Back in March, I discussed my interest in the Safe Partner, the Tag Team wrestler placed outside the ropes, often watching his partner suffer but unable to lend a hand. For some reason, I get a charge when the camera turns away from the action for a few moments and focuses on the lone man, eagerly waiting for his turn to get in and wrestle.
The man outside the ropes — separated from the action and body contact in the ring — seems so hopeful and tense, so desperate to join the fray and get his rassle on. He reaches with his hand, leans stretching as close as he can, and presses his body against the ropes, straining to rescue his suffering partner. I enjoy seeing his eagerness and physical tension as he tries to include himself in the fight.
If wrestling is a metaphor for intimacy, then the ring ropes represent alone-ness, sexual frustration, and repression. The partner outside the ropes is blocked from connecting with the other men. The ring ropes symbolize society’s repression of man-on-man contact — the social constraints that prevent men from forming intimate bonds with with other men.
The positioning of the Safe Partner outside the ring, away from the action, also feminizes him. Traditionally a man is active — a man has “agency,” which means a man makes decisions, gets shit done, conquers, penetrates, and dominates. The traditional behaviors for a woman are defined by passivity and submission — conforming, sitting pretty, being looked upon.
Maybe the reason the Safe Partner is so eager to get inside the ring, straining against the ropes like a stallion trying to break his tether, is because he realizes he has been placed in the passive, watching, feminine role, and he is eager to re-assert his manhood just like the dudes getting it on inside the ring.
I like how the Safe Partner makes physical contact with the ropes. Watching the other men coupled together, he rests his arms upon the top rope and leans on it, gripping the rope gently with one hand. His may press his chest against the ropes, bouncing anxiously, or hook one leg possessively over the middle rope and rest a foot on the bottom rope. It’s almost like he is bound by the ropes, his limbs entangled.
He is seemingly so eager to wrestle, so hot and bothered by what he is watching in the ring, that he begins to wrestle with the ropes. He can’t wait. If he is unable to get involved in the wrestling in the ring, he will wrestle with the ring ropes instead.
To be continued…