Content Analysis of the WWE Divas On-Air Wrestling Time

            Imagine you are at a football game anywhere in the world. What is the weather like? What are you eating/drinking? Where is the game located? Who are you with?

Now I want you to think of this same game, but played by women in lingerie. If you are a guy, would you go? And if you are a woman, do you feel disturbed by the fact men would only want to watch women play football because they are half-naked? 

Lingerie Football League

Depiction of women is everywhere. It’s in magazines, television, billboards, music and just about anywhere in the media. It’s a little unwritten fact that sex sells and the media is aware of this eager market.

Women athletes are portrayed as sexual objects available for male consumption rather than as competitive athletes. One way media sexualizes women athletes is by focusing on their physical appearance. Characteristics of this certain appearance usually includes the female athlete to always be smiling, have perfect skin, slender and toned body and long blonde hair.

If you did not know this already I just described my older sister, Barbara Blank. Or she is probably better known as “Kelly Kelly,” a World Wrestling Entertainment Diva.

“Diva” is the term used by the WWE to refer to its female talent, and “superstars” refer to the males.

“Kelly Kelly” is about 5 feet 5 inches tall, weighs 110 pounds, long blonde hair, sun-kissed skin and a bright white smile. My sister may look small, but with her gymnastic background and athletic moves she can get in the ring and really show off the three characteristics of a diva: smart, sexy and powerful.

After watching my sister on the show for years, I started to realize that the weekly two-hour shows consisted of many of the men’s matches and only a single women’s match. I decided that I will do a content analysis by comparing the superstars to the diva’s live television time during a match and calculate the number of matches the men have over women.



Me standing infront of
my sisters large poster at WrestleMania 27



First, I searched for other articles using key words such as women, wrestling and television, nothing came up. Then I tried searching for women and wrestling, still nothing. Finally, I decided to just use the word “wrestling,” and only one article came up on the University of North Florida’s library website under scholarly journals. I thought to myself well maybe that is a sign to change my subject. But I kept with it and it led me to some very interesting information from Wrestling Digest.

Stone Cold pictured on the
cover of Wrestling Digest

Wrestling Digest is a bimonthly magazine for fans of pro wrestling. It covers the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), World Championship Wrestling (WCW), and Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW). This magazine features articles, profiles of the stars, schedules and feedback from fans. (Eck 2003)

            I randomly selected the December 2003 volume five issue four of Wrestling Digest, and it quickly reassured me that I am not the only one who feels the divas don’t get to show off their skills as much as the superstars. In this specific issue of Wrestling Digest, there were a total of 11 articles and eight letters to the editor.

            Within these 11 articles, 10 ½ were written about men and the other ½ of the about women; I give each one a half because the article was about couples in the industry.



Natayla and Michelle McCool

The first article of the magazine was titled, “I Watch an Episode of ‘Raw’ So You Don’t Have To.” This three page article has taken an episode of Monday Night Raw from September 2003 and broke it down into sections to understand what happened from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. Throughout the entire three-page breakdown they did not mention a single WWE Diva.

The eight letters to the editor contained five articles about the superstars, three about the divas which included two letters complaining that they want to see more of the fierce females.



#1 Wrestling's Greatest Romantic Couples
Randy Savage and Elizabeth (Eck 2003)

“I love Wrestling Digest, especially the interviews, but I believe your magazine should have more interviews with the WWE Divas. The women’s division deserves more credit than it is receiving.” (Weeks 2003)

The only article in the December issue that referenced to the divas was because they had to. The title was called, “Coupling: We Take Look at Wrestling’s Greatest Romantic Twosomes.” The women are now being depicted as “arm candy” and can only be written about if they have a man accompanied by them.

Troubled by this, I began to look at other issues of Wrestling Digest and I still saw the same results. To my surprise, there were more letters to the editor from fans addressing the issue of more diva television time, and the same articles over and over again about male wrestlers.

 

2011 WWE Calendar
(From the left) Michelle McCool, Eve, Rosa, and Kelly Kelly



I also came across a particular letter to the editor titled, “Deadweight Divas. “I am disgusted with the new generation of Divas. Basically, divas are just turning into soft-porn stars.” (Garrison 2003)

With all of these positive and negative comments and I am ready to begin my content analysis.

Content Analysis

During my content analysis I will be watching two of the major WWE shows, Monday night Raw and Friday night SmackDown, for five weeks. I will then compare the superstars to the diva’s live television time during a match and calculate the number of matches the men have over women during a show. I will have a total of 10 different dates of shows for which I will analyze.

