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| Eve Torres is a major focus of this well-written paper on WWE's issues with women Photo Credit: WWE.com |
Carrie Dunn, Friend of the Blog and auteur of The Only Way Is Suplex, has written a paper for academia examining professional wrestling. When people tend to think about wrestling writing, blogs such as these or dirtsheets, or even WWE dot com itself come to mind. Due to its status as "lowbrow" entertainment, wrestling can sometimes be ignored by higher standards of writing, even though the art has so much to unpack that is more than just scoops, ratings, and spoilery speculation. It's a standard I attempt to meet here, but again, I'm not writing for prestigious journals. Carrie is.
And she does quite the fine job in this essay, examining misogyny within WWE. It's a comprehensive look at the issues facing women, centering around their role as props for men and picking apart the Divas division slogan "Sexy, Smart, Powerful." It's 18 pages long, but because it's an academic paper with double spacing, justified rule, and margins, along with how well it's written, it will be an ultimately quick read. This is the kind of work that the wrestling industry needs done to it, and it's something that not only fans should pay heed to, but also promoters and wrestlers as well. This essay is mandatory reading. I expect a summary on my desk by Monday or else YOU'LL FAIL THIS SEMESTER, YOU HEAR ME?