'I would love to say I don’t care about self-image, but I’d be lying. I got about twelve hairs on my chest and a snail train, so they have to go, the occasional sunbed and I moisturise everyday, but I’ve done that since I was ten.'
Although it was Danny that initiated my viewing of Confessions Of A Male Stripper, it was Lotan who most intrigued me. Incredibly hot, incredibly smart mixed in with a heaping dose of Douchebag.
Unlike Danny, still enthusiastic and native about the realities of the business, Lotan has moved towards and through being bitter. I am not being critical of him, just the opposite. Lotan's dream was never to slip off his undies for a room full of screaming fans, despite how great he looks doing it. Lotan was scouted after being seen dancing, and the promise of big money for little work was far too enticing.
The reality is though, the money is not that great and the work harder than promised. Being a stripper may only require you to be on for a couple of hours a day, or less. But, in order to maintain the body needed, many of the other 23 hours of the day are devoted to maintaining the body others pay to want to see. It is also not a long career, so pretty much as soon as you get even a little bit of success, you're already pretty much yesterday's news.
Even with his attitude, I liked Lotan. Yes, he was arrogant, some might even felt him homophobic for his displeasure at having to take a gig at a gay club. I didn't see him that way really. I saw more a man, like so many others, who realized his dreams are slipping away and is tired of being groped, manhandled, mostly by women, and manipulated by company's profiting off of his back, and backside. In the documentary, Lotan is bitter at everyone, his boss, his customers and himself. His uncomfortably at stripping at the gay club, (although his facial expressions were sort of erotically fun) was equally matched by his distain for stripping for women as well.
