it was like that with Feynman. Maybe it was different with other people.”
The camp she refers to is Freshman Orientation, which was done at a camp on Catalina Island. Murph Goldberger was president of Caltech in the late ’70’s and early ’80’s.
Feynman was famous for defending a topless bar near Caltech, saying that the place fulfilled a public need. I suspect he would have gladly been a dancer at a male strip club.
I wasn’t sure where to put this, but I thought it would be of interest to you.
What a wonderful anecdote about Feynman – that’s beautiful!
// And I remember that Richard pretended all evening that he was French, and he spoke very bad French all evening. //
hahahahahahaha
I didn’t know about Feynman defending a topless bar – good for him!
Being WORRIED about the fantasy lives of other people should honestly be … outlawed. I don’t know how we would outlaw it. I guess the best way to go about it would be to make it a SHAMEFUL thing to judge other people for their fantasies. So far we’re not there yet. I would never THINK of judging men who go to strip clubs. It just isn’t present for me at ALL to worry about how other people get their rocks off or let off steam – especially if no one’s hurting anybody. It seems the ultimate in rude.
And making the assumption that female strippers are all sad little victims of uber-mean male sexuality is concern-trolling at its most gross and false.
La Bare, the movie, is kind of a light-hearted look at all of this – which I appreciated. There weren’t any hoity-toity social science “experts” trying to explain why women like to look at naked men – and THAT was refreshing, it was taken as a given.
And in re: Feynman: those natural incorrigible flirts – the ones who do it naturally, who are good at it, who enjoy it, should be studied under glass. It’s a bit magic. I certainly do not have that ability. I enjoy it in others mainly because I don’t have it myself.
Oh, and the Chippendale’s guy I dated for a bit – I met him at a comedy club, he did improv as well – and while he was a stunner (black hair, white skin, black eyebrows, bright blue eyes – like, the coloring was insane) – I had no idea that he also had this OTHER job when he asked me out. And once I said yes, he said, “Okay, so I just have to get this off my chest because if you find out from someone other than me you’re gonna think this is really gross or weird – but I also am on the Chippendale tour. So if you want to say No to going out with me – that’s cool.” Like, he was totally weird and angsty about it – which goes a long way towards explaining the social stigma and weirdness surrounding guys who do this for a living. I was like “Oh my God, you have to tell me stories.” Which was a good reaction, apparently. So he did. And all the stories he told were HILARIOUS.
So it was no big deal, really.