How To Avoid Disrespecting A Woman In
The Wrestling Industry
Following
the feedback regarding my previous article, “Ways To Avoid Being A Creeper When
Talking To Women In The Wrestling Industry”, I decided to create a second
article on more ways to avoid being disrespectful to women in the professional wrestling
industry. I was inspired to write this article after seeing other ladies in the
business continue to be disrespected by creepers. Some of these guidelines
listed may not necessarily apply to creepers, hence why I titled this post what
I did. However, all of the guidelines listed do apply to examples of
inappropriate behavior that I and other ladies in the professional wrestling
industry have either seen or experienced from fans. With that being said, I present
to you another guideline on how to avoid being disrespectful to female
professional wrestlers, managers, ring announcers, referees etc.
First,
please do not ask a female in the professional wrestling industry to send any selfies
or personal pictures to you via online messengers or via social media profiles.
If you want a photo of your favorite wrestler, manager, referee, ring announcer
etc., simply and respectfully ask her if she sells any promotional photos as
merchandise such as 8x10’s, for example. Chances are if she does, they are
pretty affordable plus by asking her that instead, you are not disrespecting
her and her right to privacy as she may not share or post personal photos and
selfies on her social media profiles as it is a part of her private life.
Secondly, please don’t keep pestering a woman in the wrestling industry by continuing to send her messages or begging her to stay online after she has already explained to you that she is unavailable to chat at the time. If she was chatting with you for a while and she suddenly has to get offline, please respect that instead of getting upset about her not being available to chat anymore. We try very hard to communicate with our fans when we have the time and we can’t always be online due to many factors such as work, training sessions, church, time with family, personal errands etc. Like you, we also have private and personal lives and get busy with things going on in them.
Thirdly,
please respect the personal beliefs, opinions, views etc. of a female in the
professional wrestling industry. It’s perfectly ok for her to have different views,
beliefs and opinions than you whether those views, beliefs and opinions involve
something wrestling-related, religious, political etc. She has the right to
express those opinions, views and beliefs openly so long as she is not harming
anyone in the process.
You may not have to agree with her beliefs, views and
opinions on something but please don’t disrespect or insult her for having
different views, opinions and beliefs than you. To sum it up, if you don’t
agree with what she has to say about a particular matter, you don’t have to respond
or reply to it in any way. You can choose to just ignore it and move on from
it.
Next, please
don’t continue to send a woman in the professional wrestling industry messages
asking her what she is doing every few minutes. She probably doesn’t have the
time to constantly keep telling you what she is doing and honestly, that’s her own
personal business what she is doing. Furthermore, if you just asked her what
she was doing three minutes ago, chances are three minutes later she is still
doing the same thing as before.
Also, please
do not invite yourself over to a female in the wrestling profession’s home or
ask them to come and pick you up to drive you somewhere especially when it is
completely out of their way, due to you being in a different country or state.
Chances are if you ask to come over to her home, ask to stay at her house while
visiting from another state or country or ask her to come pick you up and drive
you somewhere, she is probably going to think you are a stalker, creeper or criminal,
particularly if she has never even met you personally before. Plus, by asking
to come over to or stay at her house, you are giving her the impression that
you are trying to invade her private and personal life, something that many in
the professional wrestling industry are very protective of.
Next, please
do not ask a woman in the wrestling industry for money or ask them to buy
something for you. I have seen fans get upset so many times with wrestlers when
they ask for money or ask a wrestler to buy something for them all because the
wrestler told them they don’t have money to give but not every person in the
wrestling industry has lots of money or can afford to buy something you
honestly should be paying for yourself. Many wrestlers, managers, referees,
ring announcers etc., particularly in the independent scene do not get paid
much to do shows if they get paid at all, hence why many in the independent
scene have to work other jobs in order to provide for themselves and their
families. If they do make money from a wrestling show, chances are they have
already lost the profits they made from that show on travel expenses alone when
heading back home after the event.
Also, please
do not ask a woman in the wrestling industry if you can buy used items of hers.
I’m not referring to old ring gear that she no longer wears and may be selling,
as some fans do buy those items to add to their wrestling memorabilia collections.
When I mean don’t ask if you can buy used items of hers, I am referring to
things that have nothing to do with her wrestling career, such as used tissues,
dirty socks, worn undergarments and used feminine hygiene products. Chances are
if you ask her to sell you personal items like that, she will get completely disgusted
and not want to talk to you anymore.
Additionally,
please don’t assume or call a woman a ring rat, slut, tramp, whore, hood rat, skank
or any other derogatory term just because she is a woman in the professional
wrestling industry. Yes, the professional wrestling industry is populated with
more men than women but just because she is a female in the wrestling industry or managing/ tag teaming with/ wrestling against a male wrestler,
it doesn’t mean she is sleeping around with and doing sexual favors for him or anybody
else in the locker room or backstage areas at a show or event. Women in wrestling take
their craft very seriously and if you accuse them of sleeping around to get
bookings or title opportunities, she will take offense as you are disrespecting
her, her passion for the business and all the hard work and training she has
put into her career.
On that
note, don’t even presume to know anything about her personal life or love life.
If she wants to tell you, that’s her business but chances are, she’s keeping
her personal life private which means she probably isn’t going to give you any
details about her life outside of the ring, especially if she feels that it isn’t
any of your concern or business to know anything about her private life. On
another note, don’t presume to know things about her or her life unless she
tells you directly. Just because you heard something about her doesn’t mean it’s
necessarily true so don’t potentially insult her or disrespect her all because
of trash talk, gossip, speculations or rumors you heard from other people that are
most likely not true. Not to mention, spreading slander and libel are against
the law to which she has the right to file a lawsuit over.
Additionally,
do not pose as a promoter or a wrestler to try and coax a wrestler into coming to
a specific location and leading the female wrestler, manager, referee, ring
announcer etc. under the impression that they are being booked for a show
there. It is not always easy for us to get bookings and to put us under false
pretense of obtaining a potential booking is completely disrespectful not only
to us but to our craft, in general. Do not impersonate a booker just so you can
get a female in the business at a certain place at a certain time because you
have dishonorable intentions and don’t pose as a wrestler just to try and get a
match with her. Chances are she will find out that you are a fraud and it will
put her even more on guard when discussing potential bookings for herself in
the future, something she shouldn’t have to be stressing out about as much all
because someone pretended to be a wrestler or promoter in the business when
they weren’t just to try to lure her into a dangerous situation.
Also, if you
see a female in the wrestling industry at a public place or even leaving a
show, do not follow her. I have heard of this happening to female wrestlers and
they should never have to feel like they are being threatened or stalked while
at a public place or while driving somewhere after leaving an event. Stalking is
a criminal offense and if she feels endangered in any way, she may choose to
inform the proper authorities, which can ultimately result in you facing criminal
charges.
Finally, do not touch a female in the wrestling industry inappropriately at autograph signings, wrestling shows, charity events or other public events she may be attending. I have heard of some wrestlers enforcing “no touching” rules when doing autograph signings all because some fans got a little too personal by grabbing or touching a female in the business in private areas of their body such as the buttocks or chest. I have also seen fans walk up to women wrestlers as they were coming out to compete and put their arms around them. On that note, stay seated in your chair or stay behind the guardrails if promotions have them because you not only are putting yourself in danger by not doing so but you are disrespecting that female’s personal space and potentially messing up her entrance she has worked so hard on because you are getting in the way and being somewhere you aren’t even supposed to be at a show.
