Should The Sex Appeal Of The Women Be Downplayed?

[Jack-Hammer]

This isn't something that's a huge deal for me, though it's one that I haven't seen many conversations about. It just sort of came into my mind recently just how dolled up the WWE women are whenever they come out to wrestle. They're going out there to wrestle, yet they have their hair and make up done as though they're stepping out for a night on the town with the man of their dreams. It just sort of strikes me as odd as you don't really see that a whole lot in female sports; Ronda Rousey wasn't glammed up, nor are any of the other female MMA fighters during their bouts that I've seen, it's not how it's done during female boxing matches, soccer games, basketball games, etc.

This isn't really a complaint or anything, as long as the women are relevant parts of the product and have the ability to keep me entertained/interested in what they're doing, that's what's most important to me. Still, I think it'd be kinda cool if most of the women were butched up a little.

 

[rbv13]

WWE is entertainment and as much as some politically correct activists would like us to believe sex appeal is a major selling point in the industry. What's particularly funny about the situation is WWE no longer openly acknowledges the sexy angle yet the women performers dress much more provocatively than the past eras.

It should also be noted the men are out there selling sex appeal just as much as the ladies. It just doesn't get the recognition because the majority discussing such issues on the internet are heterosexual males.

 

[Spidey Revivey]

You're joking. Rhonda Rousey's sex appeal was a huge selling factor. She even posed nude. Any female MMA fighter with recognition also had a spread somewhere online where they're the definition of sexy. No matter what sport men or women are in, looks matter. It sells. Women in wrestling are no different. If they're not having Bra and Panties matches, they are baring their stomachs, legs, cleavage, etc. Men are oiled up Fantasy Romance Erotica. Look at Roman Reigns and tell me he looks like your average joe. Even Braun Strowman could steal your girl. That's just the nature of the beast. Everybody on camera has to be sexy, or so ugly you can't look away. That's television.

Sure, I'd like to see men fight who didn't shave their pits and I'd like to see women come out looking like they've had a rough night. But TV world forbids it. We like seeing pretty people.

 

[OYDK]

Yeah, sex appeal is a huge part of wrestling and has been for a while now, really ever since pro wrestling became sports entertainment. And it works both ways. While the women may get more attention for their bodies than the men, and rightly so considering the vast majority of the fanbase are male, it's not like the guys aren't dolled up to a certain degree as well. There's a reason why every male wrestler is completely bald from the head down, why, for the most part, their facial hair looks absolutely perfect, why a lot of them are greased up before stepping in the ring. And vice versa, why bigger, rougher guys like Owens, Wyatt, and Strowman are made to look as grungy as possible.

Wrestling, in its most basic and primitive form, is really just oiled up men and women fake fighting in a ring in their underwear. Sex is tied into the appeal whether we want to admit it or not. And also, while it's true that a lot of women athletes don't make it a point to do their hair/makeup before competing, I've seen a lot that do. Many of the female soccer players in the Olympics (which is really the only time I watch soccer so I'm not sure if it's a normal thing) had their make-up done to the point where it was running down their faces. I've also seen volleyball players doll themselves up to a certain degree.

As long as I don't feel like women are doing shit against their will, which is how I felt a lot of times during the AE, and as long as being sexy isn't the only criteria for becoming a female wrestler, I don't see a problem with using sex appeal as a selling point.

 

[Bernkastel]

Sex appeal has always been a part of of women's wrestling. Ever since the pioneer days where Mildred Burke, Johnnie Mae Young, and Penny Banner all doubled as pin up models. In Japan it was the same way. Women like Megumi Kudo and Manami Toyota were pleasing to look at, more so than Aja Kong and Combat Toyota, so they were pushed as flagstaff stars. In the mid 00's, Trish Stratus, Lita, Stacy Keibler, and Torrie Wilson... same thing. They were marketable thanks to their looks. WWE would be cutting the potential money they could make off a Charlotte Flair or a Sasha Banks by downplaying their beauty and attractive womanly features. I've seen Charlotte on the cover of muscle fitness magazines already. As Spidey pointed out even in organized women's sports sex sells. MMA, volleyball, tennis, basketball, softball, soccer. Why should pro wrestling be any different, because it's entertainment? In entertainment sex sells. I get not purposely "glamming up the women" gratuitously for matches, but outside of that marketing the women for their looks should be just as important.

 

[ISkye]

On a WWE / "Sports Entertainment" end I think it's fine where it's at. The comment on women in Japan is a pretty good note, and it's no different today in a lot of ways. Popular male Japanese stars, who are deemed attractive have also done sexually implied photo shoots before. NJPW has a pretty split fan base gender ratio wise, and they've released borderline pornography of attractive male favorites. Okada was literally on headlines for Tokyo Sports promoting a nude "photo book" of himself.

Nearly anyone in WWE is easy on the eyes visually. Even if they aren't stereo typically attractive or so there is plenty to go around in the male and female rosters. They aren't playing second fiddle in a male wrestlers story line, and are actually getting acclaimed for in ring work. They've actually toned down consistently in the dress code / make up department for their talent. They've made quite a bit of improvement in a short time in match / show quality, and talent relations. I see no problem as long as it isn't ridiculously pressured onto them or is all they're around for.

Ronda is nearly, if not fully nude on several magazine covers and on public TV openly discussing sexual relations quite frequently. After going on almost any major MMA, Boxing or combat sport with women involved I have a hard time criticizing WWE or their fan base. Even Football, baseball, etc seem to have much more bluntly misogynistic thinking with less solid reasoning.

