States that produces such xenophobic anti-immigration rhetoric as is generally seen in right wing politics . 1 Keeping in mind , again , that professional wrestling works to engage a mostly white-dominated nativist audience , it is interesting to see this satire as a gauge for how times have changed — that perhaps a populist American society is ready for this hegemony to be openly mocked .
This essay will look at how professional wrestling normalizes xenophobic attitudes in regards to Latinos . The work of Gerald W . Morton and George M . O ’ Brien will provide the foundation for how wrestlers engage their audience by performing exaggerations of socially recognizable characters , for example , the U . S . patriot and the “ evil ” foreigner . These staged performances are always tied to real social conditions ; they must be , generally speaking , in order for the wrestlers ’ performances to evoke a reaction from the crowd . I will then examine the social forces that surround Latino angles of representation in professional wrestling , such as the Latino Threat Narrative , and analyze their prevalence in professional wrestling , and how the performances of these social forces work to reaffirm the logic of xenophobic hegemony in the United States . However , this discussion will also explore the possibilities for how professional wrestling disrupts or resists the logic of xenophobia . Camp studies will be useful in contextualizing how professional wrestling presents an exaggerated demonstration of hegemony which the audience recognizes as an absurdity . The absurdity of wrestling works to defamiliarize the representations of white nativism and xenophobia , becoming both entertaining and instructive to the 1
I would like to acknowledge the work and scholarship of Michael Dowdy in the field of Latino studies , and thank him for his generous guidance in helping me write this article . 183