Fighting for Recognition

Identity, Masculinity, and the Act of Violence in Professional Wrestling

R. Tyson Smith (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

240 Seiten

2014
Duke University Press (Verlag)
978-0-8223-5722-3 (ISBN)

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In Fighting for Recognition, R. Tyson Smith enters the world of independent professional wrestling, a community-based entertainment staged in community centers, high school gyms, and other modest venues. Like the big-name, televised pro wrestlers who originally inspired them, indie wrestlers engage in choreographed fights in character. Smith details the experiences, meanings, and motivations of the young men who wrestle as "Lethal" or "Southern Bad Boy," despite receiving little to no pay and risking the possibility of serious and sometimes permanent injury. Exploring intertwined issues of gender, class, violence, and the body, he sheds new light on the changing sources of identity in a postindustrial society that increasingly features low wages, insecure employment, and fragmented social support. Smith uncovers the tensions between strength and vulnerability, pain and solidarity, and homophobia and homoeroticism that play out both backstage and in the ring as the wrestlers seek recognition from fellow performers and devoted fans.

R. Tyson Smith is Visiting Assistant Professor of Sociology at Brown University.

Acknowledgments ix Prologue xiii Introduction 1 1. The Indies 9 2. Fighting for a Pop: Wrestler Recognition 37 3. Passion Work: The Coordinated Production of Emotional Labor 62 4. "In Real Life I'm a Total Homophobe": Wrestlers Managing the Male Gaze 89 5. Pain in the Act 115 Conclusion 147 Appendix A. How It Began 155 Appendix B. Rage Wrestlers/Participants 167 Notes 171 References 197 Index 211

Zusatzinfo	27 illustrations
Verlagsort	North Carolina
Sprache	englisch
Maße	152 x 229 mm
Gewicht	336 g
Themenwelt	Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Sport ► Kampfsport / Selbstverteidigung
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie ► Gender Studies
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie ► Mikrosoziologie
ISBN-10	0-8223-5722-4 / 0822357224
ISBN-13	978-0-8223-5722-3 / 9780822357223
Zustand	Neuware