Impact Wrestling Must Tread Lightly with Scarlett Bordeaux’s Character
This Thursday Scarlett Bordeaux made her long-awaited debut on Impact Wrestling with a promo with (and also kind of against) backstage corespondent Alicia Atout. Impact could be on the verge on making a strong point in the name of the women’s wrestling revolution with Scarlett, but they could also be on the verge of saying something problematic.
It’s no secret that women’s wrestling as a whole has made leaps and bounds from where it had been as recently as this decade. Women in every professional wrestling promotion are main-eventing and producing matches far beyond the caliber that had ever been seen before. They’re no longer just the eye candy; they’re serious performers, and the respect they’ve demanded has been met by audiences all over the word.
In the case of Scarlett Bordeaux, Impact Wrestling’s newest Knockout, Impact is making a deliberate attempt to “bring sexy back”, if you will, and that’s perfectly fine. It’s 2018; a woman can be strong, sexy, dangerous, respected, sultry, fierce, all in one. This argument will not serve to prove that sex appeal has no place in the world of women’s wrestling anymore.
The problem with Impact and Bordeaux lies primarily with the fact that in her debut promo, I had to sit and watch Bordeaux interrupt Alicia Atout’s interview by referring to her as “a 5”.
It sounds like relatively innocent jab, but what it shows is that in only her first episode, Scarlett Bordeaux is already toeing the line between “sex symbol” and “body-shaming”.
.@Lady_Scarlett13 has a mission in IMPACT: she wants to make wrestling sexy again.
— IMPACT (@IMPACTWRESTLING) July 27, 2018
She's off to a good start... #IMPACTonPop pic.twitter.com/ylfDA9DiqV
Impact Wresting, Scarlett Bordeaux, please feel free to make wrestling as sexy as you want, more power to you, but heed this warning – do not do it at the expense of other women again.
Impact Wrestling may not realize this, but with Scarlett, they have an opportunity to add a new chapter to the story of the women’s wrestling revolution. Its seems a weird thing, almost like a step back into the bygone era of bikini contests in the ring and The Godfather, but it’s not.
Scarlett’s sex appeal is more feminist than not, and a women’s ownership of her sexuality is a pertinent enough issue to deserve a place in a strong, progressive storyline.
Where it becomes inappropriate, however, is when it stops being insular to Scarlett and trickles out negatively on the women on the roster and, perhaps looking towards the future, ostracizes Scarlett from the rest of the Knockouts or roster at large.
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There is a fine line here between good, ol’ fashioned heel promos, and body-shaming. Scarlett can absolutely be every ounce of the “smokeshow” she claims to be, but if it’s at the expense of other women on the roster, than this will knock Impact’s characterization of women right back to the bikini contest.
Impact, please make sure you tread that line very carefully, and if you choose not to, at least let it be a part of a lesson to viewers (especially female ones) that you don’t need to step on another women’s looks, body, anything of the sort, to be a better competitor than her.
On the flip side, there’s also a very open opportunity for the tables to be turned on Scarlett and for programming to test the waters of slut-shaming. This is another beast entirely to the one mentioned before.
Another easy jab to take at the woman who owns her sexuality is to, well, call her a slut or any variation of the sentiment. Impact, please be weary of the weak, hackneyed, and down right offensive storyline as well.
“Hot-shaming” doesn’t have to be just a weird term Impact came up with. With Scarlett Bordeaux, there’s a very tangible moment that Impact can seize to say hey, women are allowed to be sexy and strong, and they don’t have to be persecuted for it. However, even the slightest of missteps can send that notion crashing to the ground.
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She’s only had one segment on Impact programming so far, but in the future, I hope Impact allows Scarlett Bordeaux to skip all the bullying and focus on being the provocative, womanly, dangerous heel we need to learn about.