The essay is to be 3 pages with three to five sources, with in-text citations and a reference page.
is interesting to the audience because it is a spectacle of intelligible actions from the bodies of well-defined personalities and it is a spectacle that exaggeratedly illustrates universal themes.
Barthes explains that the body of wrestlers is similar to a sign that expresses gestures that people easily understand and predict. He notes that the audience does not find it important if these gestures are sincere. They are also not interested about the real outcome of the wrestling match, as they would in boxing (16). People watch wrestling for the passion that wrestlers show during the spectacle (16). The passion does not have to be real, and instead, it must be believable enough to be acceptable to the audience because the image of passion is more important to them than its authenticity (18). Barthes argues that wrestling is comparable to classical art form is more critical than content, where wrestlers exhaust the content of their drama and humor for the audience’s entertainment.
Moreover, Barthes asserts that people watch wrestling because it has predictable personalities and universal themes. He provides examples of wrestlers who are like actors because they have distinct personalities. They are clearly endearing or repugnant or mysterious, for instance. These wrestlers know how to act out these personalities to the pleasure of viewers. In addition, Barthes describes the familiar themes of wrestling, which are Suffering, Defeat, and Justice. He underlines that people want to see why and how wrestlers suffer (20). The audience wants to know the causes of pain and its effects, not because they are sadistic, but because the knowledge is important to their consumption of the spectacle (20). Aside from Suffering, Defeat is also a trademark display in wrestling. Barthes refers to the form of Defeat that wrestlers show through embroidered vanquished acts. Wrestlers display Defeat as a fully-acted spectacle (21).