Magic Mike XXL: Channing Tatum calls for 'the equal opportunity objectification of everyone'

Producer Reid Carolin hopes the movie will spark body image discussions

Channing Tatum leads the gang in Magic Mike XXL (Warner Bros)

Channing Tatum has echoed Chris Pratt by calling for men to be objectified in films as much as women.

The actor walked the red carpet at Monday's Sydney premiere of his new film Magic Mike XXL, in which he plays a retired stripper who can't resist the temptation to join his old Kings of Tampa crew at a convention. More than 5,000 mostly female fans turned out to meet Tatum and co-star Joe Manganiello.

Naturally, the Magic Mike sequel involves a lot of women screaming at the male actors' buff bods, and Tatum is totally cool with that. "I'm all for the equal opportunity objectification of everyone," he told Guardian Australia.

Manganiello took a slightly different stance, arguing that men enjoy being objectified on-screen because they like don't like their physical efforts to go unnoticed.

"It takes so much work to prep and get in the gym and learn those routines and train the way we do," he said. "To me it's work and we're being appreciated for the work that goes into it."

Half-naked dancers gyrated along the carpet at the premiere while Tatum and Manganiello greeted fans, proving that Magic Mike XXL is inviting rather than shying away from objectification.

Producer Reid Carolin shared his hope that the film will spark body image discussion. "We are objectifying men and saying women can look at men the same way men have been looking at women on screen for years," he said.

"Men in Hollywood are used to being able to fit into any kind of role that they'd like to while women, whether playing a stripper or an everyday woman, have this pressure to fit a certain body type."

Carolin stopped short of branding Magic Mike XXL feminist, but added that women are portrayed as independent, "with their own voice" and not there purely to "service the men".

Pratt said during a Jurassic World interview recently that he thinks it is "appalling" how only women were objectified for such a long time.

"I think if we really want to advocate for equality, it's important to even things out," he told Radio 4's Front Row last month. "Not objectify women less but objectify men just as often as we objectify women."