The Brain Buster 6.29.13: The Feminist Character in Professional Wrestling

Author’s note: I was suppose to continue my look at the history of Japanese Professional Wrestling and MMA crossover; however, after reading the comments, I decided to send off my researches to Japan for further analysis. I will happily cover the entire history of combat sport of professional wrestling in Japan in a later column. Probably when I don’t have any ideas on what to write about! Anyway, your comments were duly noted, and I won’t phone in another column ever again. Enjoy this you sexist pigs.

This week’s episode of Monday Night Raw had me feeling a bit perplexed. No, I’m not lost on any storyline or questioning why wrestler A is wrestling wrestler B. I’m not confused on why my favorite wrestler isn’t getting pushed, and I’m not questioning any future match up for the upcoming Money in the Bank. A little more than halfway through the show, Team Brickie graced the audience with their presence. As they were discussing their video game cover (which by the way – I’m not sure if everyone has noticed – is the same shtick every year: bad guy comes out and places him or herself on cover only to be foiled by a face to reveal the new cover), Vickie Guerrero was met with her usual chorus of boos. As I was watching her shouting her (most likely) patented catch phrase, I became very confused. Why is everyone booing Vickie Guerrero?

I understand Vickie Guerrero has been a heel for quite a while now. Everyone despises her existence – from wrestlers, to audience, to commentators. As she was announced, once again, as the leading managers (or whatever they’re calling it) of RAW, people groaned at the idea of her running the show. That was a few months ago, and as we are all aware, the culture of the WWE can change very rapidly. Bad guys have a change of heart. Good guys become convoluted. Things change in professional wrestling, and in the WWE, they tend to change quickly. So with this fact of the WWE personality, I ask again, why do we boo Vickie Guerrero? As the current manager of booking stuff until a McMahon shows up, she no longer has ties with any wrestler. She was aligned with Dolph Ziggler, and since their split, has forced him to own up to his terrible deeds or corner cutting. Looking back on it, hasn’t Vickie given us every match we wanted to see? Earlier that night, when Daniel Bryan demanded a rematch with Randy Orton, did she not oblige him, and furthermore, let us, the fans, vote on what type of match we wanted to see? For a supposed heel GM, she has showed little to no favoritism towards any heel. When I think about it, I can’t think of any example in the last couple of months of her sabotaging a face. AJ Lee, a supposed face GM, showed much more favoritism then Vickie has in her current run. Vickie has, for the most part, called everything down the middle. So why is Vickie Guerrero getting booed despite her not being a heel?

Don’t get me wrong, I understand she is being marketed as a bad woman. It’s been her character for years, and WWE has made little change in her characteristics to show that she is performing unbiased actions. She still has a shrill voice, she still has someone she bullies around, she still is very attention seeking; but what makes Vickie Guerrero continually presented as a heel has far more magnitude than just poor character development or an oversee by the writing staff. Vickie Guerrero is a heel because she is a woman with power in the wrestling world.

Professional wrestling in the United States has had a long track record of being overtly sexist. The Fabulous Moolah, a pioneer of women’s wrestling, originally sought refuge from the McMahons because she refused to engage in a sexual favor with Billy Wolfe to ensure job security. Whether related or unrelated, she was soon “Slave Girl” Moolah and later was a valet for the “Nature Boy” Buddy Rogers. Even though she had the longest championship reign in history, her main priority was to be eye candy. This is just one of many examples that we’ll go into later about the inherit sexism in United States major professional wrestling outlets. I want to walk this line carefully because I don’t believe that ALL wrestling companies are sexist. Female wrestling in Japan is a very large attraction and provides great entertainment. Independent programs like Chikara present excellent matches with their female talent. I think the accomplishments of Mariko Yoshida, Akira Hokuto, Aja Kong, Gail Kim, Awesome Kong, and Manami Toyota speak for them. Even the trainer of the WWE divas, Sara Del Ray, famously stood toe to toe with big time wrestlers like Eddie Kingston, and more than held her own. She famously said that she doesn’t look at herself as a model, and isn’t here to be pretty – she is, in fact, an athlete representing the sport of professional wrestling. This officially opens up the discussion of what is sexism in wrestling? What is feminism? What purpose does it serve in the professional wrestling world?

Feminism is often misconstrued. When I mention to my friends that I consider myself a feminist, I often get jeered. I am asked if I prefer women with hairy armpits and appendages or if I’ll help burn their bras. “What’s wrong with a man being a man, and a woman being a woman?” Well nothing, if that’s all we are really talking about. What we are truly talking about when someone is trying to convince me that being a feminist is strange, is the upheaval of our societal gender roles. A man must be strong and woman must be caring. A man must lead the charge and the women must follow suit. Man is strong; woman is submissive. Feminism is the disregard of that notion and the belief that men and women are equals. There’s no one gender who is smarter or can be more dominant – it can inherently belong to either. It is society that makes the individual believe that one sex is greater than the other. Does that mean I wish to see women getting beat up on television by men on my WWE programming? Not necessarily (but talent like Beth Phoenix, Kharma, Sara Del Ray could make an interesting opponent for males). I only wish to see women be held in the same regard as the male wrestlers

