{"product_id":"steel-chair-to-the-head-the-pleasure-and-pain-of-professional-wrestling-paperback-softback-9780822334385","title":"Steel Chair to the Head; The Pleasure and Pain of Professional Wrestling (Paperback \/ softback) 9780822334385","description":"\u003cfont face=\"Georgia\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"6\"\u003eSteel Chair to the Head\u003c\/font\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cfont size=\"5\"\u003eThe Pleasure and Pain of Professional Wrestling\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"4\"\u003eNicholas Sammond (Edited by)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e9780822334385\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003ePaperback \/ softback, published 13 January 2005\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e384 pages, 31 b\u0026amp;w photos\u003cbr\u003e22.6 x 15.6 x 2.7 cm, 0.526 kg\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e“\u003ci\u003eSteel Chair to the Head\u003c\/i\u003e is an exceptionally smart and well-crafted collection that will be a valuable resource for popular culture scholars of all stripes. From start to finish, there’s not a weak essay in the book. One of the best anthologies-on popular culture or anything else-that I’ve read in a long time.”-Gilbert B. Rodman, author of \u003ci\u003eElvis after Elvis: The Posthumous Career of a Living Legend\u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e \u003cdiv\u003e“The mat is the place where sport and entertainment smack down. This excellent collection of greatest hits and latest memories of wrestling teases out the contradictions of this infinitely frustrating, excessive spectacle of domination and parody.”-Toby Miller, author of \u003ci\u003eSportsex\u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e \u003cdiv\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eSteel Chair to the Head\u003c\/i\u003e . . . serves 14 arguments that swell over the simple fluff and shallow violence and pry deeper into the wet, sticky blood of the antagonists, the heart of the industry narrative, and its continuous thud and ritualistic timing for wrestling's own cultural reflection. . . . An unparalleled look at the cultural interaction wrestling has with history and the world. . . . A wrestling fan's best friend. . . .\"\u003c\/div\u003e - Nathaniel G. Moore (Verbicide) \u003cdiv\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eSteel Chair To the Head\u003c\/i\u003e is a truly fascinating look at the sport we love from a couple of steps back. . . . There's no book out there quite as a broad-ranging as \u003ci\u003eSteel Chair To the Head\u003c\/i\u003e.\"\u003c\/div\u003e - Greg Oliver (Slam! Sports) \u003cdiv\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eSteel Chair\u003c\/i\u003e's contributors perform a good-faith service in rescuing this unfairly, if understandably, maligned 'sports-entertainment' from the 'garbage' realm of 'pornography propaganda'. . . .\"\u003c\/div\u003e - Andrew Hultkrans (Bookforum) \u003cdiv\u003e\"Provides readers with a deeper understanding of professional wrestling than heretofore available in the academic literature. . . . Insightful. . . . Excellent. . . . Highly recommended.\"\u003c\/div\u003e - D.M. Furst (Choice) \u003cdiv\u003e\"Why do millions of pro wrestling fans spend their Saturday nights watching well-oiled, muscled and costumed men performing in a well-rehearsed stage play in which the winner is decided days earlier? What attracts devotees to this sport? Editor Sammond and a host of academics answer these and many other questions, explaining what they think really goes on inside and outside that ring. . . .\"\u003c\/div\u003e (Publishers Weekly)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cdiv\u003eThe antagonists-oiled, shaved, pierced, and tattooed; the glaring lights; the pounding music; the shouting crowd: professional wrestling is at once spectacle, sport, and business. \u003ci\u003eSteel Chair to the Head\u003c\/i\u003e 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.\u003cp\u003eThe 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 \u003ci\u003elucha libre\u003c\/i\u003e provides insights into Mexican social and political life, \u003ci\u003eSteel Chair to the Head \u003c\/i\u003egives due respect to pro wrestling by treating it with the same thorough attention usually reserved for more conventional forms of cultural expression.\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eContributors.\u003c\/i\u003e Roland Barthes, Douglas L. Battema, Susan Clerc, Laurence de Garis, Henry Jenkins III, Henry Jenkins IV, Heather Levi, Sharon Mazer, Carlos MonsivÁis, Lucia Rahilly, Catherine Salmon, Nicholas Sammond, Phillip Serrat, Philip Sewell\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003eAcknowledgments ix\u003cbr\u003e Introduction: A Brief and Unnecessary Defense of Professional Wrestling \/ Nicholas Sammond 1\u003cbr\u003e The World of Wrestling \/ Roland Barthes 23\u003cbr\u003e \"\u003cbr\u003eNever Trust a Snake\"\u003cbr\u003e: WWF Wrestling as Masculine Melodrama \/ Henry Jenkins III 33\u003cbr\u003e \"\u003cbr\u003eReal Wrestling\"\u003cbr\u003e\/ \"\u003cbr\u003eReal\"\u003cbr\u003e Life \/ Sharon Mazer 67\u003cbr\u003e The Hour of the Mask as Protagonist: El Santo versus the Skeptics on the Subject of Myth \/ Carlos Monsivais 88\u003cbr\u003e The Mask of the Luchador: Wrestling, Politics, and Identity in Mexico \/ Heather Levi 96\u003cbr\u003e Squaring the Family Circle: WWF Smackdown Assaults the Social Body \/ Nicholas Sammond 132\u003cbr\u003e \"\u003cbr\u003eLadies Love Wrestling, Too\"\u003cbr\u003e: Female Wrestling Fans Online \/ Catherine Salmon and Susan Clerc 167\u003cbr\u003e The \"\u003cbr\u003eLogic\"\u003cbr\u003e of Professional Wrestling \/ Laurence De Garis 192\u003cbr\u003e Is RAW War? Professional Wrestling as Popular S\/M Narrative \/ Lucia Rahilly 213\u003cbr\u003e Not Quite Heroes: Race, Masculinity, and Latino Professional Wrestlers \/ Phillip Serrato 232\u003cbr\u003e Trading in Masculinity: Muscles, Money and Market Discourse in the WWF \/ Douglas Battema and Philip Sewell 260\u003cbr\u003e  Afterword, Part II: Growing up and Growing More RisquÉ\u003cbr\u003e \/ Henry Jenkins IV 317\u003cbr\u003e Glossary 343\u003cbr\u003e Contributors 345\u003cbr\u003e Index 347\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003c\/font\u003e","brand":"Duke University Press Books","offers":[{"title":"Brand New","offer_id":52676670652696,"sku":"9780822334385","price":27.29,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/freshlyprintedbooks.co.uk\/products\/steel-chair-to-the-head-the-pleasure-and-pain-of-professional-wrestling-paperback-softback-9780822334385","provider":"Freshly Printed Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}