THE PERILS OF PRO WRESTLING

Whenever I argue that the social impact of professional wrestling merits close examination, more than a few of my colleagues chuckle and call it a waste of time. They seem to posit that professional wrestling is not a social force and has very little impact in shaping young minds. I think otherwise.

When, back in 1957, Roland Barthes looked at pro wrestling, he recognized it as a social force that at a mythological level was not unhealthy. This is at a time when the “spectacle” was relatively tame—compared to today’s form. In his very readable essay, The World of Wrestling, Barthes examines pro wrestling as a teaching entity. For Barthes, the spectacle cleverly exploits the inherent magnetism of mythology. However, since Reaganism, pro wrestling has been systematically exploiting the dark side of mythology and the anti-intellectual citizens of America have embraced it in droves. This is true of pulp cinema of today as well, where men like Quentin Tarantino use the same logic and normalize violence and racism.

More than fifty years after Barthes’ words about a second rate theater (in France and America), the spectacle–in America– is a billion dollar industry, and an integral part of a culture that is regressing in a hurry. As an interdependent part of a complex culture industry that in the name of “entertainment” perpetuates an ideology, which includes perilous conditions (e.g., violent patriarchy, homophobia, white supremacy, domestic violence, and bullying), pro wrestling must be looked at seriously and discussed in college classrooms with impressionable young men. As part of a media literacy program, the signs, codes, and visual language of pro wrestling must be deconstructed.

The Machiavellian producers of pro wrestling (e.g., Vince McMahon) exploit the logic of motion picture cartoons to present their theater. This so-called “soap opera for men” displays a make-believe violence that can only be found in Tom and Jerry or Bugs Bunny cartoons, where the characters escape deadly violence visited upon them and continue to entertain us episode after episode. Similarly, in pro wrestling, the highly skilled athletes with their incredible choreographic abilities convincingly act out the scripted violence, and live to do it again and again.

What are the consequences of such theater? In their excellent documentary, Wrestling with Manhood: Boys, Bullying & Battering (2002), Culture Studies scholar, Sut Jhally and activist Jackson Katz, examine the effects of “violence as entertainment.” They show footage of a phenomenon known as “backyard wrestling,” where young boys and men (ages 13 to 35), emulating the heroes of pro wrestling, participate in brutal physical reenactment of the make-believe spectacle, except their version is real and far too many participants are injured or killed as a result.

The proverbial question of “is pro wrestling real or fake?” is no longer relevant. What is perilous is the fact that the fake has become a reality. The boundaries have been blurred and savagery has become a normative. It is very difficult for young boys-and men-who are kept, by the culture industry, at what Jean Piaget called the “preoperational stage” of cognitive development, to distinguish between cartoon violence and real violence. They live in a society that uses the logic of the marketplace and ideologically defines masculinity through violence, ultra competitiveness, domination, and sleaze.

Pro wrestling, mythologically, perpetuates some painfully enduring social problems such as men’s violence against women, white supremacy, bullying, homophobia, and anti-intellectualism. More and more young boys, men, and some women in America are manipulated by this machinery that is entering other spheres (e.g., cinema, and video games) of popular culture. If we are concerned about civilization, egalitarianism, democracy, and enlightenment, we ought to pay attention to pro wrestling with a critical mind. The spectacle is a social force and needs to be confronted seriously.  

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