MED 5 - HOW AND WHY HAVE THE REPRESENTATIONS OF WOMEN CHANGED OVER TIME IN WWE?: March 2009

"The WWE Divas are the sexiest women on television"[1]How and Why Have the Representations of Women Changed Over Time in World Wrestling Entertainment? World Wrestling Entertainment is a worldwide corporation which “in 2007, had a revenue of roughly $486 million, with $52 million as its net profit”[2]. The WWE’s shows are shown on the television, the internet and as live events. They have two “flagship” shows, ‘Raw’ and ‘Smackdown’ which air weekly, ‘Raw’ on a Monday night and ‘Smackdown’ on a Friday night . Throughout these shows the audience expect to see a variety of common conventions to take place, such as; the wrestlers “talking trash” to their rivals, matches ending with “finishing moves” and also seeing beautiful women “symbolically annihilate”[3] themselves by using their bodies to satisfy the male viewers. Some of the WWE's current conventions were not always a frequent part of their shows as things have changed a lot over the years. For example, the way in which women are represented in WWE has changed rapidly over the past 50 years and this is due to the major changes which have taken place in society due to the waves of feminism which occurred in the past century. Once women broke into the professional wrestling industry, they were in it solely to wrestle and to prove a point, that women can be tough, aggressive and powerful too, however this representation gradually changed into the promiscuous sex object which we see in today’s WWE broadcasts. In the late 1990's, the WWE (then known as the WWF, World Wrestling Federation) went through the "Attitude Era"[4]. This is where WWE shows became a lot more "extreme "and "hardcore". The wrestling itself had become a lot more violent and brutal, the language had become rather foul and lewd while the representation of women had become a lot more sex appealing to male audiences. This supports Laura Mulvey's theory of the "male gaze"[5], which is a technique to attract more men to watch professional wrestling, however it is believed that children watch WWE the most, therefore the way in which these women are objectifying themselves is surely inappropriate for them. Mulvey wrote an entire essay titled "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" which evaluates how women are viewed as ‘the bearer of meaning and not the maker of meaning’ [6] which does seem to be the case in WWE shows.

The World Wrestling Federation introduced women to its audiences in 1983; just one year after the WWF had been bought by Vincent Kennedy McMahon from his very own father, Vincent J McMahon who owned the company known as World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF). Vince McMahon removed “Wide” from its name once he had purchased it in order to simplify it. The WWF had also created the WWF Women’s championship in 1983, which illustrates that they were beginning to take women rather seriously in the industry. This is due to the fact that the second wave of feminism had taken place in the last decade; therefore women were no longer going to accept being sexually discriminated. This was the time period where professional wrestling became incredibly popular within countries such as The United States, Canada and the United Kingdom with the rise in stardom of wrestlers such as ‘Hulk Hogan’ and ‘Andre The Giant’ (Hogan was recognised a lot more than other wrestlers due to appearing in ‘Rocky III’). One female wrestler who became incredibily popular among wrestling audiences was ‘The Fabulous Moolah’. Moohlah was one of the most dominant female wrestlers in the history of professional wrestling. Before entering the WWF, she was a part of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) where she won the championship in 1956 and held on to it for a staggering 10,170 days which is almost 28 years. She would enter the ring do whatever she could in order to be victorious. She was not necessarily the best looking woman either, which illustrates that she had been employed for her hard work and high level of skill in the ring rather than just being something to stare at which is not how things are run in WWE today. Moohlah never wore provocative clothing like the females wrestlers of today wear; Moohlah wore what appeared to be swim suit spandex which would fully cover up her cleavage and buttocks, however she did wear sparkling sunglasses during her entrances to the ring which connoted her superiority, power and wealth. Moohlah appeared in the very first ‘WrestleMania’, which is the biggest annual event on the WWE’s calendar. It is also referred to as “the WWE’s version of the Super Bowl”[7]. It took place in the most famous arena in the world, Madison Square Garden, so for Moolah, this was an impressive achievement to perform “when the lights are on bright”[8]. As the silver anniversary of ‘WrestleMania’ is approaching, it is evident that this was a while ago and things would have indeed changed within the space of 25 years.

