|
As professional wrestling explodes in popularity, cultural
analysts are struggling to catch up to its significance for
society. The traditional ways of seeing it - for example, as
a morality play of good vs. evil - have been transcended, as
wrestling has morphed into perhaps the ultimate expression of
the entertainment industry's new, multiplexed model for success.
Vince McMahon, head of the World Wrestling Federation, describes
it as "contemporary sports entertainment which treats 'professional
wrestling' as an action/adventure soap opera. With the sexuality
of '90210,' the subject matter of 'NYPD Blue,' the athleticism
of the Olympics, combined with reality-based story lines, the
WWF presents a hybrid of almost all forms of entertainment and
sports combined in one show." Add
to that the fertile brew of traditional advertising, product
merchandising, and frequent pay-per-view special events and
the result is revenue in the tens of millions of dollars, not
to mention a forceful new strain of sports entertainment.
But understanding pro wrestling's immense popularity, especially
with (white) men and boys, requires viewing it in the broader
context of shifting gender relations.
The accomplishments of social movements such as feminism, as
well as the shift to a postindustrial, high-tech era of automated
production and e-commerce, have challenged the culture to construct
new definitions of masculinity. In the new social, cultural,
and employment context, there is less emphasis on characteristics
such as strength and physicality that, in an earlier age, not
only clearly defined men and women in very different ways, but
made masculinity dominant.
In threatened response, many men have retreated into the safe
and cartoonish masculinity of a more primal gender order, a
world typified by the wildly popular program "WWF Smackdown!"
where size, strength, and brutality are rewarded. In wrestling's
contemporary incarnation, it's not who wins and loses that matters,
but how the game is played. And the way the game is played in
the WWF and its companion league, World Championship Wrestling,
or WCW, reinforces the prime directive - might makes right,
with extreme violence defining how power is exercised.
In the past, discussions about wrestling's effects on "real
world" violence have typically centered on the behavioral
effects of exposure to it. Does it cause imitative violence?
But that misses the point. For the question is not, "Are
children imitating the violence they see?" but "Are
children learning that taunting, ridiculing, and bullying define
masculinity?"
We know from decades of research that depictions of violence
in the entertainment media create a cultural climate in which
such behavior is accepted as a normal, even appropriate, response
to various problems.
We can see this process of normalization clearly in pro wrestling,
where intimidation, humiliation, control, and verbal aggression
(toward men as well as women) is the way that "real men"
prevail. Manhood is equated explicitly with the ability to settle
scores, defend one's honor, and win respect and compliance through
force of conquest.
Already, this definition of manhood is at the root of much
interpersonal violence in our society. For example, abusive
men use force (or the threat of it) in an attempt to exercise
power and control in their relationships with women. While there
is no causal relationship between pro wrestling and male violence,
it is clear that the wrestling subculture contributes to a larger
cultural environment that teaches boys and men that manhood
is about achieving power and control.
Real (or simulated) physical violence actually comprises a
small percentage of the length of a pro wrestling telecast.
Most of the time is devoted to setting up the narratives, and
to verbal confrontation and bullying. In wrestling video games,
each combatant not only has signature moves, but also verbal
taunts that can be directed against either an opponent or the
crowd. The object of the game is to see who can be the most
effective bully.
It is a lesson that resonates all too clearly in our schools:
A recent survey of 6,000 children in grades 4 to 6 found that
about 1 in 10 said they were bullied one or more times a week,
and 1 in 5 admitted to being bullies themselves. And we know
from the 1990s' series of school shootings that, all too often,
guns become the great equalizer for boys who have been bullied,
ridiculed, and verbally taunted.
The hyper-masculine wrestling subculture is also deeply infused
with homophobic anxiety. Macho posturing and insults ("wimps,"
and other worse epithets) can barely mask the fear of feminization
that is always present in the homoerotic entanglement of male
bodies. (The most popular of the trademark taunts by the wrestler
X-Pac involves a thrusting of the crotch, accompanied by a sexual
vulgarity, and his signature move of humiliation is to back
his opponent into a corner and "ride" his face.)
As the enactment of gender has moved to center stage in wrestling
narratives, so have women become much more central to the plot
lines. In the days of Hulk Hogan and the Macho Man, women were
essentially restricted to a couple of sexualized figures. But
now, there are many stereotypically hyper-sexualized female
characters, especially in the WWF.
More frequently male wrestlers have "girlfriends"
who accompany them to the ring. And every week, in one of the
most overtly racist and sexist characterizations on contemporary
television, the Godfather, an over-the-top stereotype of a hustling
pimp (and one of the few important black figures in the WWF)
leads out his "ho train" of scantily-clad white women
to the leering and jeering crowds.
As female sexuality is increasingly used in the scripts, the
line between the bimbo/prostitute sidekick and the female wrestlers
is eroding. A recent WWF women's champion is Miss Kitty, a former
hyper-sexualized sidekick, who during one pay-per-view event
removed her top. And the big contests for females wrestlers
often involve mud or chocolate baths, or the "evening dress"
contest (where you lose by having your dress ripped from your
body).
The few exceptions, such as Chyna, a wrestler in her own right,
(who, with The Rock, graced last week's Newsweek magazine cover)
emerge from another place in heterosexual male fantasy, the
Amazon warrior - tall, muscular, lithe, and buxom.
While ambiguity about proper gender assignments may be the
contemporary norm, in the mock-violent world of professional
wrestling, masculinity and femininity are clearly defined. And
while pro wrestling shares many of the values sometimes associated
with elements of the political far right (among them patriarchy,
opposition to homosexuality, and respect for hierarchy, , many
conservatives have condemned its vulgarity and sexuality.
This criticism (much of it egged on by master promoters like
McMahon) fuels the erroneous belief of some youngsters that
somehow the WWF and WCW are alternative and rebellious. However,
one of the great insights of cultural studies is that adherence
to a conservative and repressive gender order can appear powerful
and liberating - or rebellious - even as it assigns greater
suffering to those deemed less powerful in the social order.
Some people will argue that analyzing the social impact of
wrestling is a useless exercise because, after all, it's only
play acting, right? But to those who still believe that there
is no connection between popular culture and broader social
and political issues, that an analysis of wrestling has nothing
to teach us about where our culture is heading, we have two
words of caution: Jesse Ventura.
|
