Historical Text

Although this text is not too old, it still shows a major change from the way women were represented in professional wrestling compared to todays representations. This video clip is from a WWF show in 1986. Although the WWF and WWE are the same company, a major change has taken place throughout the years. This is likely due to changes in society which have taken place, for example before the 1950's, women were not even a part of professional wrestling, but now there are many entering this industry.

"The Fabulous Moohlah" is represented as a hard hitting aggressive wrestler, which is rarely seen on todays wrestling shows. She is shown as aggressive by saying to the interviewer that she could beat him up anytime she wanted which is different to todays shows as the women would perhaps flirt for a minute with the interviewer or another wrestler backstage. Moohlah doesnt appear to be wearing provocative clothing which indicates that she is not meant to be represented in a promiscuous way. Her wrestling attire was normally similar to a womans swimming costume, which covers the cleavage etc. This is obviously not the case with todays women in wrestling, as they often have boob jobs done and show their cleavage to the world. Her glasses are gold with '$' signs which could indicate that her character/gimmick is a wealthy one.

Not only has the representation of women changed in professional wrestling, but the representation of men had also changed rapidly. From the 50's -80's, wrestlers would need to have an outstanding figure with long locks. This was the common look for a wrestler - big and powerful. Examples of this are Hulk Hogan, Andre The Giant and The Ultimate Warrior. Nowadays, there are all sorts of wrestlers -similar to boxing, they are divided into weights, i.e heavyweights, cruiserweights etc. A popular look for a wrestler in the past was to have long hair, however this is not the case anymore as about 1/2 of the roster has short or even no hair. This may be due to fashion changes in society or perhaps to give a certain look to a particular wrestler with a "gimmick"