In the year of WrestleMania 9 in 1993, “only 3 per cent of women were represented as housewives as their main occupation”[9]. This clearly indicates that the society in which we live in is no longer a patriarchal one. Shortly after WrestleMania 11 in 1995, ‘Alundra Blayze’ won the WWF women’s championship, however did not reveal to officials that she had signed with the companies growing rival, World Championship Wrestling (WCW). As she went to WCW, the women’s championship had gone vacant which then led to a huge lack of female wrestling in WWF. The female role in WWF had a major change from this day, and female wrestling almost appeared to be dead in WWF. The role of a female in WWF was now a manager only for a male wrestler. It could be argued that women are in WWE to be “looked at, objectified and sexualized by the male protagonist” [10]], which is likely the male wrestler in which they are managing. Now due to the fact that women could no longer “kick ass” in the ring, what could possibly grab the audience’s attention? Mulvey would guess that it would be a blonde with large breasts and long smooth legs. Evidently, she was correct as the two most remembered and successful managers of this time period were ‘Sunny’ and Terri Runnels. These women are a stereotypical representation which the media defines as beautiful. The media categorises the women in the media into to sections, the “Madonna who is pure, maternal, chaste, modest and The Whore who is loose, sexual, amoral, sinful”[11]. Sunny was the manager of a variety of tag teams in which she would escort to the ring and cheer them on. She would also do the talking for the teams during backstage interviews were she would seem a little bit aggressive yet seductive. She would often wear mini skirts which would appeal to male audiences. Sunny appeared on a variety of posters wearing bikini’s which represented her as nothing but a sex object. Terri was also a very seductive individual from her behaviour. She managed a “bizarre” wrestler called ‘Goldust’ who was a man obsessed with gold. She would often wear a tight gold dress and smoke cigars which would connote the fact that she is represented as wealthy. Although she was a “heel” which is the wrestling term for evil, the male audiences loved her and would always cheer for her, however boo her man, ‘Goldust’. Propp’s theory of “Good Vs Evil” [12] has always been a part of professional wrestling. This is evident as the wrestlers are always represented as good respectable people or rule breaking rebels.

