Chicago Reader: This cultural moment feels medieval. Maybe it’s something about the collapsing of traditional social models, the rise of authoritarian hierarchies, or the spreading of once preventable diseases and viruses that can kill large swathes of people.
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I did some research on this and apparently there are huge problems of corruption, conflict, drama, and even embezzlement within the T-boy wrestling community. Also, this is a crazy article about entertainment trends. Most of the things listed in this article are in heavy relation to the LGBTQ+ community, which makes it not just an entertainment trend, but a reaction and phenomenon occurring in a marginalized community throughout times of stress. Entertainment trends are really reacting to how horrible the world is getting–it reminds me of recession music, in a way. That being said I feel like one of these things would be super interesting to go to. It’s almost like stripping professional wrestling and MMA of its roots, and bringing it back to what it started as–simple entertainment between close cohorts in otherwise difficult times. It provides almost a ludicrous escape from our slow fall into fascism.
Right now it seems like there is more interest in more alternative and not mainstream entertainment. I think that this alternative entertainment is getting a lot of or maybe not a lot of but some media attention is because of how unique it is and what it says about what people are interested in right now. I think at a time that for a lot of people it feels like the US government is becoming explicitly fascist but also people in the US are becoming more conservative, right now experiencing alternative and liberating forms of entertainment is really spiking for the people who are going in the opposite direction of that conservatism. I think it's good to see the queer representation in how alternative forms of entertainment come about because often what is called alternative is also just queer like in this article they mention t-boy wrestling and dyke wrestling which definitely helped popularize these different wrestling genres.
So, this article is titled incorrectly. This isn't about "alternative" spaces and "alternative" entertainment. It's about the rise of QUEER entertainment. Many of the wrestling events recently - I saw a masc lesbian one was happening in San Diego - are targeted towards the LGBTQ community. Many of them occur in queer spaces, gay bars, and more alternative spaces directed towards the gay and transgender communities. This isn't about "a new trend." This is Queer art, Queer community, a marginalized group coming together to express themselves and have a fun night, despite all of the stigma around their identity. These events aren't about wrestling, or violence, or blood raining down from the sprinklers at the rave (something else I saw on TikTok at a lesbian bar). It's about the performance art of it all, the getting together to experience the performance and exist in a space that is meant for you to feel at home and comfortable, even if you have to wrestle to be there.
I found this article really interesting but also a little surprising. I had never really heard about things like blood wrestling or some of the other events mentioned, so it was interesting to know how these kinds of performances are becoming more visible in certain communities. It made me think about how entertainment often reflects the cultural moment people are living in. When times are stressful or uncertain, people sometimes turn to more intense or unconventional forms of expression. I also thought it was interesting how the article connects these events to DIY spaces and underground communities. Those kinds of spaces often allow people to experiment with performance in ways that more mainstream venues might not. Even though this type of entertainment is definitely not something everyone would be comfortable with, it still shows how performance art can take many different forms depending on the community and the message people want to express. It really highlights how diverse live performance culture can be.
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