Manolo says,
May the New Year bring the readers of the Manolo abundant prosperity and much happiness!
Look, it is the year of the Rat Shoes!
P.S. Spirit Fingers offers you her own version of the New Year’s blessings.
Manolo says, Ayyyyyy! Lady wrestlers! Spandex! Tim Gunn!
This challenge, to make the costumes for the modern-day Fabulous Moolahs, out of spandex and spangles, was completely ridiculous and yet also terribly entertaining.
And nothing was more delightful than the lady wrestlers themselves. Yes, they were tacky, with their giant fake breasts, tanning-booth tans, and rigorously gym-toned bodies, but they were also lively and funny and seemed to be genuinely happy. When they entered the sewing room it was as if the lights were turned on, making everything brighter and sharper.
Query: Were the lady wrestlers sexy?
Answer: No.
The wrestling ladies in their tiny costumes and big breasts had all of the signifiers of sexiness, but it was just the simulacrum of eros, as the raw and enthusiastic physicality of their presence, their innocent joy in being young, beautiful, and athletic, and the absolute cartoonishness of professional wrestling, swamps any possibility of the erotic response.