Health, Illness, and Injury in Professional Wrestling

A Special Section of a forthcoming issue of Survive and Thrive

Recent commentary has focused on the declining health and lack of access to health care among professional wrestlers (e.g. John Oliver's commentary here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8UQ4O7UiDs).  Hired as contractors, not employees, and so often denied benefits (from health insurance to retirement), professional wrestlers become, as they age, tragic:  celebrities in their prime for their physical prowess, as they age, they launch gofundme pages to cover the costs of essential medical care.

This special section of Survive & Thrive: A Journal for Medical Humanities and Narrative as Medicine, cracks open the full spectrum of questions about health, illness, and injury among professional wrestlers.  

Section 1:  Media Effects of Professional Wrestling as Theatre for Health, Illness, and Injury

• How does the theatrical dimension of professional wrestling, or "kayfabe," project images of health and injury among professional wrestlers?  What are the effects and impacts of those images on the public and on kids?

• How does the aging of professional wrestlers shape our image of aging as a process?  (This can include the health challenges of retired wrestlers, the absolute refusal of Rick Flair to retire, ever, and the middle ground of aging wrestlers who come out of retirement for appearances and sometimes matches as supplemental income.)

Section 2:  The Real Experience of Health, Illness, and Injury among Professional Wrestlers 

• How do real injuries affect the careers and lives of professional wrestler?

• How do the unique conditions of employment faced by professional wrestlers (whether as contractors for national promotions or as gig workers in local pr wrestling promotions) affect their health and wellness?

Submissions can include peer reviewed research, autoethnography, creative writing (including literary essay), and interviews with real professional wrestlers.  

SUBMISSION DEADLINE

-September 30, 2022:  Deadline for abstracts for preliminary acceptance and feedback;  you do not need to submit an abstract prior to the December 25th, 2022 deadline.

Submit to: dbeard@d.umn.edu

-December 25th, 2022:  Deadline for Completed Drafts

Submit to: <https://repository.stcloudstate.edu/cgi/submit.cgi?context=survive_thrive>

Summer 2023:  Projected Publication

SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS

"Submissions" may include text, video, audio, or image files that express the aims and scope of the journal. Submissions cannot have been previously published, nor be forthcoming in another journal or book (print or electronic). If you have concerns about the submission terms for Survive & Thrive: A Journal for Medical Humanities and Narrative as Medicine, please contact the editors.

<https://repository.stcloudstate.edu/survive_thrive/policies.html>

ABOUT SURVIVE AND THRIVE: A JOURNAL FOR MEDICAL HUMANITIES AND NARRATIVE AS MEDICINE

Survive & Thrive: A Journal for Medical Humanities and Narrative as Medicine aims to provide opportunities for sharing research, artistic work, pedagogical dialogue, and the practices of medical humanities and narrative as medicine. One of the primary aims of the journal is to bring medical humanities and narrative medicine to patients, survivors, and caregivers. Its emphasis, therefore, is on patients and survivors and their needs, and while aware of and supporting professional medical education, the journal is most concerned with an audience broader than an academic audience. We encourage physicians and others in the medical profession to practice Narrative as Medicine by submitting their work, especially when it encourages them to be artists – visual, performance, and literary. The scope of the journal is eclectic in that it considers all the disciplines of medicine and the humanities while focusing on their relationship and the needs of survivors and patients.

Also see: <http://repository.stcloudstate.edu/survive_thrive/aimsandscope.html>

Also see:  <https://repository.stcloudstate.edu/survive_thrive/policies.html>

Editorial Contact Email:

David Beard, DBeard@d.umn.edu