I've been a wrestling fan for the last two years or so, and got whipped into a frenzy by the whole Royal Rumble promo hype machine. Especially since Cactus Jack was going to be in it. But my experience with the cable company is another rant entirely; suffice it to say, Chuck Carlin (who occassionally writes "...Can Suck My Balls" for [slash]) and I didn't get to see it on Sunday night and we would like to make the incompent jackoffs at Charter Communications (who have an incredibly useless website at http://www.chartercom.com/gateway.asp) suck our collective balls. But he's ordering the replay and taping it for me, so I'll get to see it the next time I go back home.

But this actually has nothing to do with the rest of this article, besides that my present excessive obsession with pro wrestling / sports enterainment is a lot of what prompted me to write this.

My school has a January term, where we take a single class, graded pass/fail. I chose to take a Political Science class entitled The Politics of Gender-Bending. We talked about drag and transvestites and generally watched a lot of low-quality films. And we have to write a ten-page paper at the end about something related to the course topic. I chose to write about Chyna. Now while reading this, keep in mind that some of my facts might be off by a little due to my forgetting things, and I know I gloss over a lot of stuff, but I think I captured things fairly accurately. This paper is also intended to be read by a professor who hasn't watched pro wrestling since he was 15, so I try to stay as far outside of markdom and over-the-top smartdom as much as possible. Oh yeah, and I wrote it between 9 pm and 4 am over the course of a night. And that's it for my excuses for the bad parts.

Feedback on this would be nice, but pretty useless at this point, as I've already turned in the paper. So without further ado, I present my Winter Study paper: I'd Rather Be In Chyna.

In women bodybuilders, femininity and muscularity are often at odds with one another. In the world of professional wrestling, none symbolize this conflict more than the World Wrestling Federation's Chyna, played by Joanie Laurer. As a mass market entertainment form which must cater to an exceptionally large fan base, an examination of professional wrestling can provide insight into the general populace's views on the disparity between "tough" women and "feminine" ones.

Laurer began her career as a professional bodybuilder under the name Joanie Lee. She was also a licensed boxer and trained in martial arts. Eventually, she left the bodybuilding circuit and entered into a pro wrestling training program, which resulted in her entrance into the World Wrestling Federation about a year and a half later. Unlike the rest of the female characters on this company's programs, Chyna is portrayed as something much better than a mere target for ogling and catcalling. Presented as legitimate competition for the male performers, she is scripted to score victories over many other male competitors, and during the last year, has become the first woman to hold the Intercontinental Title, the WWF's secondary championship.

Although she has a strong frame - she's built like a male bodybuilder - effort has always been taken to costume the character Chyna in clothing which is undeniably female. Her usual ring attire consists of black pseudo-leather pieces which highlight her breasts, as well as either a thong under chaps or a bikini bottom. Usually, she wears sheer stockings, highlighting her legs. Silver chains and loops act to accessorize with this outfit; she is one of the very few professional wrestlers who wears such jewelry. This jewelry, along with the rest of her attire, helps to emphasize her feminine qualities, while the almost dominatrix-like style of dress maintains her credibility with the audience as a threatening being.

Chyna, for much of her duration in the WWF, has been clothed in black leather outfits, often very similar to those worn by the character Xena on the television program Xena: Warrior Princess. By essentially copying the costuming of a "strong" female role who has already been accepted by the mainstream audience, Chyna is able to more easily pass as female. The audience is able to realize that this costume signifies strength with the presence of femininity as already defined by the Xena character.

The unrealisticness of wrestling's costuming calls attention to its drag-like nature. Male wrestlers usually perform in spandex or bikini briefs, highlighting their muscle development, while women appear more often than not in two-piece bathing suits, strange bondage-like outfits, or simply in their underwear. Clearly, none of these are acceptable normal forms of dress, but the characters of wrestling appear in these at all times, without disbelief from the audience. Similar in nature to the competitors shown in the film Pumping Iron II: The Women, many professional wrestlers - both male and female - base their jobs on their ability to look good while performing their stunts, requiring skimpy, often ridiculous outfits.

