Athletes or Eye Candy?

December 5, 2009 at 2:18 pm (Uncategorized)

I’ve been a fan of professional wrestling. particularly the WWE, since I was a child.

From the 1940’s to the present, women have strived to be as equal as men within this entertainment sport. Although, the plots are staged, athleticism is required and women must undergo extensive training. The roles of women in wrestling of today is nothing of what it was in the 40’s and 50’s. Beauty and sex appeal are now key factors and required to be a part of the World Wrestling Entertainment’s Diva Division. The name of the division speaks for itself. A diva can be defined as a distinguished female performer or a girl requiring a great deal of attention and effort to maintain beauty style and image. Are these girls athletes or just beautiful women wrestling other women alike to gain attention from the predominately male audience?

I find many of the women of World Wrestling Entertainment to be a disgrace to women athletes. Women have been struggling to gain the respect that men receive in professional sports, yet these women flaunt their bodies and gain the attention of millions on a weekly basis. However, not for their talents as athletes but the sex and excitement they bring to the television screen.

I agree with the fact that professional wrestling uses sex as a selling point, but is really going to extremes. From 2003 to 2007, World Wrestling Entertainment featured a “Diva Search” contest, which attracted not women of talent, but former Playboy models and women alike. These women participated in degrading stereotypical acts such as lingerie contests, pillow fights, bikini car washes, and girl on girl kissing. How do these acts qualify a woman to be a competitive wrestler?

It took over one hundred years just for women to have the right to vote. Even more for them to be respected in the workplace, however it is suddenly halted as we take a look into mainstream entertainment including professional wrestling. Sex has replaced the respectable female wrestlers of the past, making a mockery of the long awaited female division title.

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1 Comment

Janisian Fonseca-Gonzalez said,

December 17, 2009 at 1:07 am

Great point! Though wrestling in general is a sport, it should not be confused with women’s sports. It’s scripted, sexist, racist, political, and America has a lust for it. True sports, such as tennis, softball, swimming, WNBA, or any Olympic-based sport need to spend millions on advertisement just to preserve the integrity of the sport. Interestingly, the media selects “sexy” marketing of athletes such Anna Kournikova and her Nikon commercials as an example. The bottom line is that men are running the WWE and they are controlling the media to include the sponsors that support it.

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