Nathan Chen issues apology for interview

[Mamamiia]

I'm genuinely confused and do not understand what's offensive about his words or what anyone could be hurt by, can anyone please explain this to me??

Like I said, I don’t fully understand why people feel offended. To be honest I don’t find anything he said offensive at all. I can imagine though some fans from LGBTQ group, especially the ones that have supported him, feel disappointed or hurt when his words were interpreted as he wanted to distant himself from what they represent. Even though it’s obviously not his intention, certain words can be amplified when it’s touching them at a personal level. That’s also why I think Nathan spent time reading their messages and chose to apologize really admirable. Instead of saying “you misunderstood me” he said “I understand why you feel this way, I want to apologize and do better”. It’s a thoughtful message came from his kind heart and the love of skating community.

 

[AxelLover]

Hello in the Nathan Chen fan fest! A long time lurker here.

This hate on Nathan is just so absurd. I'm sad the interview has been taken down, there were many interesting or fun moments which I really enjoyed. For example when Nathan in his humbleness talked about edge jumps in such a way that it seemed he would never even dare to try a 4S or a 4Lo.

Just hope this stuff will soon pass like other Twitter lynchmob incidents (Mariah, Denis Ten, the Michelle Kwan GOAT thing).

Just out of curiosity, what was the Denis Ten incident about?

...or the Shoma lnych mob...

And this one?

 

[Flying Feijoa]

Just out of curiosity, what was the Denis Ten incident about?


And this one?

Hi! Always nice to see more positive support for Nathan

Well, I don't want to violate posting guidelines... I meant the time in 2015 when Denis got a lot of online hate from people who accused him of interference during a practice session (like Mariah in 2019 but without actual contact). Shoma was accused of misogynistic comments.
To be clear for mods, this is not a fan war thing. Online character assassination on tenuous grounds (not criminal allegations, which are an entirely different matter) isn't limited to any one group of fans (and reasonable fans don't support it). It's just a general human habit, enhanced by social media's lack of factual accountability.

I wonder nowadays who are being bullied more and often - boys doing/trying figure skating or actual gay skaters.

Since bullies use 'gay' as a pejorative and they don't really care whether the skater is gay or not, I think they effectively target both straight and gay male skaters (or kids who want to try skating) at the same time...

Hope Nathan continues to push the message that skating is for everyone

 

[1111bm]

“Homosexual” is as the N-word to blacks. Mainstream publications have banned its use.

That is very perplexing, must be a US/NA thing.
I was curious, so I did a little "survey" today and talked to or messaged 5 gay men and 2 lesbian women that I know/am currently in contact with. One hasn't received my text yet, but all the other ones were just as confused as me and confirmed, that 'homosexual' isn't considered offensive at all and if anything, depending on the context and tone of voice, 'gay' is more likely to sound derogatory, just as a shortened version of 'homosexual' as in "You homo".
'Homosexual' is simply the more formal term, 'gay/lesbian' would be more colloquial (initially, when I first watched the interview, I actually thought Nathan was trying to be intentionally neutral and formal by using 'homosexual' instead of gay ).

All of them grew up in Germany, one is from Brasil (and apparently in Brasil "homosexual" is even the only acceptable term).
Ironically and hilariously, given Nathan's words and the surrounding "controversy" (especially the 'dominated' part which some apparently also took offense at??), I know 6 out of those 7 from skating.

But even so, I doubt that even in the US it is comparable to the N-word (or thinking of Nathan's heritage, the C-word). There's no way Nathan would've used it, not even have it slip out accidentally, if it were that bad.

 

[shine]

Nathan made a public apology. He admitted he used harmful language. Some of the recent posts here share a similar insensitivity and ignorance. The “but he did nothing wrong” arguments are unhelpful and if their purpose is to gatekeep this thread from others who do not share like-minded views, then it’s working.

Why is voicing “he did nothing wrong” unhelpful? If people could feel offended by his original comments in the first place, why aren’t we on the other side allowed to feel otherwise? We are also entitled to disagree with him as well, no? People have been sharing differing opinions here for a long time (including those on this very topic) why is it all of a sudden gatekeeping the thread from anyone now?

 

[skfan]

I just want to say I believe in Nathan and trust that he will do a lot of good in this world. No one asked my opinion, but if they did I would say people need to give him some space.

