Wrestling With Manhood - Documentary on WWE now showing on Free Speech TV

[otohara]

Has anyone seen this eye opening documentary on World Wrestling Entertainment?

Not being a fan of the this type of so called "entertainment" this documentary exposes the various aspects of how wrestling perpetuates: Violence towards women, homophobia, glamorizing bullying, normalizing gender violence, happy & escalating volence.

Remember when The Rock introduced Dennis Hassert at the 2000 GOP convention? After watching this I have a feeling that many more in the WWE are republicans, along with the fan base. Comments by audience members about the various issues listed above were disturbing to say the least.

If you have FreeSpeechTV - I recommend watching it.

http://www.mediaed.org/videos/MediaGenderAndDiversity/WrestlingWithManhood/#

Wrestling with Manhood is the first educational program to pay attention to the enormous popularity of professional wrestling among male youth, addressing its relationship to real-life violence and probing the social values that sustain it as a powerful cultural force. Richly illustrating their analysis with numerous examples, Sut Jhally and Jackson Katz – the award-winning creators of the videos Dreamworlds and Tough Guise, respectively – offer a new way to think about the enduring problems of men’s violence against women and bullying in our schools.

Drawing the connection between professional wrestling and the construction of contemporary masculinity, they show how so-called “entertainment” is related to homophobia, sexual assault and relationship violence. They further argue that to not engage with wrestling in a serious manner allows cynical promoters of violence and sexism an uncontested role in the process by which boys become “men.”

more at above link....

[TreasonousBastard]

1. It's worse with the little guys.

McMahon's organization dwarfs the rest, but there are hundreds of smaller circuits and promoters out there-- all with wrestlers hoping to make the big time.

Kinda like boxing.

And, like boxing, there is a large part of the fan base that isn't interested in style, science, or boring old Olympic style wrestling. They're out to see blood, and every match better have a lot of it. A lot of these "fans" are kids, even preteens.

Here in Joisey, we recently passed a few laws barring some of the worst offenses, including age limits for spectators. The local fishwraps were heavily covering it for a while.

I don't remember all of the details, but the cheesegrater seems to be a popular item in local matches. Rake it over your skull and you bust enough capillaries to make enough blood to keep the fans happy, but no real danger to the wrestler. Just some pain and scarring.

Local promoters complained mightily that cleaning up the blood and barring little kids would mean too many empty seats.

Don't know how these bottomfish tie in with sexual assault, but I suspect any attitudes they have toward women would not be appreciated by your average feminist. We're talking "real men" here. Grudge matches are especially popular.

The whole thing's about as wholesome as cockfights or dogfights, but a good deal less honest.

[otohara]

2. The Way They Treat Women

is disgusting, making them say "I deserve this" and "barking like a dog" or face more humiliation. Don't know how it could get more humiliating that being on all 4's, barking. Then the fans say "she deserved it" - WTF?

The fans say it's no different from watching a soap opera.

[cally]

3. I'm shaken by this video

Everyone should see this. I can't say more, but just watch it please.

[absolutezero]

4. I used to watch it

until they became more conscerned with the soap opera type story line then on the wrestling...and for the record I mss the old days, when the worst you ever saw was an easily bendable steel (more likely aluminum) chair, or an "illegal glove...possibly with a brass knuckle in it"...all of which earned the wrestler a disqualification....wrestling used to teach kids that cheating was wrong, nw its flag waving beer drinking bloody crap with bad subplots