WWE has a troubled record when it comes to portrayal of women on their programs. Many have been given the crazy chick gimmick; others have been used for promoted Hot Lesbian Action; while others still were given the pretentious bully character. In this third case, Michelle McCool and Layla began bullying fan favorite Mickie James over alleged weight issues. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7l-gnyNoiJg The female audience watching these segments mustve felt especially uncomfortable. Young women in contemporary society are bombarded with images every day on what constitutes the perfect body, and those who dont fit are doomed to ridicule. In this case, Mickie James, who looks great despite any alleged weight issues was made to cry on national TV over her appearance. WWE couldve done a simple storyline over how Mickie was the challenger for Michelles Divas Championship, and Michelle didnt think she was acceptable competition. Instead, they did a cheap storyline about fat women, which, unfortunately, has been a popular topic in WWE, as they love to emphasize thin models over athletic female wrestlers. There was also Vickie Guerrero, who was constantly at the butt of fat jokes, including from token good guy John Cena and Jerry Lawler. This was taking place at the same time as WWEs BA STAR campaign, which mustve felt incredibly ironic. To their credit, both Vickie and Mickie had a lot of emotional toughness to be berated for something thats so sensitive to many women in todays world.
Alexander Podgorski is a writer for WhatCulture that has been a fan of professional wrestling since he was 8 years old. He loves all kinds of wrestling, from WWE and sports entertainment, to puroresu in Japan.
He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Queen's University in Political Studies and French, and a Master's Degree in Public Administration. He speaks English, French, Polish, a bit of German, and knows some odd words and phrases in half a dozen other languages.
