Down in Ayr today I had an inpromtue chat with my DOS and a fellow PhD student, during the course of the conversation I was asked just what exactly it was that I would be studying, and for the first time I was able to give a pretty clear answer right off the bat!!
So I thought I'd write it down here in case I forget! (it has changed a little form the earlier post on my proposal)
here goes......
Backyard wrestling is the phenomenon of recreating wrestling events such as those broadcast by WWE in your back garden, parking lot, or anywhere else for that matter. In backyard wrestling one substitutes the materials used to produce WWE broadcasts (such as the ring) with various household items (see the backyard wrestling videos to the right) usually to devastating physical harm. For many. backyard wrestling is an excellent example of the media affecting the behaviour of its audience, as the backyard wrestlers, inspired and enthused by the slick televised product of WWE directly emulate what they see. Monkey see - monkey do?
But why then doesn't every WWE viewer engage in backyard wrestling, why is it only a small (usually male) minority?
This study proposes that the WWE texts are in themselves not the main reasons that backyard wrestlers do what they do, the study would like to suggest that there are other factors that represent the true cause of the problem - such as the theories offered by Evolutionary Psychology (EP). As such the study intends to test EP theory on behaviour against the culture of backyard wrestling looking to suggest that a number of bio-psychosocial factors cause the individuals to act the way they do when exposed to WWE texts.
Some empirical considerations:
1. who are the backyard wrestlers - what are there socioeconomic backgrounds?
2. how much of what they do is direct imitation?
3. when do they engage in backyard wrestling?
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