We are card carrying liberals in this household. My husband even works for a do-gooder non-profit, and we have never heard anyone equate homosexual with the N word.

 

[luckyu2]

I think if you want to support you can tweet him, but I wouldn't bother to do anything else since it's really nasty out there. There's all sorts of threats and other things and it's beyond the point of being reasonable anymore.

Well I guess I underestimated the situation until I actually went there. I remember how I left Twitter partially due to all the crazy rumor and nonsense spread around another sports I follow. Things have gone down further since then.

 

[discode]

Well I guess I underestimated the situation until I actually went there. I remember how I left Twitter partially due to all the crazy rumor and nonsense spread around another sports I follow. Things have gone down further since then.

The situation is as bad as it is because Nathan is not well liked in some circles of the FS fandom on a good day. Add in this and it's beyond awful. I don't think you can say it's worse than expected all things considered. It's about what I expected of people who have wanted a reason to hate him for awhile. Shoma had a pretty massive scandal that never got acknowledgement let alone an apology at all and it didn't get this bad simply because he's more well liked so people don't care to use it against him. Anyway, this might get me a warning for mentioning so I'll be quiet.

Also I think it's totally fine to actually be upset by what he said, some fans of his were and those people shouldn't be ignored either but I also think it's fine not to think it's the most awful thing in the world. I'm a woman and didn't care he said females for example. I know it can be bad, but I don't think he had bad intentions considering how much he's supported women's skating and them doing anything a man can do.

 

[Ella5555]

In my opinion, I don’t think Nathan said anything wrong. Based upon what he has indicated a bit in the past, he thinks even quicker than he speaks, so the words sometimes just come out in a jumble - and he has to self-correct as he goes. Just an observation…not an excuse. That being said, I think Nathan did the right thing in making a statement because others may have different personal experiences than I. What I don’t understand is the lack of grace in our current social media culture. By most accounts, Nathan is a standup guy, concerned about social issues, willing to listen to a variety of viewpoints, and cares about others. I remember reading something recently (but happened a year or two back) where Nathan and Dmitri Aliev were at same competition. Dmitri just had a rough skate, and Nathan hadn’t skated yet. Instead of being totally focused on his upcoming skate (like most skaters), Nathan reached out to Dmitri to show him a video of Nathan falling to make Dmitri feel better. Considering all this, even if one is disappointed in his words, he should, in my opinion, be given a break and not written off. Unfortunately, many people don’t have the capacity to forgive or just have preconceived notions about him anyway, so are unwilling to give him another chance.

 

[TontoK]

It’s sad because in real life the people around me who occasionally watch figure skating all warm towards Nathan (they don’t know I am a fan as I chat w/ them other sports too). Some of them even love his performances more than any of the women’s which they usually prefer. The only critique I ever got from them is that his after-event interview could be more fun

Considering the recent tempest in a teapot, it's no wonder he's not real chatty.

 

[shine]

Btw, I'm still waiting for an explanation what he did wrong... unless it was just using the term 'homosexual', in which case... I don't even know what to say anymore.

From what I’ve seen some people have a problem with him saying “FS is dominated by LGBTQ” because that apparently suggests the notion that there’s no problem with discrimination against this community or that it whitewashes existing homophobia. I disagree with that and think it’s unwarranted extrapolation of his words. I think he really just meant that there’s a higher proportion of gay men participating in the sport (some of the biggest names have been openly gay) compared to other sports, which I don’t see anything wrong with stating, but personally would have used more PC way of phrasing it.

 

[lurkz2]

From what I’ve seen some people have a problem with him saying “FS is dominated by LGBTQ” because that apparently suggests the notion that there’s no problem with discrimination against this community or that it whitewashes existing homophobia. I disagree with that and think it’s unwarranted extrapolation of his words. I think he really just meant that there’s a higher proportion of gay men participating in the sport (some of the biggest names have been openly gay) compared to other sports, which I don’t see anything wrong with stating, but personally would have used more PC way of phrasing it.

Not American but many of the North American skating vloggers/podcasters I watch are women or gay. I was thinking a large proportion of the vocal fans are women and gays.

 

[anonymoose_au]

What are Dave Lease and Jonathan Beyer talking about Nathan in their recent TSL episode? I found nothing offensive in what Nathan said, he answered the question honestly and politely.

Because TSL are the worst kind of "interviewers" who ask baiting questions in the hope their interviewees will mess up.

