Racial Stereotypes at Wrestlemania: a Political Economic Approach Zachary M
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Florida State University Libraries Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School 2014 Racial Stereotypes at Wrestlemania: A Political Economic Approach Zachary M. Bartlett Follow this and additional works at the FSU Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected] FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF COMMUNICATION AND INFORMATION RACIAL STEREOTYPES AT WRESTLEMANIA: A POLITICAL ECONOMIC APPROACH By ZACHARY M. BARTLETT AThesis submitted to the School of Communication in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science Degree Awarded: Summer Semester, 2014 Zach Bartlett defended this thesis on April 18, 2014. The members of the supervisory committee were: Jennifer Proffitt Professor Directing Thesis Davis Houck Committee Member Felecia Jordan Jackson Committee Member The Graduate School has verified and approved the above-named committee members, and certifies that the thesis has been approved in accordance with university requirements. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Composing this thesis was an enjoyable yet exhausting ride, and would not have been possible without much assistance from many people. First off, I’d like to thank Dr. Jennifer Proffitt, for guiding me throughout the process. I was perpetually underprepared and overambitious and your willingness to guide me regardless is sincerely appreciated. I’d also like to thank my committee members Dr. Davis Houck and Dr. Felecia Jordan for their guidance, patience, and encouragement. I‘d like to thank the entire FSU College of Communication for allowing me to stick around as long as they have, and for letting me write over 25,00 words on professional wrestling. To Mark Zeigler and Dr. Misha Laurents, thank you for your support in and out of academe, and your friendship, I appreciate all you’ve done for me. To Marlon Johnson, Jeff Allen, James Ford and Danny Alton, thanks for watching and talking wrestling with me. To Carden, and many of my dear friends, thank you for not taking grievance with my six month disappearance. Thanks to my brother and sister. Murph, I cant express how happy I am that I didn’t botch that piledriver attempt 20 years ago too badly, and Jacklynn, thanks for putting up with us. Thanks to my Mom, for her indefatigable belief in her eldest son, despite his moments of exhaustion inspired self-doubt. To my Dad, thank you for your calming presence and wise words, without them I probably would have quit long ago. I’d also like to thank Lily Dover. Though I haven’t seen you since 1991, and I see no reason why you’d ever know this document exists, or even if that’s how to spell your name, without your accidental stumble upon professional wrestling while channel surfing when you were baby sitting, I may not have become the fan I am today. Finally, I’d like to thank professional wrestlers for the years of entertainment they’ve provided me. You’re doing good work out there. Be safe. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... vi INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................... 1 LITERATURE REVIEW AND METHODOLOGY .................................................................... 12 Race and Sport(s Entertainment) ............................................................................................ 12 Previous Studies on Professional Wrestling ........................................................................... 22 Wrestling with Political Economy as a Method ....................................................................... 24 Consciousness Industry ..................................................................................................... 26 Culture Industry ................................................................................................................. 28 Political Economy and Cultural Studies ........................................................................... 30 Political Economy and Race ............................................................................................. 32 Race, Media Effects and Political Economy ..................................................................... 35 Methodology ........................................................................................................................... 37 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ................................................................................................... 40 The Culture Industry of Professional Wrestling ...................................................................... 40 Ideology and WWE .................................................................................................................. 50 Commodified Exotica ...................................................................................................... 51 The Mexicanization of Tito Santana, the exotic other: Rey Mysterio, and the aaaaaaaa lying, cheating, stealing Guerreros ....................................................................... 52 The tale of Tito Santana ........................................................................................ 53 Guerrero and the glass ceiling .............................................................................. 55 The commodification of Rey Mysterio ............................................................... 57 The wrestling minstrel at WrestleMania: from JYD to the Funkasaurus .............. 59 Charles Wright: the man of many stereotypes .................................................... 62 iv Booker T’s injustice ............................................................................................. 63 Virgil and “redemption” ....................................................................................... 66 You must know karate : Asian and Pacific Island ignorance .............................. 67 The de-evolution of Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat ......................................... 68 Threats to the Hegemony .................................................................................................. 70 Alberto Del Rio: 2 time WWE Champion (kind of) ......................................... 70 Angry Black men ............................................................................................... 71 Yokozuna ........................................................................................................... 73 Uncivilized savages ............................................................................................ 74 American Ethnocentrism ................................................................................................... 75 The Rock’s Success ........................................................................................................... 78 The Women of WrestleMania and Hegemonic Hypermasculinity ................................... 80 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 85 Limitations ...................................................................................................................... 89 Further Research .............................................................................................................. 90 Final Thoughts .................................................................................................................. 90 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................. 92 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH ...................................................................................................... 104 v ABSTRACT Ever since professional wrestling made the transition from sport to spectacle, stereotypes have played a role in the show, traditionally as a narrative device that divides the wrestling world into heels (villains) and faces (heroes). In the past, as a regional product, wrestling promotions would appeal to the demographic of the region, placing their morals and ideology onto the hero. As wrestling has gone mainstream, that hasn’t changed, but the audience has. No longer relying solely on regional ticket sales, but rather large, national mass media contracts and advertisers, professional wrestling now attempts to appeal to the white, masculine, neoliberal hegemony and in doing so perpetuates its ideology through stereotypes. Now, nearly every group outside of the majority culture is depicted by lazy archetypal portrayals meant to reinforce hegemonic ideology. This thesis, using the work of many political economic scholars, attempts to identify and describe portrayals of race in the WWE from a political economic perspective, focusing on the ideology dispersed by the messages within WWE content and the structural factors that encourage the portrayals. In attempt to do so, trade journals and popular press were examined, and WrestleManias 1-30 were analyzed using textual analysis to examine portrayals of race. vi INTRODUCTION Professional wrestling has come a long way since its days on the fair and carnival circuit in the late 19th century (Maguire, 2005). This “bastard art form” of “trash culture” is now a billion dollar industry and a worldwide phenomenon (Beekman, 2005, p.1; Shoemaker, 2013, p.9). According to its annual report to its shareholders, the WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) brought in