Feminism Sunday: Talkin' bout a Women's Revolution

This week, I thought I'd combine two regular topics on the blog, with a feminism post about WWE's so called "women's revolution" and subsequent "women's evolution." This is Feminism Sunday.

So this is gonna take a bit of a history lesson. If you know it, feel free to skip ahead!

The "Revolution"

Nearly 3 years ago, WWE Chief Brand Officer and on screen authority figure Stephanie McMahon announced a "Diva's Revolution." This happened as a result of the hashtag "#givedivasachance" trending on twitter, and an overall sense that the way the company has been treating its female competitors has been appalling.

In the year leading up to this, WWE actually featured some tremendous women's matches. It just didn't happen on their main roster. It happened on development brand NXT, where four wrestlers were redefining what women could do in WWE: Charlotte Flair, Sasha Banks, Becky Lynch, and Bayley were having main event matches that equaled and surpassed what the men were doing on either NXT or the main roster.

On that night in July 2015, Steph announced that Charlotte, Sasha, and Becky were joining the main roster. Promoting 3 of the four horsewomen of NXT to the main roster was a major shift, and they were slowly being allowed to show more of their skills in the ring on the main roster. mere months later, Charlotte would win the Diva's championship.

The following year, at Wrestlemania 32, the long hated Diva's title was retired and replaced with the Women's Championship. As part of the same move, female wrestlers were no longer referred to as "divas." That name had been around since the 1990's when the company decided to brand all of their male performers as "superstars" and all of their female performers as "divas." Now, female performers would also be referred to as "superstars," just as the men.

I have no behind the scenes information on WWE, but I think Stephanie and her husband, Executive Vice President of Talent, Live Events and Creative Triple H (real name Paul Michael Levesque) leveraged the internet rage to make changes they've wanted to make for a while. HHH was - and is - the creative force behind NXT, where the women were already getting much more of a fair shake.

The "Evolution"

Following these moves, the women were given more and more of a spotlight. They got to have the types of matches the men do. Culminating in this year's Royal Rumble event, where the women's royal rumble match closed out the show.

This process has been called "The Women's Evolution." And it's not over. Recently the company hired noted transphobe and conspiracy fan Ronda Rousey, and rumors persist the former UFC star is slated to main event next year's Wrestlemania against Charlotte Flair.

The women's evolution has certainly improved WWE's overall product, which tends to happen when you hire performers based on ability and give them an opportunity to develop and show those abilities. But there is a long way to go, and the company keeps stumbling along the path.

Some Issues

Last year, the women had their first ever "Money In The Bank" match, a ladder match where the winner gets a briefcase containing a contract for a title match, which they can redeem whenever they want during the following year. But they had to do the match twice. Why? Because creative thought it would be a great idea to have a dude climb the ladder, get the briefcase, and throw it down to the winner. This is a move that could have been accepted on the 6th women's MITB match, but not on the (much touted as) historic first. They did the match again a week later, with the same woman - current Smackdown women's champ Carmella, who cashed in the contract recently - winning by actually climbing the ladder. You won't find footage of James Ellsworth climbing the ladder in any of the promo packages promoting the many historic "firsts."

Recently, a feud for the Raw women's belt was built entirely on fat shaming. The heel champ, Alexa Bliss, mocked contender - and storyline best friend - Nia Jax for her weight. Repeatedly. Which would have been gross and problematic even if Bliss herself didn't have a public history of weight issues, and if Jax wasn't a plus size model and body positivity activist. The whole entire mean girl storyline was reminiscent of the sort of stuff they did during the Divas era, and it was gross.

And, finally, the reason for this post: The Greatest Royal Rumble. This last Friday, WWE had a huge event in Saudi Arabia. A bunch of title matches, and a 50-man royal rumble match. But this time there was no women's royal rumble to go along with it. There were no women at all. Not even behind the desk at the pre-show, where Renee Young usually handles hosting duties.

This decision has been explained as being part of an ongoing process. As Triple H explained it to The Independent:

I understand that people are questioning it, but you have to understand that every culture is different and just because you don’t agree with a certain aspect of it, it doesn’t mean it’s not a relevant culture.
While women are not competing in the event, we have had discussions about that and hope that, in the next few years they will be
You can’t dictate to a country or a religion about how they handle things but, having said that, WWE is at the forefront of a women’s evolution in the world and what you can’t do is affect change anywhere by staying away from it.

This is a solid argument, but there are holes in it. GRR was an event bought and paid for by the Saudi government, and served as a commercial for the country's growing inclusivity and openness. The show contained multiple segments that were ads for the country's progressive bent, which featured women explaining how much better things are now. There was a segment about how great it is that women can drive there now.

The WWE had leverage in negotiating with the Saudi government. They signed a ten year contract to serve as ambassadors and promoters of the country's social and economic progression. Part of that could have been demanding the women be included.

Late last year, Sasha Banks and Alexa Bliss were the first women to wrestle for WWE in Abu Dhabi. They had special gear for modesty. WWE made a huge deal out of it at the time, talking about how the crowd chanted "this is hope."

If women wrestling in the UAE is hope, what does that make the decision to not feature them in Saudi Arabia? Despair?

The Women's Division

To my mind, one of the basic problems with the way WWE views women is that, to them, women are a "division." There's the singles division, the tag team division, the cruiserweight division, and the women's division.

The problem with this is, to my mind, glaring and obvious. Women aren't a division or a subset. They're over half the population. WWE has never had more female performers under contract than they do right now, but they are still far fewer than the women. This means their storylines are limited, the variety of available matches is limited. They don't have a tag division.

I appreciate that making progress in a company like WWE must be difficult. The company is still headed by Vince McMahon, who is responsible for some of the most sexist, misogynistic, and gross storylines ever seen on TV. But if management wants to talk about being "on the forefront of a woman's evolution in the world," they need to do much better than this.

I appreciate how far we've come. I hope WWE appreciates how far they've yet to go.

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Allyship Sunday: Allyship Is Not Conditional
Feminism Sunday: It's Not About The Sisterhood
Allyship Sunday: Ally Is A Verb
Feminism Sunday: Splaining
Allyship Sunday: Stay In Your Lane
Feminism Sunday Redux
Feminism Sunday: Should It Continue?
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Feminism Sunday: Feminism 101, With GIFs!
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