culture on ice: figure skating & meaning | Golden Skate

culture on ice: figure skating & meaning

citrus

Rinkside
Joined
Jan 22, 2004
2nd try .....where did the 1st msg go???

Saw a book at B&N called "culture on ice: figure skating & meaning:; it also has MK's Solome's in the front cover. NOTE: the book is NOT about MK.

"Culture on Ice" looks to be an academic study on figure skating and its culture. There are a few pages on MK's Solome's routine and the meaning of the various movements & hand gestures. Also saw some paragraphs on Irina S's layback and description thereof.

Separate sections were for the pairs skaters, "pairs" & dance?. At the end, there is an extensive biblo & a separate section on the technical moves for figure skating: the descriptions and "howto". I have no idea how accurate the techie stuff were since I can't tell 1 jump from another without VERY slow motion.

You might like to drop by a bookstore & browse it; I think it would have been a very nice ref for the other thread that dealt with race & culture regarding the ladies figure skaters & the arguements.......errrrrr opinions.....

The book had a pub date of 2003; ??? seems quite a few books on figure skating "lately"!!!
 

PrincessLeppard

~ Evgeni's Sex Bomb ~
Final Flight
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
I have the book, and it's excellent. It's a look at how women are packaged in figure skating, and it also touches on the men. I enjoyed it.

Laura :)
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
Hey, my post just got boinked, too!

I thought this was a very provocative book. It is an expansion of the author's PhD thesis in theater from the University of Wisconsin. The authour, Dr. Ellyn Kestenbaum, posts on Figure Skating Universe sometimes, I believe, and last year made an occasional post here (login name EllynK).

Kestenbaum's central thesis is to rebut the so-called "feminist" view of the sport of figure skating, popularized in the 1970s, which says that the key motif of this art form is the presentation of the submissive female body to the gaze of powerful men (the audience and judges -- even if they are women, they are still playing the "masculine" role of "gazing at" as opposed to the feminine role of "being gazed upon.") Dr. Kestenbaum's point is, it's not that simple.

I especially liked the sections of the book about the history of competitive and show ice skating -- how did we get from a sport based on "doing" and performed mostly by men, to a sport based on "watching" pretty women.

According to the feminist thesis (not entirely embraced by this author), that's why men figure skaters are regarded as sissies -- when they perform they assume the so-called "feminine" role of "being looked at."

Mathman
 

BronzeisGolden

Medalist
Joined
Jul 27, 2003
Well, this book certainly sounds very interesting. Now that I am not reading 87 books for all of my history and education classes, I might have to check this one out for the summer. Thanks guys!
 

Kateri

On the Ice
Joined
Mar 22, 2004
Oh - Ellyn Kestenbaum rings a bell!

When I used to lurk on the rssif newsgroup, she posted there, and always came across as very intelligent and unbiased. (unlike some there!!)

kat.
 
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