OK. So, this has become a real can of worms.
But, I have to say, I am very impressed with the arguments that are being made for both points of view. All of you are making very good points, which in itself is very rare in a debate this heated!
I may not agree with the point some of you are making, but I do see where you are coming from. Which is a good sign.
And this is why I don't really follow ladies' skating, in a nutshell. It's 2015 for crying out loud.
I like Liza because she isn't the typical "ice princess." I hope she continues to be herself and doesn't change or censor anything she wants to do. There are enough of those boring skaters already.
OK, so maybe bringing out the "Ice Princess" phrase wasn't the best idea. Because, I don't particularly like what you have described either. But, I couldn't think of a better way of emphasising that it is better to act innocent.
Sigh. Liza isn't the face of Russian skating, that's Adelina. She is not the skater that everyone wants on their covers or wants in their adverts. That's Adelina and Yulia. Adelina has Nike and KLM as sponsors. Yulia has Adidas. Liza has Herbalife. That about sums it up for you. Olympic gold > Worlds/Euro gold. That's just reality. "Racy" photos is your description, not everyone agrees. If Rus Fed were to turn against skaters for the so-called "racy" image that you think Liza is projecting then they would have no skater left to back. Take a look at the instagrams and vk pages of other Russian skaters. They all have sexy pictures posted there. Even the younger ones have bikini pictures. There is nothing wrong with that.
adelia - I am afraid I have to disagree with your argument that Adelina and Julia are still the faces of Russian figure skating. Look at the Russian Skating Federation's own magazine. Who is on the cover of it's latest edition? Liza.
And, I know most people will not agree with me, but I have never subscribed to the theory that the Olympics are the be-all and end-all. To me, winning 10 competitions in a season is a bigger achievement than winning one. But, I don't want this to turn into an argument about the Olympics. So, I will leave it at that.
But, you do have a very good point about the sponsors. Herbalife doesn't exactly have the same oomph as the others! A thing I was wondering, though. Does Liza still have the Samsung sponsorship, or did that finish after the Olympic season was over?
On the other hand, I cannot agree that there is nothing wrong with younger girls having bikini pictures. Maybe this is down to a difference of culture between us, I don't know.
What's the big deal? I didn't care for the EX though I didn't think of it as shocking.
The 'swimsuit picture' reaction is really a mystery to me, though. It's a black&white photo of a one-piece swimsuit, and as karne mentioned, really only shows the shoulders and upper chest-area. I think this qualifies as modest by most 18-year-old girls/women?
It is the summertime and plenty of people (including skaters) are photographed in swimsuits. As I noted a few pages back, I have seen many skaters posting pics lately in far less modest swimsuits (the two-piece variety) -- off the top of my head: Polina Edmunds, Maria Artemieva, Maria Stavitskaya, Elene Gedevanishvili, Elena Ilinykh, Kaetlyn Osmond, and many others. (I am not calling out anyone specifically for criticism, I am just pointing out how normal this is.)
Though if I understand you correctly, CL_fan, I think you are saying that Liza should be held to higher standards than any of these other girls.
Oh,
sabinfire! You have made this a hard one to answer!
At the end of the day, Liza is the reigning Grand Prix, European and World Champion. She is the top skater in the world at the moment. So, yes, she should be held to higher standards.
But, at the same time,
everybody should be held to high standards!
I agree with you on some points CaroLiza. As you perfectly summed up, Liza is now in a completely new situation. She was the most succesful Russian (or any) female and she is now the most prominent face of Russian figure skating. Yes, Adelina and Yulia are still there but they were not the biggest stars last season and Liza is currently the most succesful one. With great power comes great responsibility. I agree, she has to be careful about her image, just like all the figure skaters who becomes stars. Everything what she says can determines her popularity as well.
Thank you for the support. Your summary of my argument put it a lot better than I did!
I don't know why so many people rant so much about her swimsuit photos. She is forbidden to pose in it? She is not the first to do so. Also, I hate the EX music, but I noticed one thing. Before the music was annouced, we had seen her costume and everyone liked it! However, after the music became known, a lot of people said the costume is too tacky! Double standarts?
I hadn't actually noticed that about the EX costume! It just shows how people can be influenced!
Nevertheless, I think Liza will be fine. She is not slacking the training, she practises more and more when she has the 3A! And she is respectful to other skaters, her reaction to Mao's comeback was nice. Unlike Mishin who is not afraid to complain about technique of other skaters...
That's one of the things I've always liked about Liza. She has always seemed to be a really nice, down to Earth sort of a girl. Which is why all this whole sex goddess image seems so out of character to me.
But, there again, we don't know the real Liza. We are just basing this character on what we have seen on TV.
One final point before I sign off for the night.
I'm sure that I am not the only one that would prefer that it was Liza's skating doing the talking rather than her image. Hopefully that will be the case once the season starts.
CaroLiza_fan
He knows that some won't like this image, but he knows what he does on the larger scale: attracts more attention and interest towards her, and with this attention her technical mastery will be seen even more impressive; in addition, gets more popularity = more sponsors. 
It wasn't a bad business for Plush. (Avdish is his long time choreographer)
It could be bad in the hands of a bad performer, but Plushy did it unbelievably convincing and entertaining.
arty:
:
-- now that the one in this thread is dying down -- I think the Spirals thread is the place to be 
