"The Hero"
"TheVillain"
The World Wrestling Federation always possessed more than what most people would think. According to Henry Jenkins, in his essay, "Never Trust a Snake," the WWF always attracted fans through narratives and clever plot twists. The WWF constantly featured protagonists and antagonists that people would normally see in a book or novel. Now I use past-tense word choice because the WWF is no more but while it lasted it produced some of the most interesting story lines around. Working class men could come home from a long day at the meat factory and put their feet up to view more bloodshed. Only this kind was fake; and they knew it. Jenkins mentioned that the increased exaggeration and formation of the WWF characters transformed them into cartoon-ish figures, or even 'Invincible Victims.' He goes on to say the viewer could identify with the wrestler and dream that the WWF was a Utopian alternative.
Now if this viewer were actually able to gather up some change and time to go to a wrestling main event, Jenkins claims all emotions would pour out of the individual. Sitting and cheering for his favorite hero or villain really gave a man a reason to go outside his gender binary. Although the performance in the ring could be seen as 'campy,' it did not bother the fans. This was their Utopian world and their chance to get away from the harsh cruelties of their home and work lives. Mr. Jenkins couldn't have said this better when he claims, "Melodramatic wrestling allows working-class men to confront their own feelings of vulnerability, their own frustrations," (RAW 299). For a lot of men, most men, wrestling brought people together.
No comments:
Post a Comment