Essay Plan

Essay title
How and Why Have the Representations of Women Changed Over Time in World Wrestling Entertainment?

My topic
For my study I will be looking at World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and will attempt to discover how and why the representations of women have changed so much over the years. Once upon a time, women were solely in the business to wrestle however as the years went on, their clothes came off! It’s arguable whether or not this would support Laura Mulvey’s theory of the “male gaze”. This is due to the fact that men are not the only fans of WWE as it is watched worldwide by men, women, and children. It is also questionable as some say the majority of WWE fans are children, therefore it would be rather controversial for women to be exploiting themselves in such ways on a show which children watch.

Other Texts
In this study there are a variety of other texts I will look at to compare my primary text, WWE with. I will see what the key conventions are in these particular texts and see whether WWE also display these conventions. I will be analysing the similarities and differences of these texts. The texts I will be looking at are…

- World Wrestling Federation -WWF (Now WWE)
- World Championship Wrestling – WCW
- Total Nonstop Action –TNA
- Ultimate Fighting Championship – UFC
- Gladiators

WWF
Although this is the very same text as WWE, it has changed rapidly over the years in terms of representing both women and men. I will look at how the characters have changed and how the wrestlers were represented back in the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s and 80’s, especially for women, as they has just entered the industry in the 50’s. I will also look at how heroes and villains representations have changed over the years.

WCW
WCW no longer exists as Vince McMahon (chairman of WWF) bought it in 2001, however WCW does have a long legacy and was around for a very long time before being bought by WWF. WCW was the WWF’s primary rival and is remembered for The Monday Night Wars as WCW’s flagship show “Nitro” beat WWF’s flagship show “RAW” 52 weeks in row in ratings in the late 90’s. WCW is where a lot of WWF’s wrestlers would go once they were getting a little too old. I have chosen WCW as a text to look at as it was very similar to WWE in many ways.

TNA
TNA is what some would say is the new WCW. This is due to the fact that it is the WWE’s primary rival at the moment and is growing rapidly. In terms of women, when TNA first began in 2002, there were not any women, however 6 years later in 2008 there were a variety of women and a new championship was introduced, the TNA Knockout Championship which was for female competitors only.

UFC
Unlike WWE, WCW and TNA, UFC is completely real and is not scripted. It’s also not in the same genre as professional wrestling; UFC is MMA – mixed martial arts. This means it is a similar genre as it is a violent sport. UFC’s roster is 100% male, however they do have 3 women employed are they to show scoreboards and to keep the audience entertained. The fact that they wear provocative clothing could also support Mulvey’s theory of the “male gaze” as UFC’s primary target audience is young males, therefore the women being dressed in this promiscuous way would appeal to them.

Gladiators
Gladiators is an interesting text as it was around in the early 90’s then stopped airing on television, however came back in 2008, therefore its highly likely that the representations of the gladiators would have changed. Although this text is not the same or similar genre to WWE, the representations of the athletes in both texts are similar.

The Conventions of a Professional Wrestling Show
In this section I will be looking at what makes a pro wrestling show and what the audience expect to see when viewing one. I will look at things such as the setting, the use of violence (weapons etc), women in provocative clothing, men in provocative clothing, storylines etc.

Hybrid Genre
This section will feature information about the hybrid genre and the issue that has followed with all professional wrestling companies and how they have borrowed aspects of different genres to make a new professional wrestling genre. For example, in the 80’s wrestling was purely wrestling and nothing else, however today it is referred to as a rip off a soap opera. This would mean that the storylines would be a lot like soap operas, containing sex etc.

Comparing the Representations
I will go through all the representations from my other texts and look for a link within the WWE.

Before and After
Here, I will fully analyse the change which WWE has gone through over the years, especially in terms of representing women. This means from the 1950’s – 2000’s. I will also analyse the change in representation which the men have gone through in detail. Some wrestlers being shown as the new man etc.

Books used:

1- Mulvey, Laura, (1975),-'Visual pleasure and narrative cinema'
2- Gunter, Barry, (1995), 'Television and gender representation'
3- Tuchman, Gaye, (1978), 'The symbolic annilation of women in the mass media'
4- Gauntlett, David, (2002), 'Media, gender and identity'

Websites used:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Wrestling_Entertainment
http://www.wwe.com/