Things Non-Fans Say About Figure Skating

skatingfan4ever · Aug 20, 2013

I’ve been thinking about the funny/annoying things that people who aren’t hardcore figure skating fans say about it. I’m sure the list is innumerable. I’ll start off the thread with two such remarks:

- It’s not a sport. People who don’t care about figure skating sometimes try to justify their not caring by downplaying its worth. I’m sorry, but just because one happens to not enjoy a particular sport doesn’t mean it’s not a sport. Yes, music and costumes are involved in figure skating, but it takes a lot of hard work for skaters to find a package that works for them and present it well, not to mention that the footwork, spins, and jumps required in competition are just plain difficult. Synchronized swimming also has costumes, makeup, and music, and some people question whether it’s a sport too.

- All the jumps look the same. I once tried to teach a friend of mine about the different jumps and how to tell them apart. She watched an entire long program with me (I don’t remember which one) while I pointed out what each jump was. At the end, she said they all looked the same to her. I guess if you’re not used to watching skating and aren’t looking at skaters' skates, you would miss all that. It made me laugh. How do you teach your non-fan friends about edges and how to tell jumps apart? I learned all I know from listening to Dick Button and Peggy Fleming for all those years when figure skating had its U.S. broadcasting heyday

Let the hilarity/annoyance begin. This should be a fun thread!

mary01 · Aug 20, 2013

awesome thread skatingfan4ever, where do I start the list is soo long, but one question I could never forget was: do the same skaters compete in both single and pairs :laugh:

last year I asked a classmate of mine, which current skaters he liked (since he previously said that he enjoyed watching figure skating) and his answer was Tonya Harding & Nancy Kerrigan!(I figured out that he probably only had watched one figure skating program and that was because of that accident)

Mathman · Aug 20, 2013

On the question, is figure skating a sport? I don't get too exercised over that one.

To me, this is just quibbling over the definition of a word. It is a semantic issue, not a substantive one, IMHO. Call it a sport, call it a trops. I think trapeze is a pretty cool sport, myself.

One distinction that some people make is that a judged sport isn't a real sport, Again, whatever.

About telling the jumps apart, you can start your friend off by helping her to recognize an Axel. To tell the truth, that's about how far I have gotten in decades of being an avid fan.

ForeverFish · Aug 20, 2013

That's why, being the lone figure skating fan in my social circle, I usually whip out videos of Yuna Kim's performances.

They're so entranced that they don't have room to say anything silly. :laugh:

I've mostly encountered people who are genuinely interested, though. I have friends who will gasp aloud at a well-executed flying camel spin. I've found that, for the most part, it's reasonable to have a certain degree of awe when watching skaters do what they do. It doesn't take expertise to realize that twisting three or four times through the air and then landing on a tiny sliver of metal isn't exactly a small feat. It's even more impressive that they make it look so easy -- anyone not a skater who steps on the ice immediately comprehends how difficult it actually is.

louisa05 · Aug 20, 2013

Mathman said:
About telling the jumps apart, you can start your friend off by helping her to recognize an Axel. To tell the truth, that's about how far I have gotten in decades of being an avid fan.

I can identify an axel and tell a toe jump from an edge jump. Not much else. And in person, turns out my vision is not good enough to tell toe from edge on the other side of the rink from me.

chuckm · Aug 20, 2013

It's pretty easy to tell an axel (forward takeoff) and a loop (feet together on takeoff). It's harder to tell a lutz from a flip, although sometimes the setup is a good clue.

rvi5 · Aug 20, 2013

Except when skaters approach the Axel backwards, then spin around into the jump. The backward entry deceives you into thinking it is a Toe jump or a Salchow if you are not paying attention. You need to be watching when they actually achieve lift-off, or whether they actually dig their free leg toe-pick into the ice.

karne · Aug 20, 2013

"All male figure skaters are gay".

Alas, I have to put up with this one in my own house every time Dad so much as catches a glimpse of one of my skaters.

ForeverFish · Aug 20, 2013

rvi5 said:
Except when skaters approach the Axel backwards, then spin around into the jump. The backward entry deceives you into thinking it is a Toe jump or a Salchow if you are not paying attention. You need to be watching when they actually achieve lift-off, or whether they actually dig their free leg toe-pick into the ice.

Another sign of the Axel is that the skater lifts his/her inside leg just prior to vaulting into the air.