In Pumping Iron II: The Women, Bev Francis was criticized for being too muscular and for not appearing feminine enough for the competition's tastes. While competing as a bodybuilder and during her early involvement with the World Wrestling Federation, Laurer had a similarly masculine appearance. Her jaw and chin were large and prominent, and her breasts and hips were muscled to the point of appearing male. At first, it was hoped that her femininity could be emphasized merely through hairstyle and dress; however, this didn't seem to be enough, as she was still thought of - both by the audience and the promotion itself - as too manly. As an example of this, a commercial aired to hype a "swimsuit contest" between characters ran with an announcer's voiceover paraphrased as follows. Unfortunately, this section is from a description of a WWF commercial shown sometime in early 1998, prior to Chyna's surgery. As such, I don't have access to a tape of it to reference the exact wording.

For the beginning of her WWF career, Chyna was seen as too masculine for a woman, and was not well liked by the fans in general. Her face wasn't attractive enough for the mainstream audience's taste, and her large build without correspondingly large breasts lacked the curves needed for the audience to accept her as a woman.

To counter this masculine image, Laurer, with the support of the WWF, chose to undergo breast enhancement surgery, as well as several cosmetic facial surgeries which worked to diminish her chin and jawline and to shape her cheekbones. Her appearance changed drastically after these operations, as seen below:

The major downside to the breast enlargements, at least on the competitive side, is that they have severely limited her physical mobility as a performer. The number of wrestling moves in her repertoire shrunk following the operation, and she must always be careful to fall onto her back rather than her chest to avoid damaging the implants. While these implants have increased her popularity with the fans, and thereby her worth to the company and her salary, they have also limited her ability to perform at the level she would otherwise be able to. The facial surgery also required her to be careful about what she could do in the ring; for the last few years she has been forced to avoid any blows to the face or any situations in which the altered - and thereby weakened - bones could be broken.

With her physical alterations and her outlandish costuming, the presentation of Chyna can be interpreted as drag. Behind the scenes, Laurer is not the physically menacing aggressive female Chyna is shown as; she is known for her sense of humor and friendliness. Like the drag queen - or king - she is merely playing a role. Laurer takes on masculine characteristics when she enters the personality of Chyna. She holds her hands on her hips and stands in a wide stance, taking up space and asserting her territory. Strongly masculinized characteristics such as these are part of the subtleties which are involved in Laurer's performance.

To remain perceived as a woman, Chyna's physical appearance was altered by surgery to include more feminine facial features, as well as larger breasts. Author Marjorie Garber notices the use of breasts in Myra Breckinridge as "... in effect items of costume, body clothing requisite for the part." This alteration of Laurer's body fits this definition; to remain believable as a larger-than-life female, she must possess larger-than-life breasts, even if she has to create them artificially. On MTV's True Life, Laurer defends her choice to undergo these surgical alterations, saying, "I want people to think I'm nice to look at, but I never wanted that to be my sole purpose." She has come out in interviews stating that she's very happy with the surgeries, as it has made her more traditionally attractive, as well as enhanced her career.

In order to first establish her strength rather than her femininity, Chyna was introduced as a bodyguard to the snobbish and effeminate Hunter Hearst Helmsley, played by Laurer's real-life boyfriend/fiance, Jean-Paul Levesque. She played the role of the standard female valet/sidekick during this period of acclimation to the WWF's viewers; to introduce her immediately as an equal with the male competitors would have been too much of a shock in this - at this point - fairly stable and predictable formula-driven program. Eventually, however, the character of Chyna evolved past a simple tough and angry bodyguard.

In early 1999, when choosing a character to play the role of protector of women and a champion of feminism, the WWF chose Chyna rather than any other female character. While other female characters were assertive in their own ways, only Chyna had the muscle mass to back up this assertiveness with believable physical force, and was masculine enough to be seen as walking both sides of the gender imbalance. Her obvious femininity - by this time, the facial surgery and the breast implants had done the job of reinforcing her gender to the audience - complemented by her willingness and ability to competently fight even the most popular male wrestlers worked to place her on equal footing with the men in the company.