Maryse and Kelly Kelly

Raw is a two hour-long show and without commercials, its running time is 1 hour and 35 minutes which broadcast on the USA Network. Raw consist of 9 divas and 35 superstars.

SmackDown is also a two hour-long show and without commercials, its running time is 1 hour and 20 minutes and broadcast on the MyNetworkTV. SmackDown consists of 6 divas and 24 superstars.  





	Raw
Dates	Number of Matches	Time on TV (Minutes & Seconds)
4/18/2011	Divas: 1	3.23
	Superstars: 5	38.52
4/11/2011	Divas: 1	3.33
	Superstars: 4	33.52
4/4/2011	Divas: 1 (No "current" divas involved)	3.32
	Superstars: 4	34.43
3/28/2011	Divas: 0	0
	Superstars: 4	35.46
3/21/2011	Divas: 2	6.24
	Superstars: 3	31.16



	Total From 5 Raw Episodes
Divas	16.12
Superstars	173.09



     

	SmackDown
Dates	Number of Matches	Total Time on TV (Minutes & Seconds)
4/22/2011	Divas: 0	0
	Superstars: 5	35.58
4/15/2011	Divas: 1	5.25
	Superstars: 3	31.13
4/8/2011	Divas: 1	5.41
	Superstars: 3	32.03
4/1/2011	Divas: 0	0
	Superstars: 2	12.87
3/25/2011	Divas: 1	4.34
	Superstars: 4	43.35

	Total of 5 SmackDown Episodes
Divas	10.66
Superstars	155.36









Me and Barbara
Wrestlemania 27

            Conclusion

Before conducting my analysis I already knew I was going to see greater number of men shown than women. The content analysis supported exactly what it should. Women practice just as hard if not harder as men do because they have to constantly live in their footsteps.

I understand that wrestling is considered a man’s sport, but it is nice to get away from all the testosterone for a minute and just watch the girls have fun and do what they love to do. The women of the WWE are well-respected in the industry and throughout the world and they strive hard to live up to their expectations as female athletes.

             

          

 SmackDown: Kelly Kelly vs. Michelle McCool

                                  

  

Works Cited

I.                    Eck, K. (Dec 2003). Coupling: we take a look at wrestling's 10 greatest romantic twosomes.  Wrestling Digest, 5, 4. p.58(7). Retrieved April 25, 2011, from General Reference Center Gold via Gale:
http://find.galegroup.com.dax.lib.unf.edu/gtx/start.do?prodId=GRGM&userGroupName=jack91990

II.         Garrison, J. (Oct 2003). Deadweight Divas.  Wrestling Digest, 5, 3. p.9(1). Retrieved April 25, 2011, from General Reference Center Gold via Gale:
http://find.galegroup.com.dax.lib.unf.edu/gtx/start.do?prodId=GRGM&userGroupName=jack91990

III.                Gordon, A. (Dec 2003). I watch an episode of 'Raw,' so you don't have to.  Wrestling Digest, 5, 4. p.6(2). Retrieved April 25, 2011, from General Reference Center Gold via Gale:
http://find.galegroup.com.dax.lib.unf.edu/gtx/start.do?prodId=GRGM&userGroupName=jack91990

IV.                Weeks, W. (Dec 2003) More divas, please.  Dec 2003 v5 i4 p8(1)Wrestling Digest, 5, 4. p.8(1). Retrieved April 25, 2011, from General Reference Center Gold via Gale:
http://find.galegroup.com.dax.lib.unf.edu/gtx/start.do?prodId=GRGM&userGroupName=jack91990

V.                  " (Dis)Empowering Images? Media Representations of Women in Sport - Women's Sports Foundation." Home - Women's Sports Foundation. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Apr. 2011. <http://www.womenssportsfoundation.org/Content/Articles/Issues/Media-and-Publicity/D/DisEmpowering-Images--Media-Representations-of-Women-in-Sport.aspx>.

VI.                Picking the 10 greatest wrestlers of all time.  Dec 2003 v5 i4 p10(5)Wrestling Digest, 5, 4. p.10(5). Retrieved April 25, 2011, from General Reference Center Gold via Gale:
http://find.galegroup.com.dax.lib.unf.edu/gtx/start.do?prodId=GRGM&userGroupName=jack91990