Lita, Gail Kim, & Christy Hemme Talk Struggles Of Perception vs. Reality As Women In Wrestling

Lita, Gail Kim and Christy Hemme talk with WPW Weekly Hosts TK Trinidad & Emily Mae Heller on a variety of topics, including the struggles of women in the wrestling industry.

Credit to Women’s Wrestling Weekly for the transcription and highlights of the interview can be seen below with the full interview available to watch in the video at the top of the page.

The Struggles Of Public Perception Versus Reality As Women In The Wrestling Industry:

Gail: “I said, where is this coming, I thought I was always professional. Well, it’s cause you’re serious backstage and you never smile. Because I’m in the zone, my work zone and I’m very serious about my job. I will admit that because I want to be perfect and I’m trying to do my best and then perceived it as spoiled or whatever, it was, and I was like “Wow”, so I really did take that advice and then I went into work and had a smile on my face and I did notice how people perceived me. So I didn’t want to change completely who I was but I had to really be open-minded to how I was perceived.”

Christy: “For me, it’s a lot to do with the tape. That tape for me. The representation for me was I feel like I always have to think about how I am. I know who I am but I think a lot about how I’m going to present, you know what I mean, and I think we do it because it’s the like a lady….don’t be this, don’t do that, if I do this then I’m this… women are constantly doing that. And I feel that pressure or that tape over my mouth that I have to think about things so much. The whole point of all of these, this, past couple of years and all this change and women saying they don’t want to be silenced, I would like other people to see that that is what we are trying to peel back and come out of.”

Lita: “Yeah totally, And also that, you know, being in a room or being one of the only women, or the only woman, it’s a lie we can’t, we’re so passionate about wrestling right, that’s why we’re there. That’s why it’s worth fighting for. That’s why it’s worth making little changes but, so we are passionate but then you’re leading, “Don’t lead with your emotions..Don’t be emotional.” But I’m so passionate, I really want to do this for the greater good, or this person that I know who is working so hard, I would love for them to be presented differently and it can come across as too aggressive or too assertive…It’s a hard balance.”

Christy: “I’ve been writing for a really long time. I went to screenwriting school and then we have a lot of friends that are writers and people that we admire and respect and we pulled together a small writing team right now. Once we get picked up and once we are going to develop a whole season; we will pull in more expression, more perspective. I think the writing room should be very diverse and that’s going to be the reach of having the money to pay people.”

The Ladies Talk About Female Representation In The Industry And On Their New Show Kayfabe:

Christy: “We’re putting these stories together, and it’s just going to be telling female stories within the business, stuff that we go through in the locker room.”

Lita: “But with around 20 years of experience each, it is what we know, what we love, we are very comfortable with all of the source material and could be giving limitless inspiration, um, but definitely, collaborating with our writing team and just wanting things to be really well thought out and layered and have a little bit more accurate representation of the layers that we are, as women, as opposed to the kind of tropes that the storylines that you’ve seen….there’s so much more to us than that, we want you to see what we go through and what we are dealing with outside of the ring.”

Gail: “And I think a lot of people are like; oh is that her story, or your story. It’s like no, it’s wasn’t any of our stories, you know. It’s just inspiration.”

Lita: “But we can relate to the stories and go, okay, I can see a little bit of myself in that character, I can see a little bit of myself in that character, and it just feels like there’s representation.”