It wasn’t until a complete stranger had attempted to spit in my face (which thankfully they missed, but unfortunately landed on my newly bought floral tank top instead). It was at that moment that I had actually considered that I had felt insulted. I lifted my head with a disgusted look on my face and fire-like anger filled my eyes as I faced the woman.

She looked about seventy years old and her face had the same disgusted look as mine. Suddenly, the horrible thoughts I was thinking completely disappeared from my mind. Instead, I focused on quickly tracing back the words that could have slipped from my lips to make the elderly woman so upset with me. I didn’t have to think long before she opened her mouth and spoke loudly,

“You hoodlums. Wrestling is no place for a young lady. I disapprove and pray for your parents. You are a disgrace to young women.”

I’ve never put too much thought on the things that women can or cannot do. In fact, I thought that this gender issue had faded out a long while ago when women around the world placed their feet down and demanded equality. I was sorely mistaken.

Actually, the elderly woman wasn’t the first to comment on my interest in the WWE. Many of the people I called my friends have threatened to “disown me from the group” if I didn’t stop enjoying, watching, talking, and reenacting anything that had to do with wrestling in general. In their words, “Girls like us don’t associate with trailer trash like that.” I shake my head in disgust at how judgmental my friends can be. I’ve come to realize that when they come to the point where they feel somewhat threatened or angered by someone’s decisions or actions, they have to put those people down. When realizing this, I’ve stopped hanging around them as much as I used to. Eventually, this led them to part away and find new friends of their own. 

I’m not necessarily upset because my friends don’t like wrestling; its the fact that they do not approve of me liking wrestling and choose to control my life based on 1) being a woman and 2) my appearance. It was the same feeling with the seventy-year-old woman at the store. She felt that a “young lady” like myself was an absolute “disgrace to young women” everywhere because I had different interests than what most young ladies in her mind.

I’ve always been known to be a little tomboyish and wrestling was one of those things that I always enjoyed with the guys. I admit that I stick out like a sore thumb at times when going to a wrestling event or watching it on television with the guys. With my long brunette hair, skinny jeans, gladiator sandals, and designer handbags, I’m pretty sure I’m not what most people would call “wrestling material”. In fact, most of the stereotypical types that people associate me with when I mention I’m going to see Smackdown live, are sloppy, obese men with 1999 American flag tees that they cut up themselves to make it sleeveless along with holey blue jean shorts while holding a cup of the cheapest alcohol that they are selling down at the concession stand below.

You can imagine the face that the old woman and my friends had when they hear that I love wrestling and that I consider myself a true edgehead and love the legacy all while giving high fives to my male friends. That was the complete image that my friends had thought of when hearing the word wrestling. They wanted me nowhere near any sort of thing due to the “looks of concern” they would receive from the so- called people that she claimed watched us everywhere we go. I honestly believe the girl is delusional. In all seriousness, she needs to remove whatever is sticking out of her rear and live like the rest of the world which I’ve jokingly told her many times.

I just really don’t understand why people assume based on appearance and gender that you can or cannot do, like, enjoy, watch, love, etc. whatever you choose to and wrestling just so happens to be one of those little assumptions in my situation. I do not consider anyone who likes wrestling to be “trailer trash”.  Nor do I think that women should be held away from wrestling entertainment because its not “lady-like” enough for ceratin people in this world.

We are all different in this world. Everyone has the right to tell their story. I had done the same when some of my friends chose to wed at an early age. just because I didn’t agree with it, I still happily congratulated them and eventually showed up at the reception to show that I supported their decision because it was their choice that they felt made them the happiest. It would be the same thing as my friends choosing to not attend a wrestling event but supporting my decision in going to the event and meeting me afterwards to go grab something to eat. As I sit here, still contemplating the surprising event that had happened only days ago, I can only wonder what other assumptions have been made in this world for women (or even men) dealing with life that they can or cannot choose to enjoy. 

Am I just stuck in an area where certain circumstances and activities are expected of women to like and that when someone is outside of the norm, they are considered hopeless, trash, or just all together a disgrace? Or does this continue on in other parts of world besides my Kentucky home?

What do you think? Should wrestling only be considered a male sport? Why or why not?