Who is Gushed About The Most In The Forums?
- Thread starter R.D.
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- Joined
- Jun 21, 2003
How silly. Michelle is God's gift. 
Everybody knows that!
Anke, I want to make sure that you did not take my post about the "quality" of gushing over Alexei the wrong way. I was trying to make a little joke along the lines of, people like Michelle OK, but it's Alexei that they really fall in love with, LOL.
Since the majority of figure skating fans are women, it's natural for there to be a lot more talk about cute guys than about cute ladies on the discussion boards.
Especially now that Jenny Kirk is retiring from competition.
MM
(But Michelle is still God's gift to a sinful and undeserving world. )
Everybody knows that!Anke, I want to make sure that you did not take my post about the "quality" of gushing over Alexei the wrong way. I was trying to make a little joke along the lines of, people like Michelle OK, but it's Alexei that they really fall in love with, LOL.
Since the majority of figure skating fans are women, it's natural for there to be a lot more talk about cute guys than about cute ladies on the discussion boards.
Especially now that Jenny Kirk is retiring from competition.
MM
(But Michelle is still God's gift to a sinful and undeserving world.
)
Mathman said:
ITA. (And to the dissenters: I have my own thoughts too, so lose it.)
ITA. This is a very common phenomenon on skating boards. Women and gay men make up a pretty huge chunk of the skating community so it's very common to find much more gush threads about male skaters than female ones (Kwan being the unique exception here). Also a factor is what the gushing is over- looks vs. skating. This brings me back to your post about MK getting mostly gush comments about her skating. There aren't many (straight) guys here to gush over MK's looks, or any female skater's looks for that matter. (I am a straight guy and I don't gush over MK's looks.) But there are plenty of women around to gush over Yagudin's supposed "hotness". Nothing wrong with this BTW, it's just natural in this type of environment. So this will continue to happen as long as the demographics don't make a sudden change. And I will continue to skip over all the male and kwan gush threads.
Actually, make that ALL gush threads.
(MM- this is NOT a gush thread! Stop, please!
)Especially now that Jenny Kirk is retiring from competition.
Yeah, I don't often talk about or gush about particular female skaters' looks here. And even if I did- there'd be hardly anyone here to agree with me!
But I will admit that I thought Jenny was very attractive. But this isn't a gushing thread so I will stop there.
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2003
This stereotyping of gay men watching figure skating is so far from the truth. Just last Sunday I attended a local competition and there were quite a number of men there. They were watching their daughters compete.
Obsession with one skater to lose could be a bit weird, though. It's like why bother?
Joe
Obsession with one skater to lose could be a bit weird, though. It's like why bother?
Joe
Joesitz said:
To clarify my point, I didn't say that ALL or MOST gay men watch figure skating. Rather, I said that I THINK that MOST of the AUDIENCE that watches or pays attention to skating is either FEMALE or gay. Of course you will have the exceptions, one of those which is me, actually
- Joined
- Jul 27, 2003
Again, this is a difficult one! It is very close, in my mind, between S&Z, Michelle, and Alexei. Michelle is sometimes criticized for her caution, but, overall, I think she ranks incredibly high on the gush-o-meter (and deservedly so, IMO....even though I know Anke will disagree with me, lol). I remember the enormous thread after her 2004 U.S. Nationals victory......pure gush! And, I loved it!
S&Z's performances from the 2003 and 2004 Worlds have almost become legendary on most skating forums. I can probably count on one hand the number of negative posts I have read concerning these performances. People just seem to have embraced them. I know I have. I can't believe how far they've come since 2002. IMO, it is incredible.
But, if you consider all forums and the amount of gush being presented.....I'd probably have to go with Alexei. There are certainly those that don't see in him what most everyone else seems to, but they are few and far between. He was charismatic, attractive, and a great competitor. And....as someone mentioned above....his presence is still sorely missed even 3 years later!
S&Z's performances from the 2003 and 2004 Worlds have almost become legendary on most skating forums. I can probably count on one hand the number of negative posts I have read concerning these performances. People just seem to have embraced them. I know I have. I can't believe how far they've come since 2002. IMO, it is incredible.
But, if you consider all forums and the amount of gush being presented.....I'd probably have to go with Alexei. There are certainly those that don't see in him what most everyone else seems to, but they are few and far between. He was charismatic, attractive, and a great competitor. And....as someone mentioned above....his presence is still sorely missed even 3 years later!
- Joined
- Jul 27, 2003
Joe, I don't think Red Dog meant it in quite that way. And, honestly, I think that many male fans of figure skating happen to be gay. From my experience on forums and attending competitions/shows, this certainly appears to be true. That doesn't mean that ALL male fans of figure skating are gay, but it does mean that there is a substantial gay following. I don't think this is stereotyping at all. I, myself, find it something to be proud of. Figure skating attracts a wide variety of fans from so many different walks of life. Do many gay men that I know enjoy figure skating? Hell yes! They have damn good taste! I may be completely off the mark here, but from my personal experience, that is how I see it.
MM, actually I’ve voted for Kwan in this particular poll!
As for the “quality” of gushing, there’s one main difference between Kwan and Alexei: Whereas Kwan’s appeal is pretty much limited to the US, Yagudin-
(and Plushenko!) “swooners”
are spread all over the world. Still, I’ve voted for Kwan, since the gushing on her/the attention she causes is so forced, so dominant , so exaggerated and waaaaay too much for my taste sometimes , even though I’m aware all that ado mainly comes from her countrymen. Fact is, US-fans do have an overwhelming majority in English “speaking” skating boards, it’s only natural after all.