And when they do, TSL glory in the "draaaammaaaa" they've created.

Not sure why people still watch that trash.

 

[Amei]

Because TSL are the worst kind of "interviewers" who ask baiting questions in the hope their interviewees will mess up.

And when they do, TSL glory in the "draaaammaaaa" they've created.

Not sure why people still watch that trash.

At this point TSL has provided enough evidence to the people they invite on their show of their methods, so I don't have a lot of empathy for someone that goes on their show and then drama follows.

The Turtle and the scorpion story comes to mind...

One lazy afternoon day a turtle was swimming happily along a lake. As the turtle was nearing land he heard a scorpion hail it from the muddy shore. A scorpion, being a very poor swimmer, asked the turtle if he would carry him on his back across the lake. The turtle thought it was the craziest thing he ever heard, “Why would I carry you on my back?” he boomed, ‘You’ll sting me while I’m swimming and I’ll drown.”
“My dear turtle friend,” laughed the scorpion, “if I were to sting you, you would drown and I would go down with you and drown as well. Now where is the logic in that?”
The turtle pondered this for a moment, and eventually saw the logic in the scorpion’s statement. “You’re right!” said the turtle with a smile. “Hop on!” So the scorpion climbed aboard and the turtle paddled his big fins in the water. Halfway across the lake the scorpion gave the turtle a big sting, and he started to drown. As they both sank into the water the turtle turned to the scorpion with a tear in his eye. “My dear scorpion friend, why did you sting me? Now we are both going to drown…” the turtle was gasping for air. “Where is the… logic in that?”
“It has nothing to do with logic” the scorpion sadly replied, “it’s just my nature.”

 

[drivingmissdaisy]

From what I’ve seen some people have a problem with him saying “FS is dominated by LGBTQ” because that apparently suggests the notion that there’s no problem with discrimination against this community or that it whitewashes existing homophobia. I disagree with that and think it’s unwarranted extrapolation of his words.

I think what people had more of an issue with was the part in which he felt the need to seperate himself from that presumption. For me, it was a minor infraction, an apology was warranted, an apology was given, and everyone should be happy and move on because we know what's in Nathan's heart based on his friendships with many LGBTQ+ skaters.

 

[Clairecz]

At this point TSL has provided enough evidence to the people they invite on their show of their methods, so I don't have a lot of empathy for someone that goes on their show and then drama follows.

The Turtle and the scorpion story comes to mind...

Just to clarify, Nathan did an interview with two other people, some comedians. The interview was taken down in the meantime.
Twitter people made a scandal out of the interview. Then TSL noticed. I haven't watched it but it wasn't them interviewing Nathan.

 

[el henry]

Nathan's original interview had nothing, nada, bubkes to do with TSL. Just seeing the words "TSL" doesn't mean it's time for the usual litany of complaints (which I have in the past also made).

The interview was remarked upon and noted upon looooong before TSL said anything, and TSL had zippo to do with what happened before or after.

If you watch Nathan's video saying that he understood his phrasing hurt people and he apologized for his phrasing (no BS "I"m sorry if you took it wrong" apology, but an honest apology, which takes courage and character), you may actually get a pretty good sense of what happened.

 

[4everchan]

all i have to say after reading a bit about this is : Nathan

 

[moonvine]

The situation is as bad as it is because Nathan is not well liked in some circles of the FS fandom on a good day. Add in this and it's beyond awful. I don't think you can say it's worse than expected all things considered. It's about what I expected of people who have wanted a reason to hate him for awhile. Shoma had a pretty massive scandal that never got acknowledgement let alone an apology at all and it didn't get this bad simply because he's more well liked so people don't care to use it against him. Anyway, this might get me a warning for mentioning so I'll be quiet.

Also I think it's totally fine to actually be upset by what he said, some fans of his were and those people shouldn't be ignored either but I also think it's fine not to think it's the most awful thing in the world. I'm a woman and didn't care he said females for example. I know it can be bad, but I don't think he had bad intentions considering how much he's supported women's skating and them doing anything a man can do.

How could anyone dislike Nathan?

 

[anonymoose_au]

How could anyone dislike Nathan?

Sadly there's a lot of haters on Twitter and they can be VICIOUS.

Of course that's not confined to Nathan, I think pretty much all the skaters get it to some extent.

The answer I guess is not to read too much into Twitter posts, but sometimes it's hard not to.