Volume 96, Issue 22
Friday, October 4, 2002
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Erotic wrestling a sin?
Where's
Chip?
Dale Wyatt
A&E Editor
For
a well educated human being, there are a lot of things I don't understand.
Things like physics, other languages and how the movie Weekend at Bernie's
ever got the thumbs-up are just some of the things that confuse me.
There is, however, one thing I have never understood at all – how
anyone who watches wrestling, like World Wrestling Entertainment, can
be homophobic.
Let's take a close look at what wrestling actually is.
At its core, WWE is comprised of a bunch of steroid-injected macho men
in tight shorts – let's face it, underwear – that, if worn at
the beach, would cause most people's stomachs to turn. After dressing,
they march out of a tunnel, flexing their oiled muscles, strutting down
a runway to theme music.
Once the wrestlers reach the ring, they are joined by another oily person.
They then proceed to wrestle each other until one ends up on top –
kind of sounds like a game I tried to get my girlfriend to play once.
To recap, the lengthy matches consist of two giant men in their underwear
rolling around trying to get on top of one another in front of dozens
of TV cameras.
See what I'm getting at?
Here is my major problem, beyond the simple fact that, to begin with,
homophobia is a disease caused by an extreme lapse in intelligence.
When two consenting men decide to partake in similar less-dressed-up acts
behind closed doors, and no TV crews are around, it is considered wrong
to a homophobic. Yet, if the two men wanted to do the same in front of
a camera so people can pay to watch it, it's considered OK. Something
just doesn't seem right about that.
Almost no sport exists which doesn't involve some kind of male-on-male
contact. Baseball, basketball and football are all infamous for the obligatory
butt slap and hockey involves a group hug after a goal. So why are none
of these simple harmless acts frowned upon? If people are willing to accept
these acts, then how can anyone justify homophobia? The simple answer
is – you can't.
What two consenting individuals of any gender decide to do behind closed
doors away from the public doesn't affect anyone. However, what happens
on TV in front of an audience does.
In that respect, if you truly are homophobic, you should be outraged by
wrestling. Make up some signs and go protest. After all, would you want
your children watching such filth?
Before all you wrestling fans bombard me with hate mail, take a moment
to consider this – I have no problem with wrestling or homosexuality
and everything I said about what happens in a wrestling match is true.
Given that, what's making you mad?