In the world of professional wrestling, the term “kayfabe” refers to the shared social agreement to pretend that clearly fake, staged, performed behaviors are real. So while there are actual people engaging in at times quite physically demanding stunts within and beyond the roped-off wrestling arena, those stunts are performed in support of a narrative that is not genuine; the performers, in addition to being stuntpeople, are actors, and the feuds they play out, the personae they adopt, and the competitions they compete in are all part of a grander narrative they and those watching them treat like real versions of the same, despite their falsity.
Kayfabe
Kayfabe
Kayfabe
In the world of professional wrestling, the term “kayfabe” refers to the shared social agreement to pretend that clearly fake, staged, performed behaviors are real. So while there are actual people engaging in at times quite physically demanding stunts within and beyond the roped-off wrestling arena, those stunts are performed in support of a narrative that is not genuine; the performers, in addition to being stuntpeople, are actors, and the feuds they play out, the personae they adopt, and the competitions they compete in are all part of a grander narrative they and those watching them treat like real versions of the same, despite their falsity.