Between the Ropes: Exploring the World of Professional Wrestling
Introduction
It is not a secret that professional wrestling is like a theatrical play, but it does not diminish its spectacle, melodrama, and theatrical aspects. If people know professional wrestling is not really a sport, then: What is professional wrestling and why is it so interesting to its fans? How is gender, race, and class characterized in and formed by professional wrestling? In which methods does professional wrestling impact society? Professional wrestling shows the themes and concepts of melodrama. Wrestling focuses on melodrama as a primary underlying theme that plays out inside the ring, outside the ring, and is key to the impact that wrestling has on humanity and popular culture. As in the …show more content…
“of artifice and exaggeration,” (Sontag, 275) “stylization (Sontag, 277), “travesty, impersonation, theatrically,” (Sontag, 280) “glamour,” (Sontag, 284) and a “glorification of character”(Sontag, 285) than professional wrestling. In Roland Barthes, French literary theorist and philosopher, World of Wrestling, Wrestling is not a sport, but a spectacle (Barthes, 15). The daily life is full of unclear situations requiring clarification; but wrestling is a business of blinding lights, filled with obviousness (Barthes, 17), the “perfect intelligibility of reality” (Barthes, 25); a pure, full, and rounded nature (Barthes, 25). Everything in wrestling is clear; roles and situations are easily and rapidly understood (Barthes, 16-17). The physique of the wrestler is the seed of his character (Barthes, 17-18), which is then used, in each instance, to express a gesture (Barthes, 17). The gesture serves to visualize intention and passion to the audience (Barthes,
Introduction
It is not a secret that professional wrestling is like a theatrical play, but it does not diminish its spectacle, melodrama, and theatrical aspects. If people know professional wrestling is not really a sport, then: What is professional wrestling and why is it so interesting to its fans? How is gender, race, and class characterized in and formed by professional wrestling? In which methods does professional wrestling impact society? Professional wrestling shows the themes and concepts of melodrama. Wrestling focuses on melodrama as a primary underlying theme that plays out inside the ring, outside the ring, and is key to the impact that wrestling has on humanity and popular culture. As in the …show more content…
“of artifice and exaggeration,” (Sontag, 275) “stylization (Sontag, 277), “travesty, impersonation, theatrically,” (Sontag, 280) “glamour,” (Sontag, 284) and a “glorification of character”(Sontag, 285) than professional wrestling. In Roland Barthes, French literary theorist and philosopher, World of Wrestling, Wrestling is not a sport, but a spectacle (Barthes, 15). The daily life is full of unclear situations requiring clarification; but wrestling is a business of blinding lights, filled with obviousness (Barthes, 17), the “perfect intelligibility of reality” (Barthes, 25); a pure, full, and rounded nature (Barthes, 25). Everything in wrestling is clear; roles and situations are easily and rapidly understood (Barthes, 16-17). The physique of the wrestler is the seed of his character (Barthes, 17-18), which is then used, in each instance, to express a gesture (Barthes, 17). The gesture serves to visualize intention and passion to the audience (Barthes,