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The Wrestling Episode 🤼

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Manage episode 421159467 series 3546233
Content provided by Samantha and Remoy and Supported by Next Gen Men. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by Samantha and Remoy and Supported by Next Gen Men or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://player.fm/legal.

Calling all wrestling fans! This week, we are joined by playwright, Chicano history and theater professor, and self-professed smark Beto O’Byrne to talk MASKulinity in wrestling. Not your Olympics wrestling—it’s WWE, baby!

  • Is wrestling fake? How dare you ask that?! Beto sets the record straight.
    • Wrestling is simultaneously sport and theater. This scripted performance produces an over-the-top MASKulinity for its audience of mostly men to thoroughly enjoy. What are the implications for MASKulinity? We discuss.
    • Beto walks us through what that has looked like in the ring over time.
  • Beto and Remoy share their mutual love of wrestling as youngsters and nerd out on their favorite moves.
    • Moonsault anyone? What’s a hangman? Get your Google out—lots of terms in this one.
  • Beto walks us through wrestling history and its connections to theater performances.
    • Many sports often have that flavor of homoerotism in many ways, and wrestling is no different.
    • How did wrestling evolve from its carnival roots to the WWE we know and love?
    • Wrestlers meld their in-ring persona with their real-world persona.
      • Colorful characters Stone Cold Steve Austins and The Rocks bled into American pop culture with their larger-than-life personas informing MASKulinity in their own ways.
  • Listen for the best quote on professional wrestling you’ve ever heard in your life from Vince McMahon’s unauthorized biography.
  • Beto highlights the different “characters” in wrestling storytelling:
    • You’ve got your heel, your monster heel, your babyface—all different facets of MASKulinity in the ring.
      • We’ve gotta know! Which archetype do you love?
      • Samantha gets to guess who The Man is, and if your wrestling knowledge is as limited as hers, you may be surprised to find out who it is…
  • Women wrestle too, but it wasn’t always that way…
    • Models used to be recruited to get in the ring?! How did we go from hyperfemininity in this MASKuline world to Chyna and Jade Cargill?
    • Beto gives us a portrait of the evolution of women wrestlers in the McMahon machine.
  • In our UnMASKed Interview segment, we get a snapshot of luchador culture and performance and its impact on American wrestling.
  • We reflect on the ways that wrestling lets men watch other men be close…something they’re way less allowed to do in real life.
    • Is it cathartic?
    • Beto reflects on his Southern culture around MASKulinity and the vicarious experience that the WWE offers.
  • We go further in the theatricality of the WWE and what that looks like when performing for tens of thousands of people.

Referenced in this episode:

COMPANION PIECES:

  continue reading

81 episodes

Artwork
iconShare
 
Manage episode 421159467 series 3546233
Content provided by Samantha and Remoy and Supported by Next Gen Men. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by Samantha and Remoy and Supported by Next Gen Men or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://player.fm/legal.

Calling all wrestling fans! This week, we are joined by playwright, Chicano history and theater professor, and self-professed smark Beto O’Byrne to talk MASKulinity in wrestling. Not your Olympics wrestling—it’s WWE, baby!

  • Is wrestling fake? How dare you ask that?! Beto sets the record straight.
    • Wrestling is simultaneously sport and theater. This scripted performance produces an over-the-top MASKulinity for its audience of mostly men to thoroughly enjoy. What are the implications for MASKulinity? We discuss.
    • Beto walks us through what that has looked like in the ring over time.
  • Beto and Remoy share their mutual love of wrestling as youngsters and nerd out on their favorite moves.
    • Moonsault anyone? What’s a hangman? Get your Google out—lots of terms in this one.
  • Beto walks us through wrestling history and its connections to theater performances.
    • Many sports often have that flavor of homoerotism in many ways, and wrestling is no different.
    • How did wrestling evolve from its carnival roots to the WWE we know and love?
    • Wrestlers meld their in-ring persona with their real-world persona.
      • Colorful characters Stone Cold Steve Austins and The Rocks bled into American pop culture with their larger-than-life personas informing MASKulinity in their own ways.
  • Listen for the best quote on professional wrestling you’ve ever heard in your life from Vince McMahon’s unauthorized biography.
  • Beto highlights the different “characters” in wrestling storytelling:
    • You’ve got your heel, your monster heel, your babyface—all different facets of MASKulinity in the ring.
      • We’ve gotta know! Which archetype do you love?
      • Samantha gets to guess who The Man is, and if your wrestling knowledge is as limited as hers, you may be surprised to find out who it is…
  • Women wrestle too, but it wasn’t always that way…
    • Models used to be recruited to get in the ring?! How did we go from hyperfemininity in this MASKuline world to Chyna and Jade Cargill?
    • Beto gives us a portrait of the evolution of women wrestlers in the McMahon machine.
  • In our UnMASKed Interview segment, we get a snapshot of luchador culture and performance and its impact on American wrestling.
  • We reflect on the ways that wrestling lets men watch other men be close…something they’re way less allowed to do in real life.
    • Is it cathartic?
    • Beto reflects on his Southern culture around MASKulinity and the vicarious experience that the WWE offers.
  • We go further in the theatricality of the WWE and what that looks like when performing for tens of thousands of people.

Referenced in this episode:

COMPANION PIECES:

  continue reading

81 episodes

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