Team USA

[Melodie]

10 hours ago, KendallKlaire said:

I posted about Nathan's interview "flub" in the figure skating reddit, but I'll try to paraphrase my response. 

 

I haven't watched the interview that he did but from what I understand the interviewers weren't that interested in skating and Nathan was probably trying to vibe with them. That's probably why his answer was really badly worded and awkward. Regardless, his knee jerk answer/response is VERY reminiscent of American press coverage of skating in the early 2000s of Johnny versus Evan (favored to Evan because he's heterosexual and masculine so figure skating is NOT a gay sport). 

 

It's really disappointing that this mindset is still very pronounced, especially coming from Nathan.  There's not really that many openly LGBTQ competing skaters so the fact that he says it's "dominated" by them is a very odd choice of words.  I really hoped we were moving past this idea that traditional masculine = real sport. Blending "masculinity" with "femininity" is the true challenge of figure skating and it should be celebrated.  

The implication aside, the researcher in me keeps yelling "any numbers to prove that?" LOL. Objectively speaking, I doubt if we will ever have any statistics to say whether FS is dominated by the LGBTQ+ community or not, so his assertion doesn't make much sense. 

EDIT: Even more funny cos he studies statistical stuff at Yale.

 

Also, what's with him 1) undermining classical music and movements, 2) basically equalizing hip hop & pop = masculinity and somehow that will change public view of FS? On a side note, I would really like to know his supposedly group of friends who are embracing this school of thought so I can stay away from watching or supporting them because *welp*

 

Anyway, back to the main point, "It's really disappointing that this mindset is still very pronounced"=> this

[amylance1215]

Gosh I never liked his skating because it always seems like skeletons that have yet to be fleshed out. But now reading this... I'm just speechless. I've said enough on Twitter so I'll just summarize here that I'm beyond disappointed that he so carelessly voiced his, maybe unintentional but nevertheless internalized, homophobic, misogynistic and narrow-minded attitude/perception towards his own sports, undermining the actual affected minority while victimizing himself. It's such a whiplash from Yuzu's interviews, like the recent one where he praised BTS's Jimin's flexible and expressive dance moves. N would never dare to admit he likes BTS even if he actually does, cuz heaven forbids he likes a band of men in makeup whose fandom's majority are women 

[Paskud]

7 hours ago, Melodie said:

 

 

Edit: Cleanup version thanks to @saltatorybund on Twitter (removing all the likes and you-knows in between)

The undertone and implication are really not pleasant at all. 

 

Yagudin, Stojko, Navka and now this....

I read it few times and still don't understand what he said here.

Eloquence isn't his forte, is it?😅

[Paskud]

Sooooo, judging by comments, mister innovative balletic hip hop wanted to show how progressive he is and only proved how conservative are his views?

 

I'm surprised that his agent didn't prepare him for this. "Figure skating is considered a feminine sport" is one of the topics that they should expect to appear at some point.

[Fay]

Pretty insensitive and dumb to come up with “homosexuality domination in FS” when you are asked about the the perception of FS as a “feminine” sport. 
Let alone the incoherence of the answer. 

[KendallKlaire]

1 hour ago, Fay said:

Pretty insensitive and dumb to come up with “homosexuality domination in FS” when you are asked about the the perception of FS as a “feminine” sport. 
Let alone the incoherence of the answer. 

Yeah I think the beginning of his answer was just a complete misfire...even worse by the fact that I do not think the interviewers even said the words "gay" or "homosexual" in their question (correct me if I'm wrong). Like I said, I think Nathan just completely knee jerked and his answer came off as "macho" combative rather than what we would hope to be a progressive answer from a 3 TIME WORLD CHAMPION. 

 

Still, I am seeing some pretty nasty things being said about Nathan on Twitter (without mentioning him by name). I don't think he deserves that. It was a dumb, ignorant answer to be sure and definitely comes off as anti-feminine which is not good. But I think he was trying to match the "vibe" of the interviewers as I think most young "dude-bro" guys would (I'd call Nathan a dude bro for sure). The interviewers are clearly not interested in figure skating and Nathan was trying to swat down any connotations that he was gay or feminine in part over fear they would think less of him. His answer is disappointing as I thought he was more "woke" than that. I honestly thought Nathan was a decent dude (and I still do for the most part) but this is not going to reflect well on his character and what he really thinks of figure skating. 

 

I am very tired of the idea that skaters skating to more "modern" pop music is more exciting to watch and "groundbreaking". Have you seen Yuzu's Chopin performance at the Olympics? People were screaming over Chopin! It's not really about the music, it's about the performer. I know that Jimmy Ma's Turn Down for What routine got a lot of attention, but at the end of the day he got 10th place and figure skating is not any more popular. In order for figure skating to have a future it needs to embrace it's importance for LGBTQ athletes and make people realize that it's perfectly okay to embrace your feminine side. I think that is part of the reason why Yuzu is so popular. He embraces femininity, I'd argue his performances are often androgynous and he's remained successful for so long. The sooner the American (and other) media and ISU realize that the better.

 

 

[Melodie]

2 hours ago, Paskud said:

I read it few times and still don't understand what he said here.

Eloquence isn't his forte, is it?😅

It is not LOL.

 

If I have to summarize, his little speech goes like this: He is a straight guy in a sport perceived as feminine and dominated by the homosexual/LGBTQ -> He doesn't like that FS is not perceived as it should be -> he and his like-minded peeps try to change that by staying the h*** away from classical pieces/ballet (feminine) and instead using more hip-hop and pop (masculine). 

 

PS: Mad respect for Yuzu for being so, so eloquent all the time. Speeches like this give me headache. 

 

 

[Melodie]

1 hour ago, Paskud said:

Sooooo, judging by comments, mister innovative balletic hip hop wanted to show how progressive he is and only proved how conservative are his views?

 

I'm surprised that his agent didn't prepare him for this. "Figure skating is considered a feminine sport" is one of the topics that they should expect to appear at some point.

They did cover up his a** LOL. The original video was pulled down so...

 

Also, innovative balletic hip hop  

[Paskud]

7 minutes ago, Melodie said:

They did cover up his a** LOL. The original video was pulled down so...

 

Spoiler

https://easyupload.io/jans8h

 

[Melodie]

2 minutes ago, Paskud said:

  Hide contents

https://easyupload.io/jans8h

 

[Fay]

Is the whole hoohaa worth getting some extra popcorn, do you think? 

[Yuzurella]

 

That's the part of the interview in which Nathan said a couple of really questionable things.

 

I've always thought that there's nothing special or memorable about his skating except for him being able to deliver clean programs when it matters and of course him being ridiculously overscored. But I thought that at last he's a decent guy. So, to hear words like these come out of his mouth is still pretty disappointing.

 

I just think it's sad that he seems to feel like he has to somehow prove his straightness and masculinity. Now I also understand why he always wears bland "costumes" and has stiff skating and boring, generic programs. He's so scared to be perceived as being gay or feminine or anything other than a perfectly straight man.

[Guest Mary_kyo]

So TSL pulled a victim out of poor Nathan. Rubbish defending rubbish:

"how can you possibly answer that correctly"

well by this:

 He was always a privileged PR product, will always remain as such.

[Fay]

I can think of dozens of ways to answer that silly question in such a way that you emerge as a very intelligent person. But no, of course, it’s the question that was to blame, not the person who comes up with a rubbish answer. 

[Paskud]

This was the most basic question for a champion in men skating that could be asked in an interview for not skating related media. Especially around Olympics.😅

But don't worry, next time he will have perfectly scripted PR-friendly answer.