On Eve, John Cena, bullying and the problem with misogyny in the WWE

Were you also ashamed of the thousands of fans last night who also demonized and bullied Eve? They represent us, and last night they were just as immature and mean-spirited as Cena.

Maybe it’s all in context though. Jericho used to call Stephanie McMahon a 50 cent trash bag hoe or some shit. Perhaps we just aren’t desensitized anymore since the PG era has replaced the Attitude Era.

Good write up man.

What’s with all the sexist/misogynistic a-holes at CSS lately? First Sir Ingenious talking about how all women of a certain age group are weak and crave attention, now this mess? In the words of Ron Simmons, damn!

Ghost Battousai and SuperFancyMan apparently don’t understand that society does not exist in a vacuum and that people are socialized through the media they take in. Unfortunately you can never really argue with people who are like that that because they will throw the standard “it’s just a tv show/movie/song/video game!” line in your face. It’s a shame. CSS is usually one of the less troglodytic wrestling blogs out there.

Trips has three young daughters. Eve and Mick Foley donate their time to a charity that fights sexual violence against women.

I can’t believe that they can’t be convinced of how wrong it was to have a woman called a whore by 10,000 screaming (mostly male) members of the WWE Universe simply for having kissed someone. It’s immaterial whether or not it was a show. It was the functional equivalent of the Two Minute Hate against a woman.

What if that was one of your daughters, Trips? What if one of your kids were Cena or Eve in that situation, Foley? What would you say to them?

I felt so furious when I first saw this. For one thing, it just screams, “What? No, we don’t care if we have lady customers. We only want those fifteen year old nerds who are afraid of the ladies.” Seriously, the teen chanting “hoeski” at Eve isn’t going to run into any card carrying heels at his high school. He’s going to call the girl who won’t talk to him, or that he’s afraid to talk to, a whore. The whole thing just makes me feel sick to my stomach.

One thing that I used to love about the original ECW was that women who did terrible things got major comeuppance. When you’re a chick watching wrestling, and the females never suffer any significant consequences for their actions, watching becomes quite frustrating. A bit of hairpulling, or getting set up for a move that never happens is typical. The worst thing that ever happened to Stephanie McMahon was a Rock Bottom, which never looked all that bad. Rhino piledriving Lori Fullington through a table still stands out as shocking because I’d never seen a woman truly “get hers” for doing vile things. The Pitbulls hit Francine with their finisher when she betrayed them, and she deserved it. Slapping wrestlers, costing them matches and titles, lying and manipulating should come with a price. That price shouldn’t necessarily be what ECW did, but there’s a reason that it resonated so strongly.

That said, Eve’s comeuppance was too much, too fast. The kiss with Cena didn’t turn her heel, and Geno nailed it. Cena kissed her back, and was every bit as into it as she was, and yet SHE is the horrible slut? No. The idea wasn’t inherently awful, but rushing through it in five minutes was not good. As soon as Eve announced that she was using Ryder, the whole bit was dead. No one does that. The idea that Cena can continue to play the super good guy, and be treated as one by fans, after degrading someone like he did is unacceptable.

Pointing out that the same thing was done to Lita hardly excuses anything. What WWE did to Lita was unconscionable, and the way that she left was disgusting. There’s a difference in condoning real-life cheating (and with what we now know about Matt Hardy, who can really blame her?) and viewing Lita’s slut treatment as justified. It wasn’t. It was as sickening as the Eve/Cena situation, and for the same reasons.

you factor in what audience the WWE is catering to presently. I could’ve done without. I wonder if Eve’s character has the cache to recover from this burial. I think the shocking part is that Cena is the one delivering the venom. I wonder if The Rock would address this issue as he responds to Cena.

If I’m Chris Shays or his campaign manager- I’d thank the McMahons for the last two weeks.

With proper editing- “What is a WWE diva?” can be made into an attack ad and also trend on twitter.

If Rider had become a heel- depending on how they made it happen; I wouldn’t have had an issue with it. All of the signs rolling towards are in play still.

