Hi everyone. I'm a long time lurker of this place who finally decided to sign it. I doubt I will be very much active. However I really wanted to reply to this 'alpha male' discussion. To be honest I wish such vocab would stopped being used in general. The underhanded meaning of it is that competitiveness, strong will and mental fortitude are masculine qualities only displayed by strong (usually also physically) men. It's extremely sexist and reductive as women can be just as driven as men and I'm sure Yuzu could care less about being perceived as such. He seems to have little care of being perceived as 'manly' and that's something I admire about him. I love how he works around the codes of a still very backwards and conservative sport and impose his non warhorses non European centric programs, his frills and ruffles, his emotions and sensitivity and still come out on top. I don't care and don't want him to be an 'alpha male'. Those are a boring species. I love that he is mesmerizing on ice and such a sweetheart off ice as well as very well spoken. I don't take him being called feminine as some insult that call for reassurance of his masculinity time and again. He has traditionally feminine elements to both his skating and his personality and those are precisely the ones that make him the unique skater that we know. Sorry for such a long and useless rant as a first post but what I wanted to say is really that I wish his fans would not have this knee-jerk reaction when he is called feminine to immediately go on long tirades to defend his masculinity.
