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Ritual drama in American popular culture: The case of professional wrestling
Abstract
American professional wrestling has enjoyed increased popularity in recent years and is now one of the most popular American spectator events. Utilizing the critical dramaturgy of Mary Jo Deegan, the ritual theories of Victor Turner and Erving Goffman are intertwined to describe the structure of professional wrestling's ritual process. Deegan theorizes the existence of four core codes in American popular culture structure: Sexism, capitalism, bureaucracy, and commodification of time. These core codes are examined for their applicability to professional wrestling. A multiple-methodology approach is used to examine the current wrestling phenomenon First, historical analysis provides a perspective on past ritual importance and development of the current structure. Second, participant observation determines the impact of the ritual on fans in the participatory event. Third, interviews made with fans, non-fans, and a former professional wrestler, reveal a diversity of opinions and attitudes. Finally, local cable programming was monitored and samples of available programming analyzed for content. Unlike other studies of professional wrestling which concentrate only on one wrestling association, this study compares five major associations: The World Wrestling Federation, the National Wrestling Alliance, the American Wrestling Association the Continental Wrestling Association, and the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling. The ritual setting is analyzed and commonalties noted. Traditional ritual characters are defined and compared with their contemporary counterparts. Where necessary, new stereotypic categories are created and their ritual roles defined. The ritual drama itself is described, and modern variations in the ritual structure discussed. The ritual drama is composed of repetitive themes played by stereotyped ritual characters. Such themes serve the purpose of providing models for behavior, thereby suggesting class-specific courses of action in crisis situations or daily interaction. The presence of Deegan's core codes is shown to be both "oppressive" and "repressive." Although ritual is traditionally a mechanism providing social cohesion, the ritual of professional wrestling creates and reinforces alienation through manipulation of values, negative stereotypic representation of minority groups, and stereotypic class characterizations.
Subject Area
Social structure|Cultural anthropology|American studies
Recommended Citation
Ball, Michael R, "Ritual drama in American popular culture: The case of professional wrestling" (1989). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI8918545.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI8918545