Steel Chair to the Head: The Pleasure and Pain of Professional Wrestling

Published by Duke University Press 2005

Steel Chair to the Head

The Pleasure and Pain of Professional Wrestling

Edited by: Nicholas Sammond
With contributions by: Roland Barthes , Henry Jenkins III , Sharon Mazer and Carlos Monsivais

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780822386827

Overview
Contents

About this book

The People’s collection of cultural studies essays on wrestling.

Author / Editor information

Nicholas Sammond is Assistant Professor of Cinema Studies at the University of Toronto. He is the author of Babes in Tomorrowland: Walt Disney and the Making of the American Child, 1930–1960, also published by Duke University Press.

Reviews

“Steel Chair to the Head is an exceptionally smart and well-crafted collection that will be a valuable resource for popular culture scholars of all stripes. From start to finish, there’s not a weak essay in the book. One of the best anthologies—on popular culture or anything else—that I’ve read in a long time.”—Gilbert B. Rodman, author of Elvis after Elvis: The Posthumous Career of a Living Legend

“The mat is the place where sport and entertainment smack down. This excellent collection of greatest hits and latest memories of wrestling teases out the contradictions of this infinitely frustrating, excessive spectacle of domination and parody.”—Toby Miller, author of Sportsex

"Steel Chair to the Head . . . serves 14 arguments that swell over the simple fluff and shallow violence and pry deeper into the wet, sticky blood of the antagonists, the heart of the industry narrative, and its continuous thud and ritualistic timing for wrestling's own cultural reflection. . . . An unparalleled look at the cultural interaction wrestling has with history and the world. . . . A wrestling fan's best friend. . . ."

-- Nathaniel G. Moore Verbicide

"Steel Chair To the Head is a truly fascinating look at the sport we love from a couple of steps back. . . . There's no book out there quite as a broad-ranging as Steel Chair To the Head."

-- Greg Oliver Slam! Sports

"Steel Chair's contributors perform a good-faith service in rescuing this unfairly, if understandably, maligned 'sports-entertainment' from the 'garbage' realm of 'pornography propaganda'. . . ."

-- Andrew Hultkrans Bookforum

"Provides readers with a deeper understanding of professional wrestling than heretofore available in the academic literature. . . . Insightful. . . . Excellent. . . . Highly recommended."

-- D.M. Furst Choice

"Why do millions of pro wrestling fans spend their Saturday nights watching well-oiled, muscled and costumed men performing in a well-rehearsed stage play in which the winner is decided days earlier? What attracts devotees to this sport? Editor Sammond and a host of academics answer these and many other questions, explaining what they think really goes on inside and outside that ring. . . ."

-- Publishers Weekly

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	vi
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	viii
Introduction: A Brief and Unnecessary Defense of Professional Wrestling Nicholas Sammond Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
TheWorld of Wrestling Roland Barthes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	23
‘‘Never Trust a Snake’’: wwf Wrestling as Masculine Melodrama Henry Jenkins Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	33
‘‘Real Wrestling’’ / ‘‘Real’’ Life Sharon Mazer Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	67
The Hour of the Mask as Protagonist: El Santo versus the Skeptics on the Subject of Myth • Carlos Monsiváis Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	88
The Mask of the Luchador: Wrestling, Politics, and Identity in Mexico Heather Levi Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	96
Squaring the Family Circle: wwf Smackdown Assaults the Social Body Nicholas Sammond Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	132
‘‘Ladies LoveWrestling, Too’’: FemaleWrestling Fans Online Catherine Salmon and Susan Clerc Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	167
The ‘‘Logic’’ of Professional Wrestling Laurence Garis Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	192
Is raw War? Professional Wrestling as Popular s/m Narrative Lucia Rahilly Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	213
Not Quite Heroes: Race, Masculinity, and Latino Professional Wrestlers Phillip Serrato Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	232
Trading in Masculinity: Muscles, Money, and Market Discourse in the wwf Douglas Battema and Philip Sewell Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	260
Afterword, Part I: Wrestling with Theory, Grappling with Politics Henry Jenkins Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	295
Afterword, Part II: Growing up and Growing More Risqué Henry Jenkins Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	317
Glossary Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	343
Contributors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	345
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	347

Language: English
Publisher: Duke University Press
Pages
- Main content: 379
Illustrations
- Other: 31 b&w photos

eBook

Published: January 13, 2005
ISBN: 9780822386827