Sunday, July 1, 2012

Why I'm not watching Magic Mike...

So practically every woman I know has been talking about going to see Magic Mike, a movie about male strippers, one in particular "Mike", trying to make his way in life, only to find real love. I have to say, the entire premise of this movie makes me sick to my stomach. Not because a man finds himself leaving a lifestyle of imitation love for the real thing, but because the imitation love is glorified.

Why is it considered wrong for Christian men to ogle women they aren't married to and/or engage in pornographic material, yet so many Christian women think it's okay to if they do it through "harmless fun" like Magic Mike? Talk about a double standard. We can make a number of excuses for this like, "It doesn't affect me that way" or "I can look and still be faithful". Maybe you aren't married so "looking" doesn't seem like a problem at all, but I think even if you don't have a husband to be faithful to, you have a God to be faithful to and obey.

Maybe you don't think movies like Magic Mike are true pornography. Maybe that sounds a little harsh. Here's the definition of pornography...

"printed or visual material containing the explicit description or display of sexual organs or activity, intended to stimulate erotic rather than aesthetic or emotional feelings."

I'm pretty sure that definition could also be plot description of Magic Mike.

Let me tell you ladies, I can't honestly say that God would be so proud with my decision to go see a movie that revels in revealing men mostly or completely naked engaging in acts of promiscuity, whether I think it affects me or not.

Whatever happened to "flee from sexual immorality"? How does that not apply to entertainment like Magic Mike? As Christian women, most of us wouldn't be caught dead inside a male strip club. How is this different? We're watching the same thing, just in a cinema instead of a smokey room.

I want to be faithful to my husband, not just in my actions, but in my thoughts. I expect my husband to take delight in my body alone - I choose to take delight in his body alone. Movies like this are definitely tools of the enemy. They seem like no big deal, just some innocent fun looking at a few hot guys in a movie for 2 hours, but engaging in this kind of entertainment can inflict damage on our relationship with the Lord, our relationship with our children, our relationship with our husband or our future husband.

It affects our relationship with God because sin drives a wedge between us and God. We are commanded to flee from sexual immorality (any kind of sex outside the boundaries of marriage).

It affects our relationship with our children because the example they see from their mother is that men are an object to lust after and as a Christian, that's okay. Little boys hear messages that women are to be cherished yet see that men are to be objectified and little girls are SEEING the message that it's okay to use men for pleasure.

It affects our relationship with our husband or future husband because we made a promise to take delight in him alone, to forsake all other men, yet we send him the message that we find other men more sexually attractive than him, that he is not enough to meet our needs.

Christian women... let's stand up for what's right in God's eyes together. Let's put our families first together. Let's protect our marriages together. Let's not watch Magic Mike together.


3 comments:

Gay Idle said...

Excellent post!! You have put my very thoughts into words!!
You also make me proud to call you my daughter!! love you! Momma

KTU said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
KTU said...

Great post Lyndsay!