Chippendales here we come!
I don't know what came over us. One minute we were a group of midlife women sitting in a Las Vegas theatre mildly anticipating the soon-to-start Chippendales strip show; the next we were on our feet, a writhing pack of she-wolves with eyes riveted to the men onstage, who, as they peeled off layers of clothing, seemed to peel off layers of our inhibitions. By the time the boys had tossed their undershirts into the crowd, we had tossed away years of catching-the-bouquet etiquette and were fighting to claim a sweaty souvenir.
I keep mine in my underwear drawer.
And no, it does not rest alongside a collection of sex toys. I am a woman in her mid-forties, sexually satisfied, thank you very much, and so are the women who were with me that night. So how is it that a soft-porn burlesque show reduced me and my companions to a gaggle of screaming schoolgirls? Especially when the actual schoolgirls in the audience were decidedly not screaming.
Indeed, the younger women in the crowd that night — the college kids and bachelorette party pals — displayed, if not poise, self-control. Enthusiastic applause, yes, and the occasional woo hoo, but in the melee that was the undershirt fight, I didn't scratch the eyes out of anyone under 30.
Was this break from our usual decorum a fluke, or do mature women at such events always behave differently than their younger counterparts? And if so, why?
The appeal
During a pre-show interview, one of the dancers performing that night shed some light. David Abrams warned me that, typically, the 40- to 50-year-olds behave the most wildly. "They're by far the most outgoing age group," Abrams told me. "It's as if these women are past the stage of worrying about what people think. They get what they want from the show; they're there to have fun."
Abrams makes for a credible eyewitness: The 37-year-old dancer, born in Kingston, Ont., has spent the past five years touring the world, and performs in front of more than 100,000 women per year.
He swears he likes dancing for middle-aged audiences the best. "Because they're more outgoing, they make my job more enjoyable. They've paid a lot to see the show, so you want to fulfill their fantasy."
The Chippendales show, if nothing else, is about fulfilling fantasies. From the moment the lights come up, a parade of hunks bumps and grinds, but not with the empty-eyed expression of runway models or the lecherous look of perverts. Instead, the men flirt and tease, making eye contact as much as possible.
A cast of characters — including military men to cowboys, executive types to blue-collar workers — provides something for everyone. What they don't provide, however, is full frontal nudity. Some lovely bums, yes, but just before the torsos turn, the lights go out.
Perhaps that's why the younger women don't get so worked up. Maybe those born two decades or so after the sexual revolution are tougher to titillate.
(Do you think you're hard to titillate? Take our sex survey.)
Unlike women my age, who grew up in a world where a poster of a shirtless pop star could send you over the moon, girls in their twenties have had so much more exposure to porn.
