The "Pretty Boy" had come out publicly in the '70s, but his sexuality was not officially recognized by the WWE (aside from a handful of sideways comments from announcers) until a few years ago. Patterson's character, who wore lipstick and sauntered to the ring with an effeminate intentionality, worked as both a heel and a face. Pat Patterson, a wrestler active in the '60s, '70s, and '80s, is one example of someone who succeeded despite the industry's biases. It's fucking frustrating, to say the least." "They know what they're doing, and the sad part is they need it. " always been treated like a joke, starting with Gorgeous George," says drag queen pro-wrestler The Boy Diva. Audiences would call her a "chick with a dick" while throwing batteries at her head during shows, she recounted the stories with terrible sadness. Even gender non-conforming heterosexuals suffered: In her autobiography, the late wrestler Chyna detailed the ways that her perceived masculinity made her a victim of transphobic attacks. At least one bizarre story line revolved entirely around a gay marriage ceremony that-big surprise-devolved into violence, much to the chagrin of GLAAD, who had originally celebrated the plot. During this phase, homophobic slurs exchanged between superstars were fairly commonplace, as were overtly rape-driven scenarios for female characters. Chants of "faggot" were fairly common.Īs recent as the late-'90s and early-'00s, during the so-called Attitude Era, the WWF (later renamed to WWE) aimed for sleazy shock value over athleticism or storytelling.
Characters like Adrian Adonis or Goldust, the latter of whom would come to the ring in full drag, made names for themselves as deplorable heels while the audience cheered for their destruction. Some wrestlers played up the audience's homophobia. Straddling the boundary between theater and athletic competition, pro-wrestling relies on exaggerated performances of masculinity and femininity to deliver a message and a story-again, not so dissimilar from drag.īut is the history of pro-wrestling, perhaps, tied to homophobia? As in most industries, it was not until rather recently that any queer person felt comfortable coming out of the closet, but behind-the-scenes practices and audience reactions to gender non-normativity made it clear that such a brave move would not be met with congratulations. A commonly heard phrase in training locker rooms is, "Wrestling is gay-get over it!" This basically serves to note how those uncomfortable with both same-sex body contact or colorful displays of emotion should probably leave the business. The appeal of pro-wrestling for LGBTQ audiences seems pretty obvious: Even beyond the sweat-drenched and muscle-bound bodies, pro-wrestling has had a particularly idiosyncratic form of souped-up glamour and over-the-top camp that lends itself to a queer sensibility. But a new generation of pro-wrestlers is changing the way people see the LGBTQ community and how the sport thinks about traditional gender roles. Despite the intrinsic flamboyance of the art form, pro-wrestling has traditionally cast gay and queer people as bad guys, as heels, largely because, for a very long time, crowds loved watching gay people get hurt. In the often-unspoken backstage lingo of pro-wrestling, heels are the bad guys, faces are the good guys. In both, there is a focus on heels and faces-but those things mean something a little different in sports entertainment.
The research concluded that at least 90 percent of wrestling fans must either be developmentally delayed or still in the closet.Though it might not be automatically apparent, the worlds of professional wrestling and drag have a lot in common. The study cited several examples - such as a handsome and muscular wrestler in pink tights named Dolph Ziggler, and backstage squabbling between catty tarts - that should not, in theory, appeal to straight adult males. “Why on earth would so many grown heterosexual men gather to watch oiled-up body builders roll around in a colorful spectacle? It’s completely counter-intuitive.”Īccording to the research, professional wrestling’s garish display of soap-opera theatrics performed by half-naked men in spandex should only appeal to children, women and homosexual men. Leo Knill, Director of Analytics for PollGroup International. “We just can’t explain the results,” said Dr. The discovery has been called “baffling” by the statistical analysis firm that conducted the research. Wrestling fans, who insist they’re straight, clamour to touch John Cena’s bare, rippling torso.Ī recent survey conducted at a World Wrestling Entertainment event has revealed, shockingly, that wrestling audiences are primarily made up of adult heterosexual males.