In the major professional wrestling promotions in the United States, these sexist statures stand tall. I don’t want to overstep my boundaries; Trish Stratus was strong. Lita was strong. Chyna was strong. But, more importantly, they knew their place. All of these women had several men they were submissive to. Trish had the team of Test and Albert, Mr. McMahon, Chris Jericho, Christian, etc. Lita had Matt Hardy and Edge. Chyna had the male members of DX and Eddie Guerrero. They followed a hierarchy. Not that they weren’t over or had success. Chyna won the Intercontinental Championship from Jeff Jarret… in a match including kitchen appliances. Lita had a win over Dean Malenko… after Matt Hardy involved himself to set up their on screen relationship. Trish had a win over the team of Jericho and Christian… after Jericho had enough of Christian beating on his love interest. Although women can be featured as strong and independent people, they can only be strong and independent when among the other Divas. When paired with a male wrestler, there is no equality between them.

There are several examples of the inequality between male and female wrestlers in WWE. Trish Stratus is known as the best Diva of all time. Her accolades, much like the Fabulous Moolah, speak for themselves; however, whenever I bring up her accomplishments, more times than not, someone brings up the Vince McMahon incident. I’m speaking, of course, about how Vince McMahon forced Trish Stratus to strip down to her underwear and bark like a dog for him. Vince McMahon has the power, and Trish Stratus is submissive. This is an image so polarizing, it’s hard to picture all of her accolades without thinking of her as Mr. McMahon’s pet.

WWE isn’t the only one to subject women to this treatment. ECW frequently portrayed their women in a specific manner. I will give Paul Heyman’s brain child credit, as they allowed women to win one on one matches against untrained males without interference; however, to say they treated women fairly in the kayfabe ECW world is an understatement. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen Beulah McGillicutty take a piledriver from Tommy Dreamer, and he was the good guy. Let me explain why I have issues with this, since I mentioned the idea of equality in the wrestling ring earlier. Beulah was not a wrestler, she was a valet. Not a valet like Moolah was for Buddy Rogers – she had little to no training and stood little chance against any trained wrestler. Even in the kayfabe realm, her constantly having her head driven by the white knight of ECW tends to send a strange message to me about Tommy Dreamer. If I was Dreamer’s on screen girlfriend, what would the image of him attacking McGillicutty say to me about him. Well, he is certainly passionate about his values! He’s a real go getter! Or would I be fearful? Fearful that any day he can snap on me. Maybe I started hanging around other people. Maybe I became comfortable around someone else. Maybe – just maybe – I have a lesbian affair on the side with the same person he’s been piledriving for the last month. Maybe he’ll understand. He can accept us for who we are. Maybe – just maybe – he’ll proclaim his hardcoreness and have us both. Man, ECW belittled women and lesbian cultures all in one. If one storyline promoted the idea that a woman is a lesbian until she meets the right guy, or is a lesbian because she is bored – E-C-DUB masterminded it.

Another outside the E example happened last week. I recently attended the ROH “Best in the World.” I was looking forward to the event for some time and was excited it was in Baltimore. We got to the ROH Television Title match involving Jay Lethal, Jimmy Jacobs, and Matt Tavern. The match was pretty fun; however, it was the end that brought a strange circumstance. Jay Lethal was setting up for the finish, when the Hoopla Hotties got involved. They got in Jay Lethal’s face, and he went on to forcefully derobe the hotty obsessed with taking her pants off. He ripped her shirt off as the crowd erupted in cheers. It was possibly the biggest pop of the night. I looked around and thought who is the wrestling audience, and how do I fit in it? A woman having her top forcibly removed is not my idea of a good show; however, clearly I was in minority.

I started thinking does the product dictate the audience’s opinion, or does the audience’s opinion dictate the product? Is wrestling sexist because of the creator’s opinion, or is it sexist because of the audience’s? This is a tough question that requires great introspection on something I have a deep passion for. I love professional wrestling. I’d like to think my peers aren’t harboring a deep resentment towards the other sex. As I started to thumb through several storylines to find my answer, a few stood out that truly gave me closure on the issue. I thought back to Christy Hemme and TNA. Christy Hemme was lobbying on camera to have women’s wrestling. As she pleaded for attention for her cause, the audience responded with boos and jeers. The same process continued for weeks, until Christy Hemme had to face “The Big Fat Oily Guy” in a tuxedo match. After she was victorious, the crowd continued to boo her. This continued until Billy Gunn, then Kip James, came out. He was a strongly against women’s wrestling; proclaiming it a waste of air time. He also referred to Hemme as a slut several times leading up to this match. Kip came out to the ring and finished the job of Hemme’s fat oily opponent, and stripped her of the remaining clothing. Much like in “Best in the World,” the crowd uniformly cheered Hemme’s misfortune. They let Hemme and the rest of the future TNA Knockouts know that they valued Hemme’s looks more than her actual in ring ability and wished only to have her play part in their collective gaze.

