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I talk about Lita's retirement in many of my pieces but particularly in this piece about the Bella Twins retirement & the reverence they WERE NOT SHOWN.
https://dailyddt.com/2020/02/25/wwe-brie-nikki-bellas/ https://twitter.com/TheElitistonYT2/status/1349830497434705921
https://dailyddt.com/2020/02/25/wwe-brie-nikki-bellas/ https://twitter.com/TheElitistonYT2/status/1349830497434705921
I have brought it up again and again. Lita's "heel turn" is a horrific defining moment in women's wrestling, one they've never corrected. WWE encourages disrespect of women. Fandom exacerbates this when they frame NXT women as exceptional until they blame them for booking too...
When Nikki Bella broke her neck twice for this company, she was given nothing. Her come back fed her to Ronda Rousey & slut shamed her for dating a wrestler. Seth Rollins' knee injury got a 24 special & a redemption arc. https://fightbooth.com/wheres-bellabration-nikki-bella-wrestlemania-33/
The Bellas, especially Nikki Bella, are a crucial example of how WWE's womens era has removed the bra & panties matches but has left every other piece of the recipe behind. WWE hates women. Actively. And perpetuates not like other girls as default. https://dailyddt.com/2019/11/22/nikki-bella-wwe-women-revolution/
No milestone is good enough for the fans. Women are held to a much higher standard than the men. And the fact that the milestone exists means, at least to WWE, that they're finished. Boom. Feminism done. https://fightbooth.com/sexism-wwe-relief/
And dirt sheets, ratings reviews, ppv wrap ups, the entire culture of "wrestling journalism" perpetuates it. When will men in wrestling journalism step up and make room for women? And PAY WOMEN to talk about wrestling? ACTUALLY INVESTIGATE THINGS LIKE WHO CALLS THESE SHOTS?
A grown man editor let a piece on Charlotte Flair written so sloppily, so obviously from a place of sexism and the male fascination with how "different" WWE was supposed to be that Charlotte Flair, A WHOLE FLAIR, well versed in being a heel and taking the heat...
(which is an entirely different ball game for women) felt the need to correct it and stand up for herself and women in wrestling as a whole.
The problem has never been Lita's affair or Nikki's love life or Charlotte's legacy, the problem has always been MEN. Men in creative, men in production, men in the audience, and the women they inspire to SLAM OTHER WOMEN constantly*.
*Eva Marie & AJ Lee get no love from me
*Eva Marie & AJ Lee get no love from me
I have been writing about this for almost six years. I have gotten threatened, doxxed, photoshopped onto violent pornography, & frankly used for clicks & traffic & often underpaid, mistreated, gaslit. https://fightbooth.com/write-stories-right-wwe-missing-mark-charlotte-natalya-feud/
the point is... there is are so many women, so many women of color, LGBTQ women, who are ALREADY RISKING THINGS to call these problems out... when are one of you dirt sheet big boys who regularly nitpick women & send your fans after them going to fund REAL journalism?
And to my friends who have supported the work of women, when are you going to STOP following these men who do dirt sheets and match ratings and other SENSELESS SHIT that only helps serve the status quo? I am really waiting.
But for anyone wondering, this is what's behind my "hiatus" from wrestling. This is why I stopped abruptly writing for Daily DDT. Because of the culture of that Charlotte Flair piece, the net zero I got in resources, funding, support from like 90% of the men in charge of me.
I have debated for years and then again in the past month if I should give you a list of big male wrestling journos and big male indie personalities who have sent their fans to harass and threaten me for hurting their fee fee. But it's... basically all of them.
to clarify no one at Fight Booth was ever unkind to me but whoever bought it out and called it Wrestling Desk, please put my fucking name back on my work. That Dean Ambrose piece means the most to me and it sucks that I'm no longer credited.
Clarification II: for every place you did see me write/appear on a podcast/etc there were so many places I didn't write for because they were so disrespectful and condescending UP FRONT, & when I say the culture of the Charlotte Flair piece I mean that that culture is EVERYWHERE
