"From Smart Fan to Backyard Wrestler"
This week's reading was a great introduction to the different facets of celebrity fandoms. Oftentimes, fandoms themselves are labeled with stereotypes (country music fans are all from the midwest, sports fans are all hardcore, etc) which not only affect the celebrity they follow, but also how others perceive the art genre as well.
It seems that McBride and Bird are set on dispelling the negative imagery associated with backyard wrestling. While they do not oppose the notion of professional wrestling exhibiting violent and racist undertones, they argue that "both scholars and social critics have missed many layers of meaning and experience" (McBride & Bird 167 ). They describe the presence of 'Smarts' and 'Marks' to portray the different levels of awareness within the fandom, and introduce readers to the variety of reasons why people become fans of backyard wrestling. It was interesting to see that while some people are drawn to the more 'antisocial' aspects of professional wrestling, other fans (more specifically, Smarts) see it as a sort of art form that can best be described as aesthetic violence. They admire the time and effort spent in scriptwriting and training, as well as the spectacle of wrestling as a whole. In a way, the distribution of fans along a spectrum seems to be commonplace in nearly every fandom.
Some soccer fans will tell you that they support Manchester because its their home team, while others will say it's because they like the community. A fan of Ariana Grande can say that he genuinely loves her music, while other fans may only follow her for her looks or fashion. The nature of celebrities allows for different people to enter the fandom for different reasons, while also remaining exclusive for people that stand outside of the spectrum as well. It would be interesting to see what other fandoms these backyard wrestling fans are a part of, and gauge the distance of those fandoms from that of wrestling.