It’s no secret that I am a professional wrestling fan. It’s also pretty well-known that I have a lot of impassioned opinions based upon my viewership. Within the past week, I’ve become increasingly annoyed with the sexism in sports entertainment and how it affects female and male talent. We always hear about sexism in WWE, and yes, it is still a prevalent thing that will always need to be talked about. However, I feel like we never hear about how this sexism also hurts the male stars and the sport itself. Or we see it, but sweep it under the rug and treat it like it doesn’t exist.
I’m not going to sit here and tell you that I know every little thing about every single wrestler, and their struggles to make it to the top in pro wrestling, whether WWE or another promotion (I don’t even watch any other promotions). I am, however, going to tell you about the examples I’ve witnessed.
The Main WWE Divas Qualification: You Look Good
The hypocrisy was made apparent to me, months ago, when female talent like Eva Marie, JoJo, Aksana, Rosa Mendes, and Cameron were being showcased. These women are mediocre performers, at best, and that’s not with their physical performance in the ring. Actually, their acting is pretty awful too. Eva Marie is the worst. She fails at literally everything that she does. She always has since day one, when she directly defied talent relations and dyed her hair bright, Ronald McDonald red instead of the requested blonde.
This, of course, was shown on the “riveting” reality series, Total Divas, where you can see her many failures (which I’ll get back to in a second), as well as the failures and bitchiness of most of the rest of the “cast.” Basically, though, Eva Marie is a liar, a cheater, a failure at the physical aspect of wrestling (and never getting better), dead in the eyes, on the mic, and in charisma, and can’t even ring announce. She’s literally too stupid to have this job… any job, in the WWE. However, just like the other women I mentioned above, Eva doesn’t require any talent.
She basically has to show up and be some dude’s definition of “hot.”
I’m in no way trying to body shame. I don’t personally like the way she looks. However, I try to make it a point not to body shame. But what I am saying is true. These women all have some kind of “hot” look that panders to male WWE employees and the male fans. Because of that, most, if not all of these women (the ones who are now out or taking a break excluded) don’t have to work as hard as the males do, it seems, to get to the top because their qualification is solely based on being attractive to a mostly-male audience.
Back on Eva Marie – she was only on the developmental roster (NXT) for a few months before being called up to the main roster. And once there, she kept the failboat on course. It landed her back in NXT (the superior roster), to try and fix her (it’s not working). As for the other women, it’s been sad for me hear that some of them are only there for the money, that some of them would prefer to be professional dancers, some just want the fame, etc. It’s disgusting, because there are females who are thirsty for the pro wrestling experience, and would love to be in those places. However, no… they’re not “hot” enough, or are just too talented to play brainless pawns. Brainless pawns, by the way, who are made to play out some of the worst stereotypical female stereotypes.
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I’m not saying that every WWE Diva is like this. In fact, I’m not saying that no Diva has wanted their opportunity. Many did, like A.J. Lee. So did people like Natalya and Charlotte, though they constantly get snide comments that they’re only popular because they’re legacy wrestlers (which is bull, as both women can wrestle like bosses). Charlotte, the daughter of Ric Flair, is actually the current WWE Divas Champion. I see way fewer stories about the struggles of the female talent of WWE, than I do about those of the Superstars (male talent).
This was made more apparent by the arrival of the new special on the WWE Network, Breaking Ground. There’s only been one episode so far, but I’ve seen enough to know that the spotlight on the females’ struggles to get to where they are, are minuscule compared to those of the males. I saw maybe a couple of minutes of females’ stories, and the rest were from the males. There have also been these kinds of specials before, though shorter, and guess what? They were about the guys – not the ladies.
How the WWE Divas Standard Hurts Male Wrestlers
It just seems kind of unfair to me. Again, we can’t call out sexism in this industry without mentioning what men go through, too. There’s something very wrong with the men having to struggle their asses off to get where they are, when the women just have to show up, looking like someone’s idea of hot, and wanting fame.
I do respect all the wrestlers for what they do (unless they’ve done reprehensible things like Hulk Hogan), but I think that equality is important. Hell, the Divas being treated differently, in this way, is one of the reasons why the Divas Division likes to get really, really, really stupid sometimes. Luckily, things have gotten somewhat better in it, but it’s WWE, and they have the propensity to mess it up yet again. In fact, it’s almost inevitable.
WWE needs to get their crap together, and hire women who want to work in the industry, just as much as the guys do, who will put in the work. They can still be attractive. But that needs to quit being the main standard for their hiring women. If there is to be true equality in the industry, then all the sexist standards need to end.
