This documentary was really interesting because it led me to a lot of introspection about entertainment. This was a phenomenon that I didn’t know much about. The concept of ‘chola’ that I have known is quite different and not characterized by skirt wearing. I also thought it was interesting that one of las cholitas noted that it is an honour to be a chola, yet they experience a large amount of discrimination. As well, a parallel can be drawn between our discussions of popular/high culture and one of the mother’s saying her daughter can choose to be a cholita at her own accord. This shows how some elements of popular culture allow for free agency.
This documentary automatically made me draw comparisons to Western culture. I thought of how women’s fighting gains a fascination or following from the public because the women are often sexualized. Here, the fascination with lucha libre comes from las cholitas being a bit of a marginalized group, the interesting premise of fighting in petticoats, and the audience participation. The audience is imperative to lucha libre. Both the audience and the fighters use lucha libre as a means to destress.
Lucha libre shows how two phenomena of popular culture, las cholitas and wrestling, can intermingle. It can be seen that these fights are entertaining because the cholitas are regarded as more of a phenomenon than real humans. Humiliation is encouraged because these women are thought of as lower. Across cultures, capitalizing off of an ostracized group is a popular premise. This is exemplified when they talk about how audience says that they watch because they show everything underneath their skirt and criticize them, but in reality there is no flashing.
My question for this week: What devices are available to us to liberate ourselves within our society? How does culture impact our ability to liberate ourselves?
Hi!
I liked that you pointed out the sexualization of women in western wrestling. This doesn’t seem to really be the case with the cholitas, or at least not as obviously. I think you are right to suggest that the interests with the cholitas have more to do with the novelty. These traditional women fighting in giant skirts. It’s sort of like seeing your grandmother fight. It’s not sexualized, rather it’s marketed as strange/new.
Hi Jada!
So many interesting thoughts here. I agree that it’s interesting that the cholitas are so proud to be who they are, that they consider it an honour, yet they experience so much discrimination. However, I think that goes to say more about their self-assuredness than anything else, right? I mean, does it matter if the rest of the world considers it to be an honourable thing to be a chola or not? Or is it enough that they’re proud of who they are, and they’re not willing to change despite criticism and discrimination? And I think that that’s shown in how the mother won’t force her child to wear the long skirts if she doesn’t want to. She loves being a cholita, and she would love for her daughter to wear the skirts too, but she won’t make her do it.
I also wanted to add on a little bit to what both you and Maiya said about the sexualization of women in wrestling. You both mention how it doesn’t seem to be as important with the cholitas, and you both mention it possibly having to do with a fascination with the cholitas as something they don’t interact with often, their “novelty” as Maiya put it. I wonder if maybe it also has to do with the interaction and involvement of the audience in the fight? With western wrestling, the audience isn’t as imperative to the storyline, and so maybe people sexualize the women to give themselves what feels to be a bigger part in the action (not that that’s a good excuse haha). But with lucha libre, the audience are already playing such a big role. They don’t need to fantasize and make up a storyline in which they are involved, because they are involved. Just a speculation/curiosity.
Hey! I enjoyed how you connected popular culture having agency. I think that’s one of the most important and impactful parts of popular culture – that people can create or reinforce their identities by ascribing themselves to different communities that are related to popular cultures. In response to your question, I think that through these connections with popular culture, we are able to liberate ourselves by being who we are or want to be! 🙂
Hello! I really enjoyed reading your post :). Your question had me thinking about what tools our culture gives us to liberate us. However the more I thought about it the more contradictory it became. At first I thought about social media being a tool for liberation in terms of self expression and being able to stay connected with people we value and care about. However, so many people are too reliant on their phones now. Then I started to think about education- however I’ve had many conversations with people about how education works in the opposite way in terms of making people fork over a lot of money to stay aligned with society’s values.