One question, out of curiosity:
If skating audiences are mainly female or gay (high swooning potential!) and the guys the “real” stars of skating, why it’s still the Ladies who are getting generally more (media) attention and all these fat endorsements? I’m not only talking about the US, actually I’ve noticed the same in Japan, Germany and many other countries. Is it only about tradition, old prejudices?? :scratch:
Anke
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- Joined
- Jul 11, 2003
Have you ever been to a competition? As I said there are more fathers there watching there daughters and husbands who are forced to go for payback to their wives for forcing them to the NBA games. The few exceptions could be just people who like figure skating and are not plrimarily interested in seeing one skater lose.Red Dog said:To clarify my point, I didn't say that ALL or MOST gay men watch figure skating. Rather, I said that I THINK that MOST of the AUDIENCE that watches or pays attention to skating is either FEMALE or gay. Of course you will have the exceptions, one of those which is me, actually
Joe
- Joined
- Jun 21, 2003
I think the main factor is that sports (especially watching sports) is still a good-old-boy manly-man sort of thing. Your basic straight beer-guzzling couch potato male sports fan would rather see behemoth footballers knocking each others' lights out, or racing cars crashing into the wall at 200 miles per hour, than anything so sissy as figure skating.Germanice said:
I think this audience thinks of figure skaters about the same as they think about cheerleaders -- it's a chance to look up somebody's skirt.
Joe, I agree that most of the the audience at skating event consists of families with young daughters. However, the fathers that are dragged to these events are not the folks who then rush home to gush about their favorite skaters on Internet chat rooms.
My impression is that the majority of "gushers" are young folks (mostly girls) who also carry on on-line about their favorite movie stars and rock singers, both male and female. Along with a few mature ladies who think its a hoot to petend to have a crush on their favorite boy toy. (This isn't fair, because when a lady does this, it's just having fun, but poor me -- I don't dare make any comment about Michelle's pictures on the "Michelle at the Emmy's" thread just in case my wife decides to check out the board.
)MM
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2003
Interesting MM and ITA. Most gushers are young folk who idolize their personal heros. I think bubble gum pop music starts it off and the teenagers come in with who are the hotties? 
Figure skating attracts, imo, the entire families of the contestants plus close friends, adults who skated in their youth, and the casual fans who find themselves caught up in the competitions.
Unfortunately, not enough viewers to compete with NASCAR on Sunday afternoons TV coverage.
Joe
Figure skating attracts, imo, the entire families of the contestants plus close friends, adults who skated in their youth, and the casual fans who find themselves caught up in the competitions.
Unfortunately, not enough viewers to compete with NASCAR on Sunday afternoons TV coverage.
Joe
IMO, gush has to be assessed in the context of whether the skaters deserve the gush or not, e.g. if someone said Tara should go down in history as the youngest and most deserving skater to win an oly gold. That to me is not gush, at least she has what it takes to be worthy of this praise. OTOH, "Cohen is God's gift" is just gushing.
gezando said:
That brings up a good topic. What IS gushing anyway? How do we define a "gush"?
My personal definition is any unjustified praise given to a person by another person. That may be a bit confusing so I'll rephrase it given our situation: Unjustified (meaning a comment NOT based on fact) praise of a skater by a fan. So saying, for example, that MK is the best American skater right now isn't necessarily a gush IMO because it's based on a fact that she's won nine titles in the past 10 years, therefore it's "justified". (There are fine lines here to be walked upon, but I won't elaborate here.) On the other hand, saying that Michelle is the best skater ever (IMO) IS a gush because you can't really justify that using a single fact. And the fact that people have different opinions kills your point right there already. (BTW, that Cohen comment is the PERFECT example of a gush. That's gush taken to the nth power right there.)
The Tara comment- hmm. That's a tough one. I might have to actually agree
eek: what a concept! ) with you on that because the comment is, after all, based on the fact that she WAS the youngest skater to win Oly Gold. Whether she was most DESERVING of it however is subjective, so that's a loaded word. This is the "fine line" I was talking about earlier. JMO though. Your opinion may vary.
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2003
What was it? Tara was less than a month from 16 and Sonia won her first OGM at 16 but then Sonia went on to win 2 more gold Olys and the most unbelievable career in the movies - and she couldn't act!!! No one compares, imo.
Kwan may win 3 OGMs, hold tight!
Joe
Kwan may win 3 OGMs, hold tight!
Joe
- Joined
- Jun 21, 2003
Not that there's anything wrong with it...
Maybe a skater just touches your heart, for no objective reason. Ice dancers Watanabe and Kido, as well as Georgian men's champion Vahktang Murvanidze -- to me, they're the best. They have never won any international titles, but who cares about that? There are many skaters who have oodles of medals in their sock drawer who I wouldn't walk across the street to watch for free.
Michelle is the greatest because every time you see her, you know something magical is about to happen.
MM
Maybe a skater just touches your heart, for no objective reason. Ice dancers Watanabe and Kido, as well as Georgian men's champion Vahktang Murvanidze -- to me, they're the best. They have never won any international titles, but who cares about that? There are many skaters who have oodles of medals in their sock drawer who I wouldn't walk across the street to watch for free.
Michelle is the greatest because every time you see her, you know something magical is about to happen.
MM
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- Sep 30, 2005
It seems to me, personally, any skaters from United States...
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- Sep 30, 2005
Germanice said:
Yes... and Johnny is one American skater I truly appreciate... quads or no quads, he is a joy to watch!! He, with the way he skates, could pass easily if he renamed himself something like Nikolai Ivanov :agree:
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