It's not just in the arts and sports. I was a librarian for a long time, and that's an occupation like nursing where most are women. Nurses have told me about how prevalent bullying and emotional abuse is for them. For librarians, particularly the younger women, there is still the old cliche that they're frustrated and repressed and are "just panting for it" (in spite of the fact that the majority are married and have photos of their kids on their desks). I've worked in large university and government libraries where the new juniors were told not to go down into the cavernous basement stacks alone because attacks by "patrons" were common, and if the level was empty enough for long, there was the occasional rape.
That's terrible to hear.
Personally I have never been in a situation where I was assaulted or felt unsafe apart from one creepy sports teacher using a moment during a swimming lesson. That's not to say that there aren't many cases. But I want to state that it is not normal. I am sorry for all the people who experience such situations so often that they conclude that while despicable it happens all the time and everywhere. I believe that safer and less safe environments exist and that there are things to be done against the prevalence of aggression, that there are factors that influence how often abuse happens.
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I understood this thread to be about all kinds of abuse, since all kinds of abuse happen in figure skating, and happen all the time. From the top of my head, without even doing research, these are the unpleasant to terrible moments, statements and events I remember from the last years:
- Brendan Kerry, sexual misconduct and alleged rape
- twitter allegation against anonymous but identifiable skater from North America who continues to be heralded as a star by organizers
- Nikolaj Sorensen
- John Coughlin and a bunch of top skaters and officials defending him against all evidence, standing by his side
- Morgan Cipres/ Silvia Fontana and John Zimmermann
- Dalilah Sappenfield
- (lost due to lack of evidence) lawsuit against Mie Hamada because of physical violence, Mie Hamada becoming ISU coach of the year afterwards
- Eteri Tutberidze with all kinds of accounts, often in a neutral or understanding way by her skaters, of enhancing and glorifying eating disorders, neglecting serious injuries etc., despite all this being public knowledge and not even disputed by her she becomes ISU coach of the year
- Anna Levandi, alleged abuse, mostly psychological (shaming and insulting child and teenage skaters), but also neglecting injuries. Levandi herself is a victim of abuse by her own coach
- in an interview Lambiel says physical violence, if it leaves no traces, such as shaking, is acceptable and sometimes necessary in coaching
- Brian Joubert is cleared of allegations, but the remarks he makes afterwards are, to me, showing that he finds coaching methods acceptable that are unacceptable to me
- Tarasova defends physical violence by coaches, including herself, as sometimes necessary and working
- the death of Alexandrovskaja which raises questions
Add many more cases which may not be clear cut abuse but which I find highly problematic - like the way Levito's coach speaks about her, or the way that Kimmy Repond's mother speaks about being thin, etc. etc.
All of this shows that there is an environment which glorifies abuse as necessary, does not set clear cut borders of what is acceptable, especially towards minors, does not outlaw abusers unless they absolutely have to, treats teenagers complaining about (serious) injuries as weak, glorifies eating disorders, glorifies sacrifice of health.
I'm not saying it's the worst. But I'm sure it is among the worst. Back to cycling where recently a young man was able to end his contract because he wasn't part of his team's whatsapp group and felt bullied and many people showed support for him.
So, some factors that I think contribute to problems:
- traditions, especially "soviet style", "culture"
- top athletes being very young and athletes who are already very serious at a very young age
- feds and coaches hold huge power over an athlete's career
- "natural" power imbalance in pairs due to availability of partners and age of partners
- athletes and coaches and teams spend a lot of time with each other, often in rather intimate settings
- required money create many situations where people can feel they have no choice; so do especially powerful camps and coaches
- no real awareness in some important countries, especially (of course not only) in Russia very often the victim is not believed at all, the alleged abuser is immediately seen as the victim
- abused children often become abusers themselves and there are almost no people from the "outside" in the sport to reflect this behaviour
- over-ambitious parents are especially drawn to this sport and may not recognize unsafe situations of their children or justify them as necessary or abuse their children themselves mentally and physically
