Clemson University TigerPrints All Theses Theses 5-2017 "They've Come to Draw Blood" - How Women Fans of World Wrestling Entertainment Perceive Women Wrestlers Melissa Jacobs Clemson University,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_theses Recommended Citation Jacobs, Melissa, ""They've Come to Draw Blood" - How Women Fans of World Wrestling Entertainment Perceive Women Wrestlers" (2017). All Theses. 2638. https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_theses/2638 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses at TigerPrints. It has been accepted for inclusion in All Theses by an authorized administrator of TigerPrints. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. “THEY’VE COME TO DRAW BLOOD” – HOW WOMEN FANS OF WORLD WRESTLING ENTERTAINMENT PERCEIVE WOMEN WRESTLERS A Thesis Presented to the Graduate School of Clemson University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts Communication, Technology, and Society by Melissa Jacobs May 2017 Accepted by: Dr. D. Travers Scott, Committee Chair Dr. Erin Ash Dr. Darren Linvill ABSTRACT For a long time, professional wrestling has existed on the outskirts of society, with the idea that it was just for college-aged men. With the rise of the popularity of the World Wrestling Entertainment promotion, professional wrestling entered the mainstream. Celebrities often appear at wrestling shows, and the WWE often hires mainstream musical artists to perform at their biggest shows, WrestleMania and Summer Slam. Despite this still-growing popularity, there still exists a gap between men’s wrestling and women’s wrestling. Often the women aren’t allowed long match times, and for the longest time sometimes weren’t even on the main shows.