Jenkins

In the Jenkins reading, “Never Trust a Snake”: WWF Wrestling as Masculine Melodrama, he displays multiple emotions and hardships that come with wrestling. The personal experiences that are connected with wrestling vary with everyone, but through it all it builds a bond in the wrestling community that most people will never understand. Jenkins goes into great detail about the background and history of wrestling and the way the game works. Jenkins states wrestling as “a form which bridges the gap between sport and melodrama, allows for the spectacle of male physical prowess but also for the exploration of the emotional and moral life of its combatants”(Jenkins 297). Not only does this state that wrestling is an ideal place to show anger, aggression, and other emotions, but it also goes into greater detail of having authority and the ring being related to having power. Jenkins also explains how the working class enjoys wresting because they believe strength shows moral authority, which will always prevail (300). Within the “Invincible Victims” section, there is a lot said about how men in the sport will “overcome the forces which subordinate them” (306). This is where I believe the working class men are the ones who show their moral values and choose to fight back. Jenkins gave a great example of Hulk Hogan when he was knocked down and beaten, but instead of lying on the ground, ready to accept defeat he chose to get up and fight back (306). I was confused when Jenkins talks about “Seeing Is Believing”. He tells us that people recognize that the sport is fake, but pretend it to be real. I do not know what he means by that exactly, but he gives great analogies.