Can I read Steel Chair to the Head : The Pleasure and Pain of Professional Wrestling on EtoBox?

Steel Chair to the Head : The Pleasure and Pain of Professional Wrestling by Nicholas Sammond; Project Muse is a book available to read on EtoBox.

What is Steel Chair to the Head : The Pleasure and Pain of Professional Wrestling about?

<p>The antagonists—oiled, shaved, pierced, and tattooed; the glaring lights; the pounding music; the shouting crowd: professional wrestling is at once spectacle, sport, and business. <i>Steel Chair to the Head</i> provides a multifaceted look at the popular phenomenon of pro wrestling. The contributors combine critical rigor with a deep appreciation of wrestling as a unique cultural form, the latest in a long line of popular performance genres. They examine wrestling as it happens in the ring, is experienced in the stands, is portrayed on television, and is discussed in online chat rooms. In the process, they reveal wrestling as an expression of the contradictions and struggles that shape American culture.</p> <p>The essayists include scholars in anthropology, psychology, film studies, communication studies, and sociology, one of whom used to wrestle professionally. Classic studies of wrestling by Roland Barthes, Carlos Monsiváis, Sharon Mazer, and Henry Jenkins appear alongside original essays. Whether exploring how pro wrestling inflects race, masculinity, and ideas of reality and authenticity; how female fans express their enthusiasm for male wrestlers; or how <i>lucha libre</i>

Author

Nicholas Sammond; Project Muse

Publisher

Duke University Press Books

Published

2005

Language

EN

ISBN

9780822334033

Subjects

Sports, Anthropology, Sociology

Rating

3.9 / 5 (41 ratings)

Updated

2026-03-14