



When Becky Lynch started calling herself “The Man,” most wrestling fans understood that she wasn’t talking about her gender. It was an obvious dig at her then-rival Charlotte Flair, and Ric Flair’s famous catch phrase, “To be the man, you gotta beat the man.” It’s an accepted truth in WWE that Charlotte inherited her father’s skill and prestige, so by beating Charlotte for the title, Becky “beat the man,” and has therefore become “the man.”

On the other hand, it was always kind of about gender, when you consider that there’s no female equivalent (certainly not in wrestling) to saying “I’m the man.” Saying “I’m the woman” doesn’t mean the same thing to most people, because the word “woman” unfortunately doesn’t have the same connotations of dominance and power. So by calling herself the Man, Becky Lynch is refusing to compromise on declaring herself the best, despite the fact that she’s a woman.



And yes, in discussions I’ve had with other queer wrestling fans, we’ve talked about how in WWE, where everything is divided by gender and queer representation is minimal, it’s still pretty fun and exciting to watch Becky blurring gender roles just a bit, even if that’s not the point she’s making. Even as we got a little extra thrill out of watching a woman defiantly call herself a man, we knew all along that Becky wasn’t talking about her gender or sexuality. She was talking about being the best.

Then Ronda Rousey started talking, and things got weird. In her already infamous Avocado Toast promo Ronda deployed stereotypes against Becky that are often used to call into question the masculinity of young men — V-necks, skinny jeans, oversensitive and easily insulted — while saying that Becky isn’t the Man, she’s “the Millennial Man.” Never mind the fact that Ronda’s two days younger than her, as we’ve all previously discussed. This felt like the kind of promo John Cena’s been known to deliver on his worst days, that centers around disparaging his opponent’s masculinity in contrast to his own. That’s regressive enough, but why would you disparage the masculinity of a woman in that same way, even one who uses “the Man” as a nickname? Does Ronda think Becky really thinks she’s a man?



In the less-discussed latter part of that same promo she doubled down, saying “I sure as hell didn’t pour my heart and soul into changing the meaning of ‘fight like a girl’ so the leader of the Women’s Evolution could call herself ‘the Man!'” So yeah, it sure does sound like Ronda’s taking Becky’s nickname as a genuine attempt to distance herself from womanhood, despite the fact that Becky’s pride in being a woman who’s also the most popular superstar in WWE has been palpable all along.