I'd like more realistic focal points in the term of a women's feud rather than one involving two male wrestlers. Other than that I'll watch if the match or segment is good, and skip it if it sucks. I think several main roster males are highly attractive, but I'm not really watching multiple hours a week of pro-wrestling across the world because I find wrestlers hot. I'd rather watch a 5 Star match with two wrestlers I find visually appealing, than a 5 star match without it. It's not a make or break though.

It's fine where it's at considering where it was at just over a year ago in WWE and in the context of Pro-Wrestling as a whole. We all have stuff we'd change, but I could think of quite a long list of heavier things I'd want adjusted in real life or Keyfabe.

 

[Kodo Sawaki]

People say it like there is something wrong with it. While whole bunch of real athletes that arent just entertainers use it to be more marketable. Rousey is just one example. Look at Serena Williams. Heck, female tennis players use sex appeal as far as I watch tennis. You had Hingis and Kournikova. Ana Ivanovic before and after she even won anything and become more model then tennis player. Eugenie Bouchard now. Sure, most of them played tennis really successful more or less but appeal they had helped them attract fans and sponsors and others. Nothing wrong in being marketable in more then one way. It can only help you in the long run, especially when you are in entertainment business like WWE.

 

[LBGetBack]

I think they are downplaying it. Their looks are never talked about, sex and romance has zero to do with the division. It's not like when all the divas were sleeping with Vince(storyline wise) to get ahead.

Now? They just wrestle. They aren't dressed any differently than the men in terms of wearing little. The emphasis is on their wrestling ability and their character, not on how hot they are. And honestly? While they are all attractive to a degree, it's not like the past where the hottest women were made into the top wrestlers and then tried to improve their in ring skills. I don't think Charlotte, Becky, Bayley, or Nia Jaxx would've been pushed as hard in other eras. They aren't super attractive in comparision to many in the past(Trish, Kelly Kelly, Eve, Sable, Candice Michelle, Layla, Melina, etc.), they're being pushed on their ability and characters.

 

[Vanilla Midget]

We've come a long way from the age of the bra and panties match, so it has been downplayed to an extent. Commentators tend to play up the women's wrestling acumen and storylines as opposed to Jerry Lawler screaming "puppies" until he enters cardiac arrest.

There's a difference between WWE and UFC when it comes to attire. UFC has genuine health concerns that require fighters to wear more subdued yet functional gear. In UFC you don't want excess clothing for your opponent to grab or makeup/face paint to get into your eyes and cost you a fight.

In the scripted world of WWE there's a certain showmanship aspect. The same applies to the men as the women. Macho Man wore a rainbow of colours and tassels to the ring, as if to say he was bright, shiny, and worth looking at. Many men wear facepaint, almost like painting their faces for war.

The same applies to women. If you require them to downplay the sexual side, you lose a lot of the showman side. Should Jericho stop wearing sequins on his trunks? Look at what Tyler Breeze wears to the ring.

There's a massive difference between sexuality and objectification. The attitude era treated the women as sex objects to be gawked at. The current women fight for titles and they look glamorous doing it, to sell the pageantry of professional wrestling.

UFC fighters don't do their make up because there's a good chance their faces are going to get busted open and screwed up. You don't want you hair loose and flowing so it doesn't get snagged by your opponent. No point in spending two hours on hair and make up if you're going to be busted open and drenched in your own blood or better, that of your opponent.

It would be interesting to see if WWE ever debuted a female legit fighter character. Not an unstoppable monster, just one who comes to fight sans make up, in UFC style fight gear, and hair tied down in corn rows. It could work for that character, but it doesn't make sense in the world of wrestling at large.

 

[Ex-Degenerate]

WWE has toned down a lot of the sexual innuendos of the past when it comes to female wrestlers and managers. Less than 10 years ago, woman's wrestling was nothing but striptease matches and underwear pillowfight matches and really sexualized matches like that. The days of R rated shows like Edge and Lita's simulated sex celebrations, Trish Stratus on all fours barking like a dog, are over, and its for the better.

Hell, now women can headline pay-per-views, with ironman and hell-in-a cell matches and probably out draw the crusierweights.

 

[robinkom]

From my perspective, there's always a little sex appeal to all the women wrestlers. If you're someone attracted to women, yeah, chances are you might find one of more of them cute no matter how subtle it is or not, that's just natural. You can't make the division entirely void of it though.

I can't speak to the reality of the Creative decision making in WWE but, knowing what I know from just observing/analyzing wrestling for close to 3 decades and having the long-time hobby of trying my best to create believable fictional e-fed wrestlers over the last 20 years as if it were real, I think "extreme sex appeal" should be classified as one woman's gimmick.

That probably sounded incredibly nerdy, but I've been involved with a lot of art design and writing in other mediums and genres of entertainment. My love of wrestling just became a natural extension so, in my downtime, using the creation tools in WWE's video games going all the way back to WWF War Zone to make up my own wrestling personas has been kind of a zen thing for me. But I digress. ^^;

It's a self-contained character on it's own. Charlotte is the "franchise player" character, Bayley is the peppy upbeat positive kid-friendly role model, Sasha is the sharp-tongued babyface with an attitude. If so desired, a girl could be given the character of the "overt sex kitten." But to make that work, you have to off-set the persona by giving it to a woman that's a good worker and not just a pretty face. Her looks are the bonus, her ability in the ring legitimizes the persona as more than just cheap appeal to perverts. The character can even go either the direction of being serious or a parody of itself, the latter of which was someone kind of like Bertha Faye in the mid-90s.

Personally, I'd choose the parody of a sexually-oriented character as a heel. She'd come down the aisle wearing garish over-the-top entrance attire with a face painted up like a drag queen and think she's just the hottest thing to ever walk the Earth. If the woman portraying it is naturally charismatic enough, the fans would probably turn her babyface organically just to take the piss out of whatever "Barbie dolls" are still on the roster that they legitimately hate.