By 1998, the fans of WWF began to favour the rebellious “bad guys” rather than the “good guys” which led to “The Attitude Era”. This was perhaps the most successful era the WWF has ever been through which led to the superstardom of wrestlers such as ‘Stone Cold Steve Austin’ and ‘The Rock’. This era also saw the formation of the most controversial group in professional wrestling’s history, D-Generation X, with the catchphrase “Suck it[13]”, it is clear that they were obscene and rebellious. ‘The Attitude Era’ changed the face of professional wrestling forever. During match promos and backstage interviews, the wrestlers would swear at one and other, matches would no longer consist of “wrestling”, they appeared more like street fights with no rules. Some matches created during this era are the ‘Hell in a Cell’, ‘Last Man Standing’, ‘Hardcore’ and the ‘Inferno’ match. These have been some of the most barbaric matches in history of professional wrestling. Its odd how women have never competed in any of these matches before, does the WWE feel as though the women are simply not tough enough or do the audiences just want them to objectify themselves? These questions remain unanswered. Greer states that “every woman knows that she is a failure if she is not beautiful”[14], which may be the case in WWE as they only tend to employ women who are looking nowadays. “Men typically made the decisions which led the story, and were assertive, confident and dominant” [15] which may be the reason why women are treated like this and are being represented on television like this as women did not have a say. A few months after this era had begun; the WWF Women’s championship was brought back after a three year absence. WWF began to employ more women again so that they could once again compete for the title, however it would not be technical mat wrestling in the way ‘The Fabulous Moohlah’ did, and the wrestling in the late 90’s appeared to be “cat fighting”. The women would wear wrestling attire, however would have special designs with holes on the legs and holes on the chest to reveal the cleavage. The women wouldn’t always “cat fight”; they would compete in other ways never seen before in professional wrestling such as bikini contests and ‘lingerie pillow fights’. The WWF had begun this “Attitude Era” due to the fact that the fans wanted it and as their primary rival WCW were winning in the ratings war Vince McMahon gave the fans exactly what they wanted. The ratings war which took place is known as “The Monday Night Wars” as WWF Raw would be competing against WCW Nitro. WCW won 52 weeks in a row, which led to McMahon doing anything possible to gain a larger audience. This then led to the WWF beginning to advertise with a new catchphrase, “Anything can happen in the WWF”[16]. Women in WWF objectified themselves so much throughout this era that even on some cases; they would even remove their bras or bikinis on national television. This was done by ‘Sable’ who also happened to be a blonde and was the number one fan favourite female wrestler at the time. Although this has only happened a few times, it is extremely controversial due to the fact that millions of children watch these shows and also O.A.P’s watch it which have been shocking for them and possibly offended them. The fact that WWF did this highlights a patriarchal society and that men have more power than women and that males are the target audience who need to be pleased. On videos and DVD’s which the WWF produced, the certificate had changed to either ‘15’ or 18’ which is a big change from the older videos being ‘PG’. The women of WWF were portrayed as “to-be-looked-at-ness”[17].
In 2001, Vince McMahon purchased World Championship Wrestling from his rival Ted Turner for $7 million which meant that the WWF was the only mainstream professional wrestling company on television. An invasion storyline then occurred on television which featured Vince’s son Shane McMahon buying WCW and invading his fathers company WWF. Once this storyline concluded, the WWF was sued by the World Wildlife Fund (also known as WWF) sued the World Wrestling Federation for the rights of the initials ‘WWF’. This then led to the World Wrestling Federation re naming themselves World Wrestling Entertainment. Their shows then began to air adverts informing audiences on the new name WWE, which ended with the catchphrase “Get the ‘F’ out!” which has the connotations of the saying “get the fuck out” however its initial meaning is the fact that the word ‘Federation’ is no longer a part of the companies name. Not only did WWE remove the ‘F’, they ended “The Attitude Era” and began to tone things down when it came to extreme violence and obscenity. Women do still compete in bikini contests, lingerie pillow fights and even water fights in the summer, however they do not go as far as they did in the late 90’s. The matches which the males compete in can also still be quite violent and brutal, however they occur less often and are usually happen on ‘pay per view’ events. The swearing in WWE has also been toned down to some extent, however not completely. In aim to promote WWE’s annual event WrestleMania, since 2003 a WWE Diva has posed for ‘Playboy’ magazine every year. The WWE has become a hybrid genre now as it features so many elements from other genres such as soap operas/dramas from the dramatic storylines WWE now has and also soft pornography as the way women are represented is so obscene. The WWE will never be the way it once was 25 years ago as so much has changed in the company and in society. There has almost been an evolution occurring through the WWF/E over the years when it comes to representation. The women were once represented as tough and physically fit competitors, and then all of a sudden they were represented as beautiful women who could not even fight their way out of a paper bag. This representation shortly changed into women who are gorgeous and can fight in the too. This representation change has been the case in many other texts too. The male representation today is in WWE is almost like “the new man” [18], a man who looks after themselves, has a tidy hair cut and is clean shaven. An example of this is Randy Orton in WWE, who happens to have many female fans. This could be due to the “female gaze”[19]. This representation is a lot different to the way in which wrestlers were represented 25 years ago; for example, Hulk Hogan had long golden locks with a large moustache.

