Manhood on the Mat

Wrestler John Cena uses his submission move on his opponet and Booker-T taunts the crowd by waving his hands in front of his face meaning "In your face".

Today, wrestling entertainment programs such WWE and WCW have reduced the role of women and men to just simple, understandable, digestible stereotypes. It is an entertainment industry which begs to stay away from real life and complicated situations. As a result we see wrestlers who love insulting one another, taunting and use intimidation, ridicule and humiliate, bully and like to stay in control. And then we also get the image of woman who constantly trying to outwit each other by participating in face offs which include stripping off your opponents clothes till their undergarments. But, the main focus of the article “Manhood on the Mat” is the role of wrestling entertainment in defining masculinity.

I have seen children at young age watch these programs and I have seen them after imitate these very values like taunting, bullying and the moves. As usual, I will give an example from my experiences in India. In the schools, I have seen a lot male students imitate the values taught in WWE which frequently aired in India. No doubt it is quite popular, because I got to hear about the popular matches that took place every other day. I observed the male students who were the most popular were those who taunted the teachers, indulged in bullying and verbally abused each other. Wrestling entertainment is a make believe world and most of us know that really well. But what should be done if the guidelines of being a “man” have already come into trend? Then either we go with the flow or go against the tide, which will end up some individuals branded as “fag”, “gay” and other such words.

In conclusion, wrestling programs do show a very stereotyped world to the audience, but it certainly did not create the criteria for masculinity; the characteristics of being a “man” have existed since ever. In stories and legends it is the man who has to show courage and achieve tasks in order to become a man or save the family’s honor. A lot of the values were already established. Popular culture just helps in establishing these values, meaning that it makes it more acceptable. For example, former WWE wrestler “Rock” was adored by fans for his insulting remarks. He didn’t make just normal insulting remarks but funny ones. This creates the idea that it is ok to insult like this because it would make you popular and that it is part of being a man. According to me, the stereotypes are created by the people or communities and then the media picks it up and popularizes it and this is why sometimes we don’t know who is mirroring who. Is the media mirroring the people’s ideas or are people’s ideas being affected by the media?