The People’s Elbow, by Rax King
The People’s Elbow, by Rax King
Ursus Americanus
Thirty stomach scraping recitatives on rape and wrestling, The People's Elbow is what it is to try to process trauma in the twenty-first century. It is slamming the head into the mat repeatedly only to realize the match is rigged for the heel. It is the comfort and confusion of fantasy as a coping mechanism. It is the ways we heal and ways we don't. Now with art from Zach Hobbs and foreword from Lisa Carver.
Rax King is a James Beard Media Award-nominated bitch. Her work can also be found in Glamour, Catapult, and Electric Literature. Look out for her monthly Catapult column Store-Bought is Fine for hot takes about the Food Network.
"The People’s Elbow is one of The Rock’s best-known signature moves. It is simple the way wrestling is simple. It is a classic elbow drop, in which wrestler A plunges his body backwards and downwards like he’s taking a fall and drives his elbow into wrestler B’s limp body on the way down. The People’s Elbow is beauty the way wrestling is beauty: clean and gratifying, a winner, a loser.
In a rape, too, is immediacy and visibility. Clean strokes and gratification. A winner, a loser, every time. Every single time."