WCW represented women in a very similar way to the WWF, the only difference being that they would never go as far as WWF did by revealing women’s breasts on national television. WCW had ‘The Nitro Girls’ who danced in provocative clothing for the live audience in attendance during commercial breaks of their show ‘Nitro’. They would also be shown on television sometimes too. WCW is also a prime example of what Laura Mulvey talks about and how men are drawn into watching something which objectifies women in a promiscuous way. Although WCW never had a women’s championship, they did have women’s matches and rivalries. When WCW began in 1988, they were not any female wresters at all. Women’s roles were solely to manage some of the male wrestlers and cheer them on during matches. This representation then changed in 1998 just like in WWF. The women in WCW were beginning to be represented as sex objects as they wore provocative clothing and acted in a promiscuous way for the male audiences.

Just as Vince McMahon thought he has the only mainstream professional wrestling company, in came Total Non-stop Action. Some say “TNA is the new WCW”[20] as it is the WWE’s current primary rival. As TNA is a contemporary text, the representation of women has always been the same since it was launched in 2002. When TNA first began, on either side of the entrance ramp would be a female dancer locked inside a cage who would dance as the wrestlers entrance music would play. The fact that they were locked in a small cage objectifies them in an extremely negative way, almost treating them as though they are animals in a zoo. These dancers would wear very short skirts along with a sports bra which would gain the male audience attention. Also when TNA began, the female wrestlers also wore provocative clothing and wrestled on a regular basis similarly to WWE, however they did not have a championship to compete for until 2007, were the women’s division was taken a little more seriously. In the way WWE calls its female employees ‘Divas’; TNA calls theirs the ‘TNA Knockouts’. A dominating wrestler called Awesome Kong debuted in 2007. She is the tallest and heaviest woman on the roster and has destroyed everyone who has crossed her path. She is represented as “evil” as she always wears a black costume. This is the first time in a long time wrestling audiences have seen a female wrestler who is not represented as a sex object. This may be due to the fact that she does fit into the stereotypical definition of “beautiful”. This may be due to the fact that she is black, does not have blonde hair and she is over weight. Who ever she faces in the ring is represented as “good” and often wear colours which make them look good or innocent such as white, pink or yellow. The way, in which Kong and her opponents would be represented, are as “binary oppositions”[21]. Kong is represented a lot like the “big and bad” male wrestlers which are represented as monstrous, for example in WWE, ‘The Undertaker’ and ‘Kane’ are represented in very similar ways.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship has many differences to professional wrestling; the most significant is that it is not scripted. UFC is real cage fighting and its roster is male dominated. UFC only have three women employed and all they are there for is to hold up score boards and inform the audience which round it is. They also tend to throw t-shirts into the audience during commercial breaks. Although they are not represented in a promiscuous way like the WWE does, the women of UFC do tend to wear provocative clothing such as mini skirts with short t-shirts. This, like the previous texts would also support Mulvey’s “male gaze” theory.

Unlike UFC, Gladiators is a sports-entertainment show similarly to WWE. Similarly to WWE, the Gladiators would all have character names which would usually be a vicious animal name or dangerous element, for example, ‘Wolf’ and ‘Flame’ are the names of two Gladiators from the original series. These names would make the gladiators appear slightly more intimidating for their opponents. The attire the gladiators would wear are spandex, which are tight and provocative, however do not show much of the women’s cleavage. This is not the case for the new Gladiators show which returned in 2008. The new Gladiators wear costumes which are incredibly similar to the attire that both the male and female wrestlers in WWE wear. This indicates that they are wearing clothing which is more provocative so that they look both sexy and physically fit. In WWE, wrestlers are represented as either sexy and tough or monstrous and very tough. This is the case with Gladiators too which makes these two texts rather similar.

The Academy award nominee and Golden Globe award winning film, ‘The Wrestler’ which was released in 2008 is solely about the career of a male wrestler who is “past his peak”. WWE wrestler Chris Jericho describes the character as a “has been”. There are no female wrestlers at all within this film which illustrates a patriarchal society. The way in which Randy "The Ram" Robinson (Mickey Rourke) is represented is as if he is a “washed up” wrestler who is way ahead of his prime and needs to retire from the business. This representation is different to the way in which WWE represents its older wrestlers. The older wrestlers in WWE are referred to as “legends” and often become victorious if they ever make one-off appearances, however if they face off against a younger popular wrestler, they would likely lose so that the younger wrestler looks really good.