Honestly, it's always been the loop/salchow that have confused me. I'm pretty good at distinguishing between Lutz and flip.

rvi5 · Aug 20, 2013

I can usually distinguish the loop, because the legs are crossed going into the jump. Unfortunately, on TV the camera angle is not always ideal to distinguish jumps. If I reverse and play it in slo-mo, or jog the frames forward from pause, I can usually distinguish all of the jumps :lol:. I would make a good competition judge, if everyone could be convinced to skate in slow motion.

rvi5 · Aug 20, 2013

During BOTB, guys at a Hockey board were commenting on the show because of it's Hockey connection. Some hated the show simply because they considered it to be Figure Skating. The gay stigmatism turns many against the sport, fearing they will be accused of being gay if it were remotely suspected they were watch anything Figure Skating related. Some will take a very strong anti-Figure Skating stance, and heavily criticize Figure Skating as not being a sport. Someone at that Hockey board argued Figure Skating was not a sport because it is just dancing on skates. Since dancing is not a sport, neither is Figure Skating (in their mind). I have never found a clear definition of the term Sport. With the IOC officially recognizing the game of Chess as an "intellectual" sport, the issue becomes further complicated. When asked the "exact" definition, most people don't actually know. They usually resort to listing recognized sports as examples. In other words..." I don't know. Here are some examples. You figure it out."

I once saw a poll regarding BOTB viewers. The least likely to watch BOTB was male teens. Next were female teens. For men, the most likely to watch were males aged 50+. I guess at that age, men become more secure in their sexuality, regardless of what others may think. Of course, there were only about 30 participants in the poll. Hardly an accurate statistical population.

Olympia · Aug 20, 2013

Those are the two main put-downs I can think of.

Isn't it funny how some unenlightened guys look down on the glitz of figure skating and then get all excited about pro wrestling? All those muscle-bound wrestlers with long, flowing hair and glittering costumes. And skaters are too frilly? Phooey, anyway.

If those skating anti-fans ever get married, they're going to be in for a surprise at their wedding receptions. When the music plays, they're going to have to dance with their wives, not wrestle them to the ground.

I know, I know. I wouldn't be bold enough or articulate enough to say any of this to someone who was in the room poking fun at figure skating. Some useful fan I am.

(I suspect I'm peeved at wrestling mostly because it seems to be on almost every night on TV. The only place I can see skating these days is YouTube.)

rvi5 · Aug 20, 2013

Let me try to understand this...

Guys watching well toned physically fit women in short skating dresses is gay. Watching other guys is macho.

...why does that logic seem backwards?

Bluebonnet · Aug 20, 2013

"It's not a sport" and "All male skaters are gays" are two views that I have encountered many times. No matter how I explain to them, they just smiled and brushed it off like saying, "Yeah, right!":scowl:

Olympia · Aug 20, 2013

rvi5 said:
Let me try to understand this...

Guys watching well toned physically fit women in short skating dresses is gay. Watching other guys is macho.

...why does that logic seem backwards?

Ooh, I have to use that one next time someone makes that comment to me. That's genius!

sky_fly20 · Aug 20, 2013

* as of the current, only knows the word Yuna Kim related to figure skating
* all male figure skaters look gay
* it is a non sport like rhythmic gymnastics
* punching bag before a hockey game starts

Antiloquy · Aug 21, 2013

"You mean figure skating doesn't just happen during the Olympics?"
"Is Michelle Kwan going to skate in this competition?"
"Ice Dance?" People will say this incredulously, often accompanied by a dismissive smirk. Then I show them Davis/White's Bollywood program and they walk away impressed as hell.

Crystallize · Aug 21, 2013

Antiloquy said:
"Is Michelle Kwan going to skate in this competition?"

Oh, this one. :laugh:

A few years ago, for a high school project, a partner and I did a presentation (for French class) on ladies' figure skating. We showed the 2010 Olympic Free skates of Mao Asada and Yuna Kim. Despite both of their names being highlighted, the class was split and bickering over which one was Michelle Kwan. They sounded so sure, too. It was impossible to get them to believe that Michelle Kwan was not there, and that she had not competed in years. :slink:

Pepe Nero · Aug 21, 2013

Mathman said:
On the question, is figure skating a sport? I don't get too exercised over that one.

To me, this is just quibbling over the definition of a word. It is a semantic issue, not a substantive one, IMHO. Call it a sport, call it a trops. I think trapeze is a pretty cool sport, myself.

One distinction that some people make is that a judged sport isn't a real sport, Again, whatever.

