Overview

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.

Full Product Details

9780822357094

Table of Contents

Reviews

Behind the hypermacho performance of pro wrestling, R. Tyson Smith reveals a backstage where hard aggressive bodies are actually soft and yielding, hypersensitive as lovers so that they don't cripple each other. It is more akin to ballet than battle, except that all the effort goes into giving the opposite impression. This is one of the great ethnographies of the backstage of occupations, of athletes, of show business, of the bodily self--and of social performance itself. --Randall Collins, author of Violence: A Micro-sociological Theory (03/12/2014)

[A]n entertaining read that can be used in a sport or masculinities course, or any other context that explores the paradoxical aspects of identity construction. -- Brian Fair Gender & Society Smith demonstrates the value of taking this subculture seriously; for a place where white, working-class men must always battle the fear of being seen as fake or soft offers us a truly powerful starting point for unpacking the tensions and internal contradictions of masculinity. -- Kyle Green Men and Masculinities Smith has produced a highly readable and useful ethnography on the performance of independent professional wrestling. The book is invaluable to those working on performance and wrestling and develops theories of masculinity, physicality, and the labor of performance, which should find an audience even among those who might be less familiar with professional wrestling and its performance. Theatre Journal Behind the hypermacho performance of pro wrestling, R. Tyson Smith reveals a backstage where hard aggressive bodies are actually soft and yielding, hypersensitive as lovers so that they don't cripple each other. It is more akin to ballet than battle, except that all the effort goes into giving the opposite impression. This is one of the great ethnographies of the backstage of occupations, of athletes, of show business, of the bodily self-and of social performance itself. -- Randall Collins, author of Violence: A Micro-sociological Theory To know only the flamboyantly hypermasculine spectacle of WWE is like believing that a Broadway musical represents America's love of theater. R. Tyson Smith's carefully rendered empathic ethnography reveals the oft-hidden world of everyday guys who do it all-the exacting choreographed routines, the grandiose costumes-because they love it. Yet underneath the artifice of fake combat lie real dangers and constant injury. These guys are, as Smith says, 'fighting for recognition,' yes, but they are also playing for real. -- Michael Kimmel, author of Angry White Men: American Masculinity at the End of an Era Immensely readable and as vibrant in its energy as the subjects it seeks to present and understand, Fighting for Recognition focuses on young men who make their living in professional wrestling... Highly recommended. All readers. -- E. J. Staurowsky Choice

To know only the flamboyantly hypermasculine spectacle of WWE is like believing that a Broadway musical represents America's love of theatre. R. Tyson Smith's carefully rendered empathic ethnography reveals the oft-hidden world of everyday guys who do it all--the exacting choreographed routines, the grandiose costumes--because they love it. Yet underneath the artifice of fake combat lie real dangers and constant injury. These guys are, as Smith says, 'fighting for recognition, ' yes, but they are also playing for real. --Michael Kimmel, author of Angry White Men: American Masculinity at the End of an Era

Author Information

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

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available