Writing Homework Help

Chapter 6 focuses on performativity and the additional assigned readings give a very specific context for performance, professional wrestling. Use the terms from Schechner’s chapter on performativity and apply them to a different aspect of popular sports that require either an acting style or Goffman’s performance of everyday life. Use a specific example! This could be an athlete appearing on a talk show, in a movie, or even a press conference after a game (some examples: Joel Embiid on Hot Ones, Megan Rapinoe on Late Night with Seth Meyers, Lebron James in Trainwreck, Patrick Mahomes press conference after the Super Bowl). Apply the terms from performativity to explain some behaviors. If video of the performance is available online, share a link in your answer.

Viewing Response –

The additional readings all focused on professional wrestling, and you viewed a promotional package and a match between two defined characters.

1. In the structure of the promo and entrances, what behaviors did you see that were performative in service of the characters of “Sasha Banks” played by Mercedes Kaestner Varnado and “Bayley” played by Pamela Martinez?

2. In the structure of the actual match, what behaviors could you identify that reinforced the characters that they had established? In the celebration afterward, were you surprised by the actions of the characters of Sasha and Bayley? Why or why not?