Ladies!


I want to talk about what makes women's pro wrestling such a huge turn-on for me, a Kinsey-6 gay man.  I think it has to do with the fact that women are so expressive in the ring.  They do not feel inhibited by masculine reserve, stoicism, and homophobia, so they freely grimace, make noises, and shamelessly yank at each other's hair, twist each other's tits, and boot each other's pussy.  Women honor no rules of combat--so, as we all know, a good catfight knows no bounds.  They will put their hands on any part of their opponent's anatomy without self-consciousness and without hazard to their conceptions of themselves as women.

Sure, it is "unladylike" to fight, but their basic sexuality is not called into question when women come into bodily contact with other women, so there is no end to their exhibitionism in this respect.  What this means to pro wrestling is that women, pound for pound, put on a better, sexier show than men ordinarily do.  I find that male wrestlers who are similarly able to put their reticence on hold in a match--and let loose the howls, grimacing, and ball grabbing I find so deliriously enticing--are the most entertaining and exciting wrestlers to watch.  But, things as they are, women are vastly more dependable on this point than men.

Masculinity--or the current idea of masculinity--involves restricted displays of emotion.  Male emotions have perhaps only a tenth of the channels of expression that female emotions have.  As a rule, hispanic and black men struggle with an even greater burden in this respect than anglo white men, perhaps because historically American culture has been so keen on (literally) emasculating non-white males.   So latin machismo and afro-urban gangsta-tuff typically generate only terse, minimalist displays of emotion, which, frankly, for my tastes, limit the entertainment value of a ring battle.  These days a good "fight face" means a blank, impenetrable expression.  (There are many exceptions to this rule:  Kenny King, Chavo Guerrera, Tony Atlas--but you get my point.)  And since the death of John Wayne, blacks and latinos and Clint Eastwood have pretty much held the franchise on American masculinity.

Outside the ring, I happen to prefer a stoical affect--nothing gets on my nerves more in everyday life than a whiner and kvetch.  But inside the squared circle, I want to see men do more than strike poses and jump acrobatically off top ropes--I want them to scream, cry, hiss, squeal, grunt, moan, snarl, cower, and plead.  I want audacity--and I want them to cut loose from the ordinary proprieties of professionalism and street cool and let er rip.

Why the ladies are so much better at putting on this kind of messy, noisy show of a fight is perhaps related to the fact that fighting already lies outside the realm of ladylike conduct.  A woman wrestler has stepped outside the ordinary rules of feminine behavior.  Once a woman enters into a physical brawl, she sets aside certain cultural expectations of how females ought to behave.  Once she can get past the idea that a lady ought not to punch another lady in the face, it is not so much of a leap to kick another lady in the tits, while screaming her lungs out.

Fighting for men, on the other hand, is an intrinsic part of masculinity.  Though greatly reduced and transmogrified in the past sixty years or so, the "warrior spirit" is still a huge component of masculine identity and demeanor.  But this "warrior spirit" comes with definite and unbreakable rules--whether through the rigorous disciplines of martial arts training or the Marquess of Queensberry rules of boxing.  Fighting fair and by honorable rules is intrinsic to proper masculinity--cowardly and underhanded fighting is, almost by definition, effeminate.  But in a wrestling show, cowardliness and underhandedness are vastly more entertaining than manly reserve, which is perhaps why people "love to hate" heels so much--and perhaps why the "gay gimmick" has persisted to this day.

There is also the question of homophobia.  As I said, women wrestlers tend to make more body contact than their male counterparts do.  Although many still argue whether male-male wrestling is or is not "gay"--both sides presuming that there ought not to be anything remotely erotic in a "real" fight--women's wrestling has always been unapologetically sensual.  In fact, most of the same people who adamantly deny the erotic appeal of male-male wrestling openly embrace the prurient pleasures of female-female and female-male wrestling.  A catfight during recess was as close as most sixth-grade boys used to get to a sexual experience.

That the word "lesbian" frequently pops up in the context of women's wrestling is conceivably another indication of women's comparable freedom in bodily contact with their own sex.  Male and female homosexuality are alike condemned in our society, but female homosexuality--real or fantasized--has long been a turn-on for heterosexual men--and, thus, American women have held hands in public, kissed, and snuggled up with their pals with a freedom denied to American men.  So then American women wrestlers risk nothing by grabbing each other by the ass, tits, or twat--but such is not yet the case for the men.

Obviously, as you know if you visit this blog much, I enjoy--profoundly enjoy--male-on-male combat and competition.  That I also enjoy women's wrestling is a bit of a surprise--even to me.  On the whole, I prefer the men--it is, after all, men I'm attracted to physically.  But nine times out of ten, it is the women wrestlers who put on the more satisfying show.

(All screen caps from Ladies Professional Wrestling Association channel on YouTube)

Comments

  1. Something not mentioned is that only lady pro wresting pre-1990 is hot. Now women fight like the men - even in the indies...all gymnastics without the sexiness. But anything from the 50s,60s,70,s and 80s in one piece suits and pro boots with some white-trash bleach-blond loud-mouth whippin'another gal around the ring hits my erotic buttons every bit as the fellas.

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  2. Have you ever seen the cartoonish 80s federation Glamorous Ladies of Wrestling (GLOW)? Every character was a stereotype -- the blonde cheerleader, the punk rock girl, the Latin hellcat, the country gal -- there was even a tag team called The Housewives (two gals in pajamas, rollers and cold cream on their faces and brandishing brooms; boy, could they nag!) The show was kind of hilarious and offensive at the same time.

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