- Joined
- Mar 14, 2006
This is not fundamentally a skating issue, is it? It's a broad cultural issue. Just about everyone whom people are going to pay money to watch -- actors, models, dancers, athletes, or pop stars -- is expected to be thin unless their performance area (like football or sumo wrestling) actually demands extra muscularity or beefiness.
Even opera singers (the traditional "fat ladies") are now pressured to be thin - e.g. the recent story of Deborah Voigt who lost a role because she didn't fit into the costume and then had gastric bypass surgery. And even male models, dancers, skaters and actors have to worry about their weight, so it's not just a female issue (even though it's far worse for women -- compare the PR over Jessica Simpson's weight gain over Russell Crowe's).
There must be some psychological factor in this demand for thinness at a time when the population as a whole is increasingly obese. Or maybe it's economic. We can't be bothered to slim down ourselves so we pay our entertainers to do it for us, just like we hire a cleaning lady to take care of our house. Or perhaps we're projecting our desired selves into those gorgeously thin bodies. Or perhaps watching those almost transparent, "angelic" bodies is a way of experiencing transcendence in a post-religious society.
Anyway I don't think this will change in skating unless the entire performing-arts aspect of skating disappears and it becomes pure sport. Since I would oppose the switch to pure sport, my recommendation is a big increase in the education of skaters and coaches about healthy nutrition.
I really don't think censoring skating boards on the topic of weight is an appropriate response, any more than I think skating boards cause eating disorders. I always stand up for courtesy toward skaters, but not at the cost of censoring free speech.
This board isn't censoring "weight talk" yet, is it? I just mention it because the idea always comes up in the context of eating disorders.
Even opera singers (the traditional "fat ladies") are now pressured to be thin - e.g. the recent story of Deborah Voigt who lost a role because she didn't fit into the costume and then had gastric bypass surgery. And even male models, dancers, skaters and actors have to worry about their weight, so it's not just a female issue (even though it's far worse for women -- compare the PR over Jessica Simpson's weight gain over Russell Crowe's).
There must be some psychological factor in this demand for thinness at a time when the population as a whole is increasingly obese. Or maybe it's economic. We can't be bothered to slim down ourselves so we pay our entertainers to do it for us, just like we hire a cleaning lady to take care of our house. Or perhaps we're projecting our desired selves into those gorgeously thin bodies. Or perhaps watching those almost transparent, "angelic" bodies is a way of experiencing transcendence in a post-religious society.
Anyway I don't think this will change in skating unless the entire performing-arts aspect of skating disappears and it becomes pure sport. Since I would oppose the switch to pure sport, my recommendation is a big increase in the education of skaters and coaches about healthy nutrition.
I really don't think censoring skating boards on the topic of weight is an appropriate response, any more than I think skating boards cause eating disorders. I always stand up for courtesy toward skaters, but not at the cost of censoring free speech.
This board isn't censoring "weight talk" yet, is it? I just mention it because the idea always comes up in the context of eating disorders.