GLOW: A Gorgeous Scientific Journal-type review

I have a feeling Britannica might like this one ;)

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 GLOW: Gorgeous Ladies Of Wrestling 

Abstract:

Herein, the makers report for the first time, a show on women’s wrestling. Set in Los Angeles in the 1980s, this show follows the lives of 12 women who, under the guidance of washed-out Hollywood director Sam Sylvia and naïve producer Bash Howard, have decided to challenge the male-dominated wrestling entertainment industry by creating their own all-female wrestling show. After much experimentation involving the optimization of various parameters such as characters, moves, storylines, inter-personal friendships and enmities, these women find that not only can they do backflips, somersaults, headlocks and body slams on camera, but that they are also extremely strong and proudly volatile women off-camera.

Introduction:

GLOW is a show that revolves around many fun and unconventional women. There is Ruth Wilder- a struggling actress with dreams of playing the “real” roles in 80s Hollywood movies, rather than the generic secretary roles that seem to be better suited for her “forgettable face”, according to the casting directors. Her best friend Debbie Eagen, is a blonde beauty and new mother, whose claim to fame is her one-episode arc in a soap opera.

The other women that feature are as follows: Cherry- a black stunt-woman who is trying to get a lead role and have a baby, Carmen- a veteran wrestler’s daughter who is trying to make it on her own, Sheila- a woman who believes that she is actually a wolf, Tammé- a mother who is trying to resurrect her TV career after single-handedly raising her son and sending him to Stanford, Melanie Rosen- a rich spoilt-brat who drives a limo, Rhonda- a British immigrant who lives in her car, and Justine- a teenager who is too cool for school.

Experimental section:

Materials:

Wrestling ring (with ropes painted pink), Spandex, glitter (mountains of it), cocaine (it is 80s Hollywood after all) and drama.

Methods:

No women were harmed in the making of this show. All stunts were well-rehearsed and performed by amateurs.

Results and discussion:

The show has many prominent highlights, a few of which will be detailed in this section.

1. Why women fight

Apart from the scripted fights the women put on for TV viewers, where they are literally at each other’s throats, they also have many personal differences. The most notable one being the rift between (ex) best friends Ruth and Debbie. Ruth has an affair with Debbie’s husband, which ruins their marriage and her friendship with Debbie. A lot of Debbie’s pent-up anger spills onto the ring when they fight each other and Debbie “accidentally” breaks Ruth’s leg (refer Figure 1). Another noteworthy clash is between Cherry, a woman who has has struggled her whole life to get to where she is, and Melrose, a carefree party-girl who has seemingly led a painless life. But, for those who think that fighting and ripping each other’s hair apart is completely natural when it comes to a group of women, they are in for a pleasant surprise. The women find ways of reconciliation after venting out their anger, just as how one sees better after a fog clears. Detailing the exact ways of how such transformations take place is beyond the scope of this article and the author would urge the reader to watch the show and find out.

2. Stereotypes

This show, set in the 80s, is rampant with racial and cultural stereotypes. The women themselves play characters (in the ring) that would definitely not be politically correct in the present time. For example, Jenny, an immigrant from Cambodia with oriental features, plays a character called “Fortune Cookie” in the ring (refer Figure 2). Arthie Premkumar, an Indian-origin med student, becomes “Beirut”- the terrorist. Tammé plays “Welfare Queen” who survives on food stamps and sheer cunning, and Cherry becomes “Junkchain” a typical Afro-American rapper from the streets. For those of you (like me) who are unfamiliar with the world of wrestling entertainment, these are characters that are created with loose storylines as a garnishing for the main entertainment, which is the staged fighting. None of it is real. But the women are. The show depicts both versions of the women- the stereotypical and unconventional parts, with fluidity.

3. Casual sexism

The director (of the show inside the show) Sam Sylvia (refer Figure 3), who has directed a string of commercially unsuccessful films, wants to make quick money with the show. He rejects and rubbishes ideas from the women and strives hard to maintain the mediocrity of the show. The show doesn’t mean as much to him as it does to the women, or so he thinks. But he soon realizes that the show is his saving grace too. He accepts his own mediocrity and wonders if the show will probably be the best thing that he creates. He begins to consider the women’s suggestions, especially the persistent and creative Ruth’s. His own personal life undergoes many ups and downs, with the discovery of a long-lost daughter and his battles with cocaine addiction and loneliness.

There are other instances of sexism, where Debbie, who hustles her way to the producer’s chair after many negotiations, finds herself perceived as an outsider when Bash Howard (the main producer) and Sam refuse to take her seriously and exclude her from the decision-making process. Of course, towards the end, Debbie ends up doing all the work and even saving the show from getting cancelled.

Conclusions:

The author never imagined that there might be a time when she would watch a show on wrestling, much less female wrestling. WWE was her brother’s childhood craze. She had thought of it as pure stupidity. The few female wrestlers who featured on WWE weren’t half as popular as the male ones. They were just fixtures of male fantasy. But GLOW is all that and much more. The author would probably still not watch WWE, but she would definitely watch GLOW again.

References:

No references can be cited as this show’s concept was way too novel. But, for similar works, the author would like to direct the reader to one of the maker’s previous shows.

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