After discussing the world of wrestling on Tuesday I got into my car and turned on the radio. On the sportstalk station, the NFL was being discussed. With the approach of the upcoming Super Bowl, they were asking callers to comment on what makes pro football such a popular sport. After listening to them for the entire twenty minute car ride home, I noticed many similarities between it and professional wrestling. The NFL, like the WWF, is a bunch of huge testosterone globs beating the crap out of each other while women with small frames and large breasts stand on the sidelines and hope that their man brings back a victory.
When I got home I had a few minutes to kill before going to work so I popped in a Futurama DVD, and purely by chance played the one (if anyone is familiar) where Bender decided to become a professional wrestler. I am not in any way a fan of wrestling, so I don't really know much about how it works, but the cartoon lampoon made many of the same points that the documentary in class did. Bender started as an unstoppable king who couldn't lose a bout, but when his ratings began to slide, he was transformed into "The Gender Bender" who everyone immediately hated because of the pink tutu and overall gayness of the character.
But getting back on topic, Diaz' narrative was an accessible form of entertainment for the Europeans. His conquest narrative was not much different than the NFL or an episode of Futurama. It is propaganda meant to be consumed and it creates an image in the minds of laypeople. The argument is that either these things are what people want to consume and so it is only natural that things of this nature are produced, or things are produced to directly influence people in a specific way. But looking at history and noting that it has always been dominated and documented by males, it seems to be a vicious cycle. From the time of the first writings or even before, when oral creation stories were passed around, the stories have had a male-dominated theme. Even though the original stories were intended for male audiences they spread throughout the culture forcing everyone to "think like a man" until we come to today where most images have a chauvinistic tone.
It's hard for me to sort the notion that "it's human nature for us to be violent or to gravitate to violence." Which, I know, lots of experts and non-experts believe. And which a few of us argued in class. I'm not sure why but I'm always hesitant to swallow that argument. Especially when it comes to media studies. I think bc the media -- like lit -- is a construction. A performance. A product of the human imagination. Nothing "natural" about it. Not for me. And bc norms, codes, and ideals of violence shift dramatically across time and cultures. But, well, yeah, starting to ramble. Like your blog. It always keeps me thinking.
ReplyDeleteFirst, great connection to Futurama, what a severely underrated show. I liked how this blog was organized, as well as your style and overall take on the issue. Either this image/stereotype is fueled by "giving the people what they want" or attempting to acquire some position that allows one the ability to manipulate or persuade the fiber of a collective perception.
ReplyDeleteYet, while I loved your take on the aims and influences that create this 'production' or represenation, I would like to hear a bit more of your take on the issue. One step further, leaving me some answers or even rhetorical questions to chew on. Don't take it as criticism or anything, more a personal interest that I think you could apply to what I like about your already insightful analyses.
I can totally see the parallels between pro-wrestling and the NFL. Come to think about it, based sort of on what you wrote, wouldn't just about any sport fall into that category?
ReplyDeleteBoth of my nephews play sports - well, the older two, at least - and while it's a good way to release aggression, it can also perhaps pose a paradox in that it can teach them that it's ok just to tackle someone who ticks them off. Kind of like in the movie "The Waterboy" maybe, don't you think?
I really like the idea of this being a propaganda type message. Anything really that tells us how to be one way or another is in fact propaganda with an agenda to one side or the other. What toys are focused to which gender, and all the way up to how movie's are promoted to men and women. We circulate the same story over and over again and I at least think it stems to the fact that the men are the ones who win and come back and write history. And as we all know, history RARELY repeats itself.. HA..
ReplyDeleteGood blog, and Futurama is a great show, needs to come back to adult swim and off comedy central. :)