As a child I watched World Wrestling Entertainment pretty religiously. Every Monday and Friday I tuned in to see which superstars were beating each other to a pulp. My personal favorite was a beast named Goldberg, but we aren't here for that conversation. One thing I never noticed about the show until recently is how extreme the racist portrayals are.
There was always one wrestler whose identity just never felt correct: Eddie Guerrero. This mexican wrestler was a known cheater. At every opportunity he would poke his opponent in the eyes, go for a shot below the belt, and a slue of other shameless winning tactics. Even his entrance music and video was degrading. The chant we constantly hear is about lying, cheating and stealing. He is always shown with a lowrider with hydraulics. This character type is a shockingly obvious form of stereotype reinforcement that flew over my head as a kid. This is what scares me about the rest of the WWE.
Even Hulk Hogan's original entrance music seemed a little condescending. Others claim to be "Americans" but Hulk Hogan is a "Real American." Complete with guitar riffs, star-spangled tights and hair almost as white as his skin. This was the image of what a real American was and his music was making sure you knew it.
You do not have to look very far in the past or deep in the roster of obscure wrestlers to find more blatantly racist portrayals. Papa Shango, Muhammad Hasan and Jimmy Snuka are just a few names that send chilling waves of racism coursing through fans.
Any wrestler with a noticeable ethnicity (or even one slightly resembling another) was doomed to play to the extremities of their ethnicity's stereotype. Mexicans riding lawn mowers, white men acting as trailer trash, and black men being thugs/rappers are all so common that it doesn't seem out of the ordinary in the world of Vince McMahon.
I admit to loving this source of entertainment for a majority of my childhood but now that I look back, it is difficult to finalize a list of stereotyping characters in the industry as I am almost always able to think of at least one more person to add to that list.
Did you watch WWE? What do you think about the characters that you remember? Comment below and tell me which ones you thought were the worst portrayals.
Interesting post with very unique topic! I'm just wondering how it relates to the multicultural media, it would be lovely if you could explain it more on your post. Just some ideas, thanks!
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh yes I definitely watched WWE as a youngin and it's shocking to realize that this show is blatantly racist. We don't even notice it because we're too focused on the awe-inspiring violence that is happening in front of us. As for a counter form of racism, would you consider Randy Orton a bad guy? But instead of an 'all-american hero' he was made to be a 'villain' in the wrestling industry and he's white.
ReplyDeleteA deeper discussion can be brought up about the nature of why these persona's exist. Cable wrestling shamelessly goes after quick attention grabbing motifs based on the mook model of marketing to young male audiences.
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