Of course, there is the other side of the coin on this issue. Perhaps the audience responded so negatively towards Hemme’s plea to wrestle was because for years they have been brought up to believe that women’s wrestling is far inferior to men’s. With WWE’s Attitude Era harboring models like Sable and Terrie Reynolds over actual athletes, and WCW’s use of the Nitro Girls, perhaps these sexist ideals were manufactured long ago and carry over to this very day. For so long, the women characters in the major professional wrestling markets were shown first and foremost for their sex appeal. It was implicit of all their characters to dress appealingly and also to have fetishes such as pillow fighting, mud wrestling, lingerie fights, and anything involving spanking. The audience has been told that the following activities are the best things these women can offer you, and it translated very negatively when Christy Hemme was pleading for an equal opportunity. So who’s responsible for the sexism, the creators and the audience? The blame, as it usually does, rests on both sides.

WWE, WCW, and ECW all produced sexist products. The audience approved of the sexist product, which continued bringing more dress matches, spanking affairs, and an increased attention on women’s looks rather than their ability. The women are being attacked by both ends. If any woman was to make a stand against an authoritative man by taking control over herself (or him) or was deemed unappealing by the WWE authorities, the audience absolutely hated her. Which brings me back to Vickie Guerrerro. She is a woman with a lot of power, who controls men, and is deemed unappealing by the WWE universe. If she wants something, she takes her own measure to ensure it happens. Whether it’s using men like Teddy Long, Dolph Ziggler, or Edge, or manipulating the mostly male dominated audience – she pushes hard to get what she wants. And we hate her for it. We hate her for doing what men like Shawn Michaels and Triple H did in real life. People like the aforementioned stepped on people to reach the top. The audience is aware of their characteristics, as it was brought up in their wrestling persona, and it grew to an endearment. They applauded what Shawn Michaels did to reach the top. They loved the measures Triple H took to ensure his rise. Yet, a woman portrays the same type of prowess and she is so hated, boos drown out the microphone she speaks on. As mentioned previously, Vickie is currently not pulling heel tactics or showing favoritism, and she is still hated. Despite giving the audience the matches they want, she is still hated. It’s because she still holds power and can still control male characters to do her bidding.

Don’t believe me? I’ll give you another example. Let’s look back at the Lita situation. I’m of course referring to when her real life issue between Matt Hardy, Edge, and herself became a storyline. The audience hated Lita and referred to her a slut. They chanted slut over and over and over again anytime she appeared on screen. This always confused me. Why is she a slut? Because she had a change of heart in a complicated relationship? If she is hated for doing what she did, than why does the audience universally love Jerry “The King” Lawler, who constantly degrades women, flirts with them on screen, pressures them into performing actions (such as sitting on his lap),and has been accused of cheating on his wives several times. Why does the audience love the Godfather? This guy is a pimp. He sells women’s sexual services for money. That’s about 100 times worse than what Lita did. What else can I assume from the Godfather being a pimp? Does he beat his women when they don’t pay up? You know what, he probably put a curse on them to spit up black stuff if they cross him. If hating Lita because of her actions is acceptable, why does the audience revere Vince McMahon. There are numerous reports of Vince cheating on his wife with other Divas, and it was even an on screen storyline. Lita did something that numerous men do who are wrestlers, managers, audience members, or don’t even like wrestling. In both kayfabe and the real world, she made a choice that benefited her, and was hated for it.

The WWE did present a feminist character, which was also universally hated. Good ol’ Molly Holly played a feminist character for years during her last run on television. I tried to refresh myself to see if her character was a subversive role used to expose the audience for its own sexism, but alas, it was a mere characterization of the negative portrayal of a feminist. She hated women for showing off their bodies, which is not a feminist idea. After researching further, Molly herself does not consider herself a feminist.

“That was totally their idea. I’m not a feminist at all. It doesn’t bother me if women want to do whatever they want to do in bikinis or whatever. That’s their business. I’m not a judgmental person and I hate playing the ‘bad’ guy. That was not the highlight of my career as far as being the self-righteous prude. All of those girls are really super nice and they are people I would really consider good friends. I just really prayed for them to change my character.”

Even though Molly doesn’t fancy herself a feminist, not feeling negatively towards other women for how they dress or present themselves IS a characteristic of feminism. Not being judgmental towards them based on their appearance IS feminism. Molly Holly IS a feminist.

I know I’m walking a fine line with this statement. I realize I write for a website that makes a front page story anytime a bra is shown; however, I think it is an important issue to discuss. I look at women wrestlers as equals, and I feel if the whole audience did, we could have Sara Del Ray wrestling on television. We could have a better product if the entire business was not based on cosmetic looks. WWE recently put in their marketing plan that they want to increase the female viewership of the product. This explains why the Divas have a reality show. To do this, they have to make women characters who feel real – who we can relate to and empathize with or just flat out hate. The company has the hate part down; however, until they treat women like equals, it will prove difficult for anyone to truly relate to a female character on WWE. Maria Kanellis touched on the issue of sexism in the WWE during an interview, where she mentioned that the first thing they did to her character was “make her a bimbo.” Until this perception of what a woman should be stops, women’s wrestling will never be successful. It’s not a hopeless endeavor, and it’s one I hope to see in the near future.