RAW Is Misogyny

The "HATE" on the T-shirt should have an asterisk that says "except misogyny"
Photo Credit: WWE.com

Stop me if you've heard this one before. A Diva turns heel, revealing herself to be a conniving bitch, then she gets her comeuppance by having one of the popular males on the roster call her degrading terms. Of course I'm describing what happened to Eve Torres last night, but it seems like it's a recurring trend in WWE with women and their turns. Sometimes, the former can come without the latter (LayCool never really got the dressing down from a male superstar that followed) and sometimes the latter comes without the former (seriously, Vickie Guerrero has endured so much bullshit from the males on the roster that it's hard to remember when exactly she turned from sweet widow to golddigger). However, it seems a wash-rinse-repeat pattern with any female on the roster who decides she wants to do more than shake her ass, look pretty and win matches despite knowing maybe three wrestling holds (one of which doesn't even have to be running the ropes).

Ostensibly, the mold was broken first with Kharma and then the Divas of Doom. In both cases though, the vibe was ruined early on. Kharma's breakdown apparently had little to with the faith or lack thereof shown to her by management and more with her impending pregnancy, but the treatment given to Beth Phoenix and Nattie Neidhart has been more discouraging. Made to look foolish at every turn on television and only squeaking by on PPV, pretty bauble title belts be damned, the experiment has been a failure. Given the state of Nattie right now on Smackdown, that failure has very little to do with the women who were tasked with performing in the ring and more with people giving direction.

It's shouting into the abyss at this point, and I'm fully aware of that fact. However, it's still very disheartening to see this kind of utter disrespect towards women manifest itself. It'd be one thing if the Neidhart and Phoenix were presented as different, strong characters than the typical Diva heel and to have Eve be dressed down in such a manner. It's a whole other when the treatment shown to Torres last night, from her utter stupidity of revealing her entire plan on camera to the Bella Twins to having her be escorted from the ring screaming and crying after trying to jump the bones of a man who just called her skank juice, is standard operating procedure.

To be quite honest, I wouldn't begrudge any woman for not wanting to watch a single minute of WWE wrestling ever again. The fact that I'm hardly the only person to feel that way should be a wakeup call to Titan Towers. Of course, it won't be. Vince McMahon will have to die for that to happen, and even then, how can we know that Triple H and Stephanie McMahon would be better in that regard, seeing as Stephanie has been the head writer for the better part of a decade and Trips is as ingrained in the macho locker room culture as anyone in that board room? It's not looking good.

So, excuse me for not taking any false hope away from the fact that Phoenix and Tamina Snuka had a good match at the pay-per-view when the next night, it was back to business as usual. This is what we have to look forward to with womanhood in WWE, and that's damn depressing.