The Public Perception of a Kid

I just read today about an interview done by Vince McMahon of the WWE on the Today Show where he called Benoit a "monster." Now, since this is the second post I have done touching on pro wrestling, let me say right here that I personally stopped watching when Owen Hart died during a show after falling to the ring from the rafters of an arena due to either faulty training or less than professional rigging used for the stunt he was performing. As I said yesterday, I live in the 21st century not the 3rd, so the death of another person is not sport or entertainment to me, even if it is accidental.

Now, Mr. McMahon's statements about Benoit may appease the adults of the world, at least the ones watching the Today Show or reading newspapers. But, frankly, that is not the audience he ought to be talking to. I rather seriously doubt the majority of the audience that is sitting down each week to watch the Monday broadcast of the WWE flagship show "Raw," or attending live events, or ordering them on demand are sitting down and also watching the morning quasi-news programs like the Today Show. So basically, the interview was a public relations exercise to try and keep the parents of the kids from saying "No, you can't watch that" and blocking it forever from their televisions.

Like it or not professional wrestlers, the same as other celebrities and sports stars, in many cases hold more sway over their perspective audiences than anyone else in their lives. I don't mean that the celebrities are the ones that are telling them to do their homework or mow the grass, but in a broader sense they are influencing the opinions of those who admire them, and many times much more strongly than every day peers or parents. And this is truly where the trouble comes in when we are talking about the use, or abuse, of steroids.

As adults, we tend to rationalize it by a variety of different means. We tell ourselves that the people using the steroids are adults, and they know the risks. This being America after all, who are we to tell another person he or she cannot do something. We look at it and say things like it's not for us, but if they want to destroy their bodies and minds, that is their choice. Unfortunately, we tend to forget as adults just how influential celebrities can be because we are in large part already set in thought patterns and have a pretty clear idea of what is right and wrong for us.

Kids, on the other hand, are easily influenced even when they think they aren't being influenced. The fact that they see celebrities doing drugs, drinking and driving, getting thrown in jail only to serve a third of the time, sports stars doing steroids to improve their game and their incomes... There are many things that are capable of influencing kids, especially when they have been exposed to them for the entirety of their lives. I don't mean to say that a kid watches a half dozen wrestling programs that he is going to start using steroids. But the fact is, if becoming a wrestler is the kid's dream, and he sees the obviousness of their use, then guess what? Yeah, he's going to find a way to get steroids. All he is seeing as that all these famous people are doing it, and making a bunch of money, so why not? Can't be bad, right?

McMahon's comments may be relavent to an adult audience, but it is funny to me that the adult side (the troubling and bad side) are being dealt with in a different venue than the perceived good and fun side. If we really want to protect the youth of the country, then the message of the bad side of steroids has to be constant, and it must be stated within the sport's or entertainment's normal venue. Otherwise, nothing is ever going to change.