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All very interesting. I have rarely watched WWF/E or whatever but have often had a fine time surfing all the gay wrestling and wrestling erotica webrings /sites to be found online. From the business they seem to generate, there must indeed be a buck or two in it for somebody.
I'm not surprised at the unease of the audience though, Rizla, as I know a lot of fairly unreconstructed macho straight men who enjoy watching wrestling and are either immune to the homoeroticism or well aware of it but very uncomfortable when I bring it up. My dear old Dad, for one.
In fairness, my main interest in it would be the sexualised over- and undertones, but I know from their posts that's not what Bear or Solitaire Rose get from it. There is clearly the showmanship but also a lot of skill in executing the standard moves and throws etc.
Obviously there must be guys in professional wrestling who are gay and, as in any other sphere of life, I'd like them all to declare themselves, for the sake of their own peace of mind as much as anything, though big burly macho role models for those struggling in the closet would be a plus too.
Being gay men would then have to be part of their public personae but I'd like to think their wrestling ability would be what bounced viewing figures up rather than the "freak show" aspect. That was the deal in the original naked-Greek-boys-tussling-together set up, after all. The gay stuff was there, because sexual attitudes in general were very different then, but secondary to the skills required to win the bout or contest.
There was an interesting "Faking It" in the past year, on C4 in the UK, where a ballet dancer got a wig and some lycra and spent a month learning the basics, then launched himself very convincingly on the pro wrestling circuit. None of the experts identified him as the fake at the end.
The most interesting thing was that he really got into it, enjoyed it a lot when he got the bug, but was articulate and self-aware enough to be able to describe how his personality had changed. He behaved differently around other men in general and found himself slipping into a much more aggressive and macho posture in everyday life. This came at the cost of being able to talk freely about the things which had previously enthused him, such as his years of study and appreciation of the ballet.
It will come, the day when two gay men who wrestle can get "married" in the ring for real, but acceptance is going to take longer in the arena of full contact sports than in most other areas of life. |
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