Althouse: "If one is gay, as am I, one is supposedly predisposed to adore figure skating."

February 16, 2010

"If one is gay, as am I, one is supposedly predisposed to adore figure skating."

"I missed that day at Gay High. I watch a certain amount of skating. I like that it is fast and difficult and only rotates in one direction. I love the costumes. I hate the music. Like many sports, it has become brutal and artless. The tricks are too hard to be beautiful. I used to love school figures: the endless figure-eights and edges and concentration. But that old-style skill is not interesting enough for today's television consumers."

27 comments:

Jim said...: Perhaps this is too "inside baseball," but the reason that school figures were eliminated from competition wasn't because they were too slow-moving or unexciting to watch as that portion of the competition was rarely televised at any length any way.

Nope. The reason the school figures went away?

Because Americans were too good at them.

Figures were the only actually objective portion of the scoring, so there was no way for the judges to avoid giving Americans good scores. And that then bled over into the short and long program: it was awfully hard to award ridiculously low scores for technical merit after they had just proven their accuracy in figures.

As always in international competition, Americans were done in by the anti-American bias in judging. Which is why Americans tend to perform the best in sports where there is no subjectivity involved - just a score or a stopwatch.

Ice skating is just another victim of this. And get this...they hated Americans even before George Bush took office.

Shocking, I know.; 2/16/10, 9:13 PM
Anonymous said...: You know, the Gay Mind seems to be especially adept in calling out artlessness and cultural brutality.

I don't think this is exactly on topic, but...

Over at the excellent podcast The History of Rome, our host just completed a few episodes on Hadrian. And the Emperor Hadrian was a total gay; he lived with his young male lover in a completely open way, and even insisted that the lover be deified and otherwise widely honored after his early death.

It seems strange knowing that Western Civilization was led by an openly gay man for more than 20 years. With that sort of history behind the idea, I see no reason why an openly gay man could not today become President of the United States.

Hadrian wasn't half-bad either. He killed a lot of Jews, but they were insurgents. His wall in Britain still stands, and he is known as number three of Gibbon's "Five Good Emperors".; 2/16/10, 9:19 PM
Irene said...: The critique would be more interesting had the dancers considered ice *dancing.*

For example: "The ice dancing short program was Sunday, and I saw every one of them. My favorite couple was Savchenko and Szolkowy from Germany."

Sunday's short program featured pairs figure skating. The ice dancing competition has not yet begun.

Picky, I know.; 2/16/10, 9:21 PM
Peter V. Bella said...: Anyone can dance with shoes or slippers. But try dancing on that blade!

Competitive? A new show is born. Skating with the Stars.; 2/16/10, 9:21 PM
KCFleming said...: Olympic figure skating: where there's never too much tootie.; 2/16/10, 9:24 PM
Sprezzatura said...: For the winter games, I'm for women's curling.

BTW, for summer I'm a fan of women's volleyball and women's fencing.; 2/16/10, 9:25 PM
Jason (the commenter) said...: At some point athletic prowess becomes a freak show. I suppose, these performances are supposed to be art, but I don't think anyone records them and rewatches them, or even remembers them. All I can remember is a few faces and names, and maybe if someone ran into a television camera or broke someone else's leg. That doesn't speak well for skating as an art.; 2/16/10, 9:25 PM
KCFleming said...: If figure skating were abstract art, it would be cool.; 2/16/10, 9:26 PM
LonewackoDotCom said...: Let me put all of this into context which this tweet from my feed (it helps if you've seen retweets that have been cut off):

Sorry to hear that, best of luck. RT @AlGore I spent Valentine's Day with a 40 of SteelReserve in one hand and watching figure skating with

Aren't I the dickens?

P.S. Continuing yesterday's salon, this is how Glenn Reynolds takes on very serious subjects like far-left Gramscian concepts being mainstreamed, by in effect agreeing with those concepts and admitting that they're valid: pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/93979 That's about the highest intellectual level most of the r/w commentariat can reach nowadays.; 2/16/10, 9:46 PM
traditionalguy said...: JRH...That is an interesting observation. The culture and the thinking these days seems to be wanting to recreate the Roman Empire's way of life. A very multi cultural and multi religious mixture that depends upon a world of near slave labor wages to send its wealth thru Rome and hoping to become a part of the Pax Romana/Americana system. The media puts on the circuses/sports and the small farmers have become agri-businessmen. The age old question is can an Empire be run by an honest Republic rather than by an Emperor, which you seem ready to see happen.; 2/16/10, 9:49 PM
ricpic said...: It's been all downhill since Peggy Fleming. She was grace personified.; 2/16/10, 9:51 PM
Edgehopper said...: In today's short program, a French male skater twirled to music from Yentl.

This isn't gay enough for you?; 2/16/10, 9:56 PM
Anonymous said...: @traditionalguy- Surely you can see a glint of (my namesake) Julius Caesar in Sarah Palin's eyes?; 2/16/10, 10:02 PM
kentuckyliz said...: Skating and art...let's merge them!

Get the corrugated cardboard!

WV saber
appropriate euphemism for the pop-up feature; 2/16/10, 10:16 PM
kentuckyliz said...: What's green and skates?

Peggy Phlegm; 2/16/10, 10:17 PM
traditionalguy said...: Ky liz...LOL. and to JRH the glint you see is Wm Wallace wanting to start a fight with the English branch of the Roman Empire.; 2/16/10, 10:30 PM
Anonymous said...: @t-guy: Made me look! (it up!) We always return to the Scot-Irish, don't we?; 2/16/10, 10:31 PM
Palladian said...: Male figure skaters have hot thighs.; 2/16/10, 10:48 PM
Bender said...: It's been all downhill since Peggy Fleming. She was grace personified.

What about Dorothy Hamill? (who is still a babe)

Actually, the Olympics have all been all downhill ever since they all went pro.

I remember growing up complaining that the East Germans and Soviets were cheating because they used folks who were essentially professionals, while the U.S. stuck to pure amateurs. But now they are all pro, and the purity of sport is destroyed.; 2/16/10, 11:15 PM
Ralph L said...: Years ago, my boss boinked a guy from an ice show. He said it was like fucking a brick wall.; 2/16/10, 11:25 PM
Anthony said...: But can anyone do the Iron Lotus?; 2/17/10, 6:20 AM
Hoosier Daddy said...: Hadrian wasn't half-bad either. He killed a lot of Jews, but they were insurgents.

Where does one even begin.; 2/17/10, 6:49 AM
Lynne said...: I think it's very interesting that the first dancer interviewed mentioned missing the school figures. I think school figures are the closest thing in skating to the ballet barre. It makes sense that a dancer would appreciate them.

I recall feeling a little disappointed when they ditched school figures. I felt like they were just pandering to an audience demand for flash and dazzle instead of boring old technique and discipline.

But maybe they did it for the reasons Jim suggested. Don't know.

I do find it kind of interesting that there are some jumps in ballet that resemble the axles and toe loops in ice skating.; 2/17/10, 6:51 AM
sonicfrog said...: I don't watch it because it's too gay.

Signed the gay blogger Sonicfrog.; 2/17/10, 1:00 PM
sonicfrog said...: PS. Did I mention that I dislike Madonna, can't stand Cher's music, and Hate Babs Streisand.

Signed.

Sonicfrog, the gay blogger.; 2/17/10, 1:01 PM
Beth said...: Where does one even begin.

Hoosier D, thanks for that laugh!; 2/17/10, 2:11 PM
Methadras said...: At this point I'm yearning for the days of Harding and Kerrigan. Egads!!!; 2/17/10, 8:39 PM