Charlotte Flair Opens Up About Wanting To Challenge The Norms Of What Is Considered Beautiful
Charlotte Flair has seen her star power outside of the ring grow during the past year, thanks in-part to a feature in ESPN The Magazine's "The Body Issue." Flair recently spoke to Lilian Garcia on her Chasing Glory podcast and discussed the importance of appearing in the issue.
Flair said she began writing her goals down and it has helped her focus more. One of those goals was to appear in "The Body Issue" and she went to ESPN herself and sold them on featuring her in the magazine. She went on to become the first wrestler ever, male or female, to pose nude for the special issue and she attributes it to writing her goal down and chasing after it.
"I think the biggest thing for me last year was that I actually sat down and have goals. The years before, like when I debuted, it isn't as though I didn't have goals, but everyone's goal was to debut on the main roster. They want to be the champion, but I had so many goals outside of the ring, which I tackled head on. I think that while I was tackling those goals it helped me with my in-ring presence as well and that what was the biggest difference between me this year and last year," Flair said. "I never thought in a million years that if I put something on a piece of paper that I wanted to be in the ESPN Body Issue and go to ESPN and pitch why they should put a WWE Superstar as the first ever wrestler I never thought it would happen, but the fact that I put it down and went after it, and wasn't scared to go for it even if they shut me down, it kept the ball rolling in every aspect of my career."
Flair said it was important for her to appear in the issue because she wants to challenge the norms of what is considered beautiful, because as a female athlete she is not built like a typical model that would pose nude. All of the athletes featured in the issue displayed their own uniqueness and what makes them beautiful. She said it was yet another step in the Women's Revolution because it shows the progress that has been made to acknowledge female wrestlers as high-level athletes.
"For me it was important because what I loved about it over the years is, that it was showing a different side of athletes, men and women in an athletic way that can be perceived as sexy and people would admire their figures for uniqueness and because I am not built like a lot of the girls and I come from sports it was so fitting," she said. "Being in the issue was also another reason why the Women's Revolution is such a big deal and it is actually becoming mainstream for us. It was definitely uncomfortable but is a testament of what the women's division has created, and how they are looking at us as legitimate athletes, which is what was most important to me. The fact that they take athletes from every sport and the fact that they considered WWE's women's division athletic enough and acknowledge our division speaks volumes to how far we have come."
If you use any of the quotes from this article, please credit Chasing Glory With Lilian Garcia with an H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
Source: Chasing Glory with Lilian Garcia
Peter Bahi contributed to this article.