audience . Understood particularly via a mode of exaggerated performances of social gestures akin to Brechtian theater and camp performances , the wrestling stage can become a form of resistance against hegemonic forces in the United States . Most importantly , however , this form of resistance , although rooted in the aesthetics of the wrestling performance , is germinated by the audience , not the wrestlers . In order to see the wide spectrum of the audience ’ s role in interpreting the performances of professional wrestling , this essay will conclude with an anecdote from the polarizing and infamous right-wing commentator , Glenn Beck , who became ( perhaps unintentionally ) an audience member for whom Zeb Colter and The Real Americans ’ mocking performance of U . S . patriotism elicited a jarringly bitter response . Glenn Beck ’ s response , in my opinion , affirms the effectiveness of The Real Americans ’ performance in disrupting the logic of xenophobia .
In the United States , the populist genre of professional wrestling often serves as a means to gauge the sensibilities of mass culture . In this discussion , particularly , I will be analyzing professional wrestling ’ s representations of Latinos in order to gauge the exclusion of Latinos in mass society , with the exception of their conflicted inclusion based only on commodified stereotypes . What is mass culture ? The term seems to signify the act of consumption in contemporary capitalist society , but becomes trickier to pin down when discussing race and gender . The dominant culture in the United States is produced with an image of American whiteness , an image that the dominant culture must constantly disseminate and consume in order to maintain its dominance .
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