Word count: 3,544

Bibliography

Works cited:

Books:
Gauntlett, David (2002) ‘Media Gender & Identity: An introduction’
Greer Germaine, (1999) ‘The Whole Woman’, London: Doubleday
Introducing Media Studies, Ziauddin Sardar and Barin Van Loon.
Mulvey Laura, (1975), ‘Visual pleasure and Narrative Cinema’
Propp, Vladimir, (1928), ‘The Morphology of a Fairytale’
Tuchman Gaye, (1978), ‘The Symbolic Annihilation of Women in the Mass Media’

Internet:
http://cid.nada.kth.se/pdf/cid_51.pdf
This website outlines and explains the theory of the “female gaze”.
http://www.englishbiz.co.uk/popups/opposition.htm
This website explains Levis Strauss’s theory of “binary oppositions”.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Mulvey
This website is about the life of Laura Mulvey and her theory of the “male gaze” which is spoken about in her book, Visual pleasure and Narrative Cinema’.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Wrestling_Entertainment
This website gives a brief history of the WWF/E.
http://personallifemedia.com/podcasts/238-the-new-man
This website explains the theory of the “new man”.
http://www.jrsbarbq.com/blog/
This is the blog of WWE commentator, Jim Ross. It is updated regularly as he responds to fans emails.

Moving Image Texts:
World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment

Works Consulted:

Books:
AS Media Studies, John Price and Joe Nicholas

Magazines:
WWE Divas 2005
WWE Divas 2006

Internet:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gladiators_(2008_UK_TV_series)
This website is about the new Gladiators show which airs on Sky One.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gladiators_(UK_TV_series)
This is about the Gladiators show during the 90’s on ITV.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wrestler_(2008_film)
This website is about the film “The Wrestler” featuring Mickey Rourke.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_Nonstop_Action_Wrestling
This website gives a brief history of TNA.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ufc
This website gives a brief history of UFC.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Championship_Wrestling
This website explains the rise and fall of WCW.
http://www.gladiatorszone.co.uk/
This is the official Gladiators website
http://www.tnawrestling.com/
This is the official website for TNA.
http://uk.ufc.com/
This is the official UFC website
http://www.wwe.com/
This is the official WWE website.

Moving Image Texts:
Gladiators
Rocky III
The Wrestler
Total Non-stop Action
Ultimate Fighting Championship
World Championship Wrestling

[1] World Wrestling Entertainment (quote has been used on more than one occasion by a variety of WWE announcers)
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Wrestling_Entertainment
[3] Tuchman Gaye, (1978), ‘The symbolic annihilation of women in the mass media’
[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Wrestling_Entertainment
[5] Mulvey Laura, (1975), ‘Visual pleasure and Narrative Cinema’[6] Mulvey Laura, (1975), ‘Visual pleasure and Narrative Cinema’
[7] Ross, Jim, World Wrestling Entertainment
[8] Layfield, John, World Wrestling Entertainment
[9] Gauntlett, David (2002) ‘Media Gender & Identity: An introduction’
[10] Mulvey, Laura, (1975), ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’
[11] Introducing Media Studies, Ziauddin Sardar and Barin Van Loon.
[12] Propp, Vladimir, (1928), ‘The Morphology of a Fairytale’
[13] D-Generation X (1997), World Wrestling Federation
[14] Greer Germaine, (1999) ‘The Whole Woman’, London: Doubleday
[15] Gauntlett, David (2002) ‘Media Gender & Identity: An introduction’
[16] World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment
[17] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Mulvey
[18] http://personallifemedia.com/podcasts/238-the-new-man
[19] http://cid.nada.kth.se/pdf/cid_51.pdf
[20] http://www.jrsbarbq.com/blog/
[21] http://www.englishbiz.co.uk/popups/opposition.htm

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