The Male/Female Addiction

The Male/Female Addiction

I know what you are all thinking, but no I'm not writing about sex. Actually, my subject is far from it. Ever since I was a young lad my mother forced me to watch Guiding Light, a classic soap opera currently in its thirty-eighth season. Then one day I saw some men, or should I say finely tuned athletic machines, running around the "squared circle" literally beating the crap out of each other. I had discovered my newfound love, the World Wrestling Federation, more commonly know as the WWF. I have fond memories of lying on my bed on Sunday morning thinking of ways to convince my mother that I was sick so I could stay home from church and watch wrestling. Needless to say, wrestling may have dominated my life, but Guiding Light still had a grasp on a corner of my heart. Professional wrestling is the male equivalency of female-orientated soap operas.

Both professional wrestling and soap operas share similar plot constructions by forming groups of family and/or friends that share the longing to reach a particular goal by one-upping their enemies. On Guiding Light, parallel groups consisting of the Spauldings and the Lewises are constantly plotting to undermine and thereby eliminate the other from being the cities number one power. Both families consider themselves to be far superior to each other and are constantly wrestling, no pun intended, for the most power and control over Springfield. The Spalding mansion looms elegantly on the hill, its stark white pillars framing the very confines of its vast contents. The manicured green lawn and professionally landscaped grounds helps to prepare the caller for the pretentious, cavalier attitude of its occupants. Reeking of old money, they are raised by nannies...

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...he same goes for professional wrestling and its core characters. In an apparent effort to mirror real life, the classic evil characters tend not to change their spots and the upstanding, integrity-based citizens of the community are expected to attempt to persevere against this predictable, on going onslaught of assailants.

Ultimately, once all of the elements are explored it is easy to see that soap operas and professional wrestling have much more in common than meets the eye. Soap Operas and professional wrestling share similar plot constructions, qualifications for "actors," fan bases, and are easily picked up when you miss an episode. This is why professional wrestling is the male equivalency to female-oriented soap operas.I would like to see a more sophisticated reiteration of this claim of fact. At lease an attempt to find different words would be helpful.