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Thursday, December 23, 2010

Sticks & Stones...

Vickie Guerrero & the other heel divas at WM26
There is a double standard in wrestling.  Lots of them actually.  But the one I'm going to address today is on the issue of bullying.

Before you click away, hear me out.  I understand it's wrestling, and you'd have to expect a certain amount of bullying, right?

TNA recently launched a campaign to stop bullying, but if you really think about it, it almost seems a bit hypocritical, doesn't it?  You're in a business were taunting is part of the job.  I guess it depends on what your definition of bullying is.  It really is all up to one's interpretation.


I briefly touched on this in yesterday's Tuesday Night SmackDown! post, but I want to explore it a little further today.  It's all about Vickie Guerrero and the double standard that seems to come into play involving her character.  And yes, I understand it is a character and that John Cena, Edge, and Jerry Lawler aren't really attacking Vickie Guerrero the person, the widow and mother of two.

Here's my question.  When Cena, Lawler and other tease Vickie, call her overweight (which she's not), and even dub her move "the Hog Splash" do the fans cheer about it?  Then when LayCool calls Mickie James "Piggy James" or Kelly Kelly "Smelly Kelly" why does the WWE Universe boo them out of the building.

Wrestling fans sometimes are illogical and hypercritical.  Another case in point.  People jeered CM Punk for telling it like it is when it comes to living a straight edge life.  The guy was basically saying, don't do drugs like Jeff Hardy does.  He's right, isn't he?  Hasn't this country been engaged in a war on drugs for decades now?  We arrest these offenders and put them in jail or make them go to rehab.  But when Punk wanted to get that message out about clean living he was hated for it.  Maybe it's all in the delivery.  Punk was supposed to be the heel.  The fans are supposed to hate him.  Jeff Hardy is the high flying superstar who teen girls around the country love.  So even if he does have a drug problem, it's okay because we like him.

The double standard thing has been an ongoing thing of course.  Gay characters are made to be bad guys.  Orlando Jordan, Adrian Adonis, and Goldust (although not gay, but had homosexual tendencies) were all booed by fans world wide.   Then there's those evil Canadians.  Last time I checked we were allies with Canada, yet for years we've booed guys like Dino Bravo, La Resistance, and the UnAmericans.

I guess I'm reading too much into the characters that are really here to just entertain us.  Maybe I should do a better job of suspending reality and just enjoy the show more.  Who needs to think about these things, right?

I'd like to know what you think.  Please share your thoughts.

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