WWE News: Hogan on Arsenio Hall, Study of Female Characters Done

– Hulk Hogan will appear on The Arsenio Hall Show this Friday night promoting WrestleMania 30.

– Betty Barrett and Dena Levin, who are associate professors at the University of Windsor, have conducted a study on how female characters are portrayed on WWE. The study was conducted in order to examine Linda McMahon’s claims that WWE has cleaned up its product to be more family-oriented. The study concluded that, at least as women go, the company has not improved matters as much as McMahon claims. They note that WWE continues to portray women in relationships as inferior to men or as psychos, gold diggers, cougars or vengeful, scorned crazies.

Barrett is an admitted wrestling fan and says that male characters are not portrayed particularly well either. She added that even though WWE portrays women in the way they do, the characters work. She noted, however, that while the portrayals are similar to how some TV shows portray women, those other shows don’t market themselves toward younger kids who may not be sure what is and isn’t real on WWE TV. [Credit: The Windsor Star]