I think there's more to it than semantic quibbling, Mathman. Some other commenters have suggested something like this, but I think the main problem many people have in recognizing FS as a sport is that "sport" is culturally-coded as masculine/male (at least in the US, but probably most other places too), while FS is culturally-coded as feminine/female. (This is surely why so many people assume male figure skaters are gay.) Moreover, when people assert that FS is not a sport, they're generally (in my experience, anyway) not simply meaning to put it in another category; they are meaning to disparage it. Thus, there is a kind of subtle sexism often underlying the assertion that FS is not a sport, I think.

rvi5 said:
I have never found a clear definition of the term Sport. With the IOC officially recognizing the game of Chess as an "intellectual" sport, the issue becomes further complicated. When asked the "exact" definition, most people don't actually know.

That is because there isn't a definition handed down from on high. What "sport" is is a matter of philosophical debate, which is not to say that some proposed definitions wouldn't be better than others. (Dictionaries just report common usage.)

spikydurian · Aug 21, 2013

Here’s an interesting article in relation to figure skating as a sport. Apparently, poor Sonja Henie was 'blamed' for ‘feminizing figure skating’ and thereby creating a male bias against figure skating as a sport.

Mary Louise Adams (2010) From Mixed-Sex Sport to Sport for Girls: The Feminization of Figure Skating, Sport in History, 30:2, 218-241,
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17460263.2010.481208

CONCLUSION:Between the late 1920s and the late 1940s figure skating was feminized. In this era it was female skaters who contributed the most to technical and stylistic advances within the sport. Women’s competitions attracted the greatest crowds and the most interest from promoters looking to commercialize their performances. Sonja Henie was key to this interest; once she turned professional the effect of her visibility on public perceptions of figure skating cannot be overstated. In a pre-television era, her touring shows and films brought figure skating to a huge public audience for the first time. In earlier periods, figure skating had been a pastime of the elite, practised within private clubs. Most people had never seen figure skating of any kind until Henie appeared on screen at their local cinemas. In this context, she and figure skating became synonymous. Her sequinned and bejewelled costumes, her use of toe-steps, her wideeyed, cutesy, doll-like appearance led to popular understandings of figure skating as a feminine form of dancing on ice, rather than a competitive sport. While male skaters appeared in Henie’s films, their roles were secondary. The effervescent Henie, ‘a sort of grown up Shirley Temple’,65 always took centre ice. She helped to cement the public image of figure skating as a feminine one.

In theory, the historical acceptance and success of female skaters should be a cause for celebration. However, in practice, over the past half-century the feminization of figure skating has led to a pronounced
emphasis on gender difference in both technical and stylistic aspects of the sport. This has led to the devaluing of figure skating as a sport, to the hyper-feminization of women’s skating and to the social regulation of boys and men who skate. By their willing participation in a so-called feminine sport, male skaters are often presumed to be effeminate and/or gay. And, while skating has certainly been the sport of choice for many gay or effeminate boys and men, the decision to pursue it rarely comes without cost. The experiences of male skaters remind us that sports, especially strongly gender-typed sports, make an important contribution to the cultural apparatus through which gender conformity is enforced. Indeed ‘intense desire to participate in the games and pastimes of the other sex’ is one of five criteria that psychiatrists may draw on to diagnose gender identity disorder in childhood, as defined in the DSM-IV, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual published by the American Psychiatric Association.

What the story of figure skating makes clear is that the relationship between gender and sport has not always been, and does not need to be, structured or understood as it is now. Women and men have not always needed to compete separately; men have not always felt the need to eschew athletic activities that emphasize the aesthetic; women have not always been required to compete in versions of sport that are less valued than men’s. Thus the lesson to be found in the history of figure skating _ along with the history of bobsledding and other sports that have gone through periods without a heavy emphasis on gender segregation _ is not new: the social organization of gender is historically and culturally contingent; the ‘games and pastimes of the other sex’ in one era might at another time be the games and pastimes of one’s own.

Things Non-Fans Say About Figure Skating

skatingfan4ever

"Our blade takes us in the most amazing places."

mary01

Mathman

ForeverFish

louisa05

chuckm

rvi5

karne

in Emergency Backup Mode

ForeverFish

rvi5

rvi5

Olympia

rvi5

Bluebonnet

Olympia

sky_fly20

Match Penalty

Antiloquy

Crystallize

Pepe Nero

spikydurian

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