Anti ProWrestling

The year is 2008 and there are many choices of things to watch on television. Professional wrestling is one of the most popular sporting events in our society. Professional wrestling, as popular as is it is, should not be on air because it portrays stereotypes toward men and women.
Wrestling for entertainment began as early as 3,000 BC. The Egyptians, Babylonians, Greeks, Romans, Chinese and Japanese wrestled as art forms in their societies. The Greeks popularized it because they started the Ancient Olympic Games. Around 70 AD, the Romans built the Colosseum for gladiatorial contests and public spectacles. The Colosseum drew large crowds who wanted to see animal hunts, reenactments of famous battles, executions and plays of classical mythology. It was one of Italy’s main sources of entertainment until the 6th century. In the late 19th century, wrestling drew crowds when they were sideshows of traveling carnivals. The WWF, otherwise known as the World Wrestling Federation, was then started in 1980.
After changing its name to WWE, World Wrestling Entertainment, the purpose of these fights have completely changed from its origins. It is still of entertainment value towards viewers, but it now portrays certain stereotypes. The fighters who have the most success are very strong men. They look like they never stop working out. Many seem like they have taken steroids. This is a very bad image considering that is it shown to a large audience. Young boys watch this and assume that in order to be popular they have to be huge, muscular men. These wrestling shows also give a stereotype towards women. Each wrestler has a woman, if not more, that introduces them into the ring. They have bleach blonde hair and are tall and skinny with big breasts. This feeds into the whole stereotype that fashion models give girls; that they all need to be a size 0 with long blonde hair and big boobs and about 6’1”. This also relates back to the boy’s stereotype because they see these huge men with these gorgeous girls and they assume that is what they will have to be like in order to get what those wrestlers have.
These stereotypes given off by wrestling shows have negative consequences. When young boys watch this, they become envious of these strong, powerful men. In turn, they believe that in order to have power and a beautiful girl, they must look and act the same as pro wrestlers. To look the same, they will now have to work out non-stop. If that does not give them the look they want, they may turn to steroids. Steroids are a huge problem in this country, especially in major league sports. Once young boys have the look, they will then want the attitude of a wrestler. Because they want to be tough all the time, they may cause problems and lots of fights. This would then cause them to do badly in school. They would also want to join rough sports such as football, wrestling and lacrosse. Being a wrestler in grade and high school can take another toll on boys. Many need to “make weight,” and in order to do that they throw up. This can become a serious problem and lead to bulimia. Young girls could also turn to bulimia after watching these wrestling shows. They see how pretty these skinny models are, and want to be just like them. They may also dye their hair and get breast implants.
Because Professional Wrestling shown on WWE portrays many stereotypes toward men and women, it should be taken off of cable television. It is one thing for a sport to become competitive and create a billion dollar industry, but it should be a good example to the public. Yes, the NFL is a popular league with big powerful and strong men being cheered on by pretty women in costumes. But the NFL has strict rules and is played to see which team is better through practice. Wrestling is a fight between two men to see which man can hurt the other one more. The WWE channel on T.V., and a one of its programs called “RAW”, is an example of “low culture.” It does not take a college education to understand what is going on during the fights. Therefore, many scholars find wrestling boring because it seems scripted and tacky. WWE and programs like RAW also feed into the “Big Mac” Theory. They feed into the theory because it discriminates taste toward finer fare. Pro Wrestling is also postmodern because it accepts technology by having websites and satellite radio stations and it recycles culture.
The emergence of digital communication allows die hard fans of WWE to watch and keep up with the sport anywhere, not just from television. The internet, radio, and cell phone T.V. are some other ways die hard fans can be in tuned with fights 24-7. Because this popular sport is able to be accessed almost anywhere, there is one major solution that can be done to lessen the effect of the stereotype that is given off from WWE programs. Take if off television. This may be a hard thing to think of by die hard fans, but they would still be able to access it in many different ways. Taking it off the air eliminates the chance that young children will become influenced by the stereotypes given off by the programs. This would work because it would be harder for young children to access the material. People who would be able to access it should be at the age where these stereotypes given off would affect them less.
Professional wrestling, as popular as is it is, should not be on air because it portrays stereotypes toward men and women. Taking it off the air and only allowing it to be seen by people who can access it by another way, would reduce the chances of a child being fed into this stereotype.