From a ‘Lass Kicker’ to ‘The Man’: WWE’s Irish Wrestler Becky Lynch and the Appropriation of Hegemonic Masculinity

Abstract

Since her World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) debut (2014), Becky Lynch has become one of the best known popular cultural representations of transnationalised Irishness. In emerging victorious in the main event of Wrestlemania 35 (2019), Lynch cemented her place as WWE’s top Superstar. She thus became the first woman to achieve the accolade, completing her transition from a jig dancing ‘Lass Kicker’ to the sports entertainment conglomerate’s top star, or ‘The Man’.
 In this article, I consider Lynch’s career in what Barthes’ considers the morally embedded theatrical performance that is professional wrestling. This entails assessing WWE as a ‘masculine melodrama’, a scripted form of popular entertainment with a long-standing tradition of asserting hegemonic masculinity. I outline WWE’s history of essentialising Irishness, before considering Lynch’s prominent position in WWE’s neoliberal feminist brandcasting. Finally, I show that fan appreciation for Lynch’s skill as a wrestler, and a ‘real’ moment of bloodshed, facilitated her use of the moniker ‘The Man’. Ultimately, I reveal that in being ‘The Man’, Lynch appropriated hegemonic masculine characteristics to challenge controversial normatives, while also signalling WWE’s neoliberal feminist emphasis on the importance of individual agency over industry accountability.
 
 
 Keywords: Popular Culture; Irishness; Professional Wrestling; Hegemonic Masculinity; Neoliberal Feminism