Eve becoming a heel bothers me again; on account of if one looked at it from start to finish- you would have seen the Bellas (of all people) look great (or favorably) in that scene.

When Cena took his hat off and shook the dandruff off and in turn- just smiled and walked to set: THAT was the smart thing to do. If he had anything else to say when he got to that ring- the worse of those words should have been the last thing said.

Again for nearly a month

Ryder was Kenny from South Park.

Eve was Slasher victim #1

Cena was supposedly the hero.

And Kane was the bad guy.

All of a sudden Eve is…..

great article Sergio. I’m going to check on the Winnipeg game now.

Eh segment didn’t bother me, I was entertained. Can’t say anything ever made me embarrassed to be a wrestling fan. This is a horrible business so nothing bothers me.

But I still don’t see the problem. I have loved wrestling for over 25 years. When I was growing up I was taught by my parents that wrestling, and TV and films are not real. If your child does not know the difference between john cena the make a wish real life bloke and the guy on TV being rude/funny/sexist then you should not let them watch. I was laughing at what he said, I enjoyed it. I won’t be calling my wife a ho after watching it, because i know the difference. Parental guidance is the most important thing in.this world.

Whenever they use it, it indulges in the prejudice of human nature and appeals to the worst in people. Unlike with most other types of heel heat, “slut heat” inspires people to do things like yell at Lita in public when she’s walking her dog.

I know, those people are morons, and entertainment is not responsible for what morons do. But they use morons as a tool for heat, and at best that’ s disappointing. At worst it’s reinforcing ugliness in pop culture and doesn’t make a case for WWE as something worth standing up for.

Woman scripted to be a conniving bitch is scripted to be treated as a conniving bitch. This is not new for wrestling or any other form of entertainment. This is like when there’s an angle involving race and people act like whoever came up with it is a card carrying member of the KKK and they have Verne Schillinger on speed dial. To me it just comes off as someone looking for an excuse to bitch about something and act noble by saying it’s horrible to them.

i think you’re taking this to heavily to heart, she got payed to handle that, and i would say her character deserved it, but i understand the whole defence against the be a star thing, but i don’t think it was that bad, bottom line is, this was entertaining, contraversial, everything cena has been in the past, this was a good way to get over the super cena slump, personally i hope he stays this way.

entertainment wise, i would rather this cena way over the other one, badass cena > super cena, and judging by the kinda response he got, apparently he’s pulled off this ‘tradgedy’ quite well, i thought it was good, it got john cena quite a bit of much needed steam, to confront let alone get out of a confrontation with the rock. But yeah,

The thing is, Eve and other divas pretty much goes with it. Hey, I mean why work for a company that doesn’t give two shits about you and your gender? And doesn’t respect you? This whole scenario reminds me of something like seeing a man fiercely abusing his woman in public. If I see this happening in real life, would I intervene? Nah because they’ll have sex that night, so my efforts are wasted. She just went along with it. So, I just think to myself, “Why would you let anyone treat you like this?”

Showing this whole script on television is probably bad taste and shouldn’t have been televised at all – I’ll agree with that. The core issue is this: why would Eve let anyone disrespect her? I don’t give a shit if his name is Vincent K. McMahon Jr. I wouldn’t let ANYONE disrespect me. So, whatever happened (or happens) to her, is all on her. And she went along with it. So did the other divas in the locker room. They embraced all that disrespect, working for a company that doesn’t give a shit about them and they went along with it. I have 0 sympathy for them. None.

So, if I see a guy verbally and physically abusing his woman in public and she continues to stick around, I will not intervene but I’ll just shake my head and continue walking. Anyone who does is just wasting their time and is a fool. This Cena-Eve scenario is no different whatsoever. Now, let’s turn the tables over to y’all. Will you guys continue watch and endorse this product now that it “disrespects” women in the back and on television? Yes. And you guys are just going along with it, so am I. Like any slut would say, “Fuck! Slap me harder! Yes!”