ABSTRACT
The plot of Magic Mike XXL (MMXXL) ostensibly centers around the cast of Magic Mike travelling to a stripper convention in Myrtle Beach, road trip-style, for “one last” performance. In their analysis of MMXXL’s unique female address, Kristen Warner and Chelsea Bullock note how rarely women’s pleasure is instigated, indulged, or permitted in film or television. The chapter argues that MMXXL, as well as other texts that are made specifically to objectify male bodies and entice a female fandom, including the original Magic Mike, the Twilight franchise and Fifty Shades of Grey, are the basis for another kind of cult film fandom, one which includes the fandom of women. If part of the appeal of cult films is their ability to offer what is often suppressed in mainstream films, then MMXXL is notable in its courting of a female audience and its desire to fetishize their gaze.