While this confrontational method of gaining respect may be inherently masculine, Chyna has shown that woman can appropriate this. The question here remains, though: in taking this stereotypically masculine attitude, does Chyna distance herself from the very women she seeks to protect? While this attitude admittedly places her farther on the masculine end of a masculine/feminine continuum, she still maintains her femininity.

In the storylines, Chyna was the woman who stood up to the chauvanist tirades of Jeff Jarrett, a character who would routinely declare his - and all males' in general - superiority to women, and would then proceed to win a match against a clearly less muscular female wrestler. This feud led to Chyna's winning of the Intercontinental Title, which is considered the second best belt in the WWF, second only to the World Title. The placing of this belt on a female wrestler has since been made a significant focus of Chyna's treatment by the ringside announcers. In doing this, the professional wrestling industry for the first time allowed a woman to become a major star without relying solely on her ability to tittilate young boys with shows of cleavage.

One formula which wrestling promotions tend to follow is that once a male character achieves a certain level of fan support, he is teamed with an attractive female valet, who encourages fans to cheer for him. Even though Chyna is a woman, after gaining the Intercontinental belt, she was given a female valet, Miss Kitty. With this addition, lesbian undertones began to appear in this character's personality. Within a week of their pairing, they appeared on the WWF's Monday Night Raw wearing matching outfits, with shirts saying "Master" and "Slave." As the months have gone on, these two characters have been seen together almost constantly, and often assist each other in winning matches.

The undertones of their relationship can be construed to present a connection between the physical appearance of muscularity and masculinity and a desire for women, even by other women. To justify to the audience that Chyna is powerful enough to defeat other male competitors in the ring, her sexuality must become male-oriented as well. This is done presumably to orient her with the majority of the program's audience, the heterosexual male, or more accurately, to align them with her, forcing identification, a frequently used tactic in the creation of a protagonist in all forms of entertainment.

As the first woman to play a female character shown as a true competitive force in professional wrestling, Laurer is a trendsetter. Since her entrance into the "major league" professional wrestling environment, other similarly strong women have appeared with varying degrees of success. Nicole Bass, a bodybuilder and "apartment wrestler" had a short stint of employment with the WWF in 1999, while in the Atlanta-based World Championship Wrestling, characters named Asya and Midnight, both large, muscular women, have been recently introduced, and work exclusively with male wrestlers.

Chyna's empowered status is an exception to the general rule, however; most female characters are not treated on the air with the same amount of respect as Chyna in professional wrestling programs. Most women, whether they are ex-bodybuilders of Pumping Iron II's Rachel McLish variety, or are simply models who are appearing as valets, are only present to draw attention using their bodies. Chyna, because of her significantly larger frame and more masculine appearance, is able to cross the gender boundaries placed on women in this profession and is able to be considered "one of the boys."

Joanie Laurer has not allowed professional wrestling, a traditionally male-exclusive occupation, to force her to renounce her femininity in favor of becoming a recognized talent. While some may argue that the breast implants and facial surgery reinforce patriarchal ideals of women, these changes allow her to appear both masculine in her powerful frame and feminine in her body shape and facial features. These changes have helped in causing the audience's acceptance of Chyna as a credible performer who, while more than simple eye candy like the rest of the women seen on wrestling programs, is still clearly a woman.

The implications of Laurer's physical alterations, however, are not entirely pleasant. Does this suggest that the only way for bodybuilders or at least professional wrestlers with a large bodybuilder's build to be accepted as women is through the surgical alteration of their bodies, even to the extent of potentially harmful breast implants? While this tactic seems to have been successful and possibly even necessary in Laurer's case, this may not be so for others. In the World Championship Wrestling organization, the two physically similar characters Midnight and Asya are beginning to garner crowd support even without breast augmentation, although their status regarding cosmetic facial alterations is unknown. If this trend is able to continue and these new women are able to achieve star status without resorting to breast implants, perhaps it will indicate a new level of tolerance in the mainstream wrestling audience, a tolerance similar to that presented as an ideal by Pumping Iron II: The Women. Joanie Laurer, in taking on aspects of drag in her appearance as well as creating a body with both characteristic traits of women and men, has placed herself on the line between femininity and masculinity.

Chris Fairbanks
freelance