- Joined
- Jun 21, 2003
That is a very interesting question to me. From the American side, I think I know the answer. Girls are pretty, boys are tough. Any sport in which you are judged, not by what you can do, but by how pretty you look doing it ("presentation"), is going to wind up (in the U.S.) on the feminine side of the ledger. If you still have all your teeth, you aren’t a “real” athlete.RIskatingfan said:I could ask the other way around - why is ladies skating popular in the USA (and not men's skating)?
The American masculine ideal is a NASCAR guy smashing his car into the wall at 200 miles per hour. Now that's a sport!
The American feminine ideal is -- well, Michelle Kwan.
Maybe the well-publicized injury to Tatiana Totmianina will increase the interest in pairs skating in the U.S. If you can kill yourself doing it, maybe it's not so sissy after all!
Mathman