Team USA

[Figure_Frenzy]

...I was spending my time on a certain forsaken expanse of the internet™ when I first noticed the recent brouhaha around Nathan — every post I saw commented on how Straight™ he is and how Brave™ he is for having standing up :v — I found out that that was coming from his response in a recent interview.

 

Whatever my feelings on Nathan's competence (...there are barely any tbh, let alone positive ones :v), I always acknowledge him as a smart bloke, but turns out he could put his foot in his mouth like this 🙄. Didn't think he could be this dense lol 💀💀🔥🔥🔥

 

Also, a question (not just to Nathan but also to other Manly Men™ skaters out there) — Where does it hurt you to embrace aesthetics and beauty in performing your skate??

[Veveco]

The timing is particularly poor considering the recent controversy with navka's comments. What a week 

[IceWings]

6 hours ago, Mary_kyo said:

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.

 

Yuzu already gave him the answer to that "impossibly difficult" question. All he had to do was remember it.

 

 

 

4 hours ago, Figure_Frenzy said:

...I was spending my time on a certain forsaken expanse of the internet™ when I first noticed the recent brouhaha around Nathan — every post I saw commented on how Straight™ he is and how Brave™ he is for having standing up :v — I found out that that was coming from his response in a recent interview.

 

Whatever my feelings on Nathan's competence (...there are barely any tbh, let alone positive ones :v), I always acknowledge him as a smart bloke, but turns out he could put his foot in his mouth like this 🙄. Didn't think he could be this dense lol 💀💀🔥🔥🔥

 

Also, a question (not just to Nathan but also to other Manly Men™ skaters out there) — Where does it hurt you to embrace aesthetics and beauty in performing your skate??

 

With regards to him being Straight, I thought this was hilarious

 

 

[Melodie]

And then there is the rumor that he is skating to Mozart's Requiem for the FP next season. Classical music is not so feminine any more now isn't it?  (unless he dude broes it up and skates to the punk rock/hip hop version LoL). 

 

Also, bless his inner masculinity cos it seems he is bringing Nemesis back. Can't get any more poppy / masculine than that.

[yuzuangel]

7 minutes ago, Melodie said:

 

Also, bless his inner masculinity cos it seems he is bringing Nemesis back. Can't get any more poppy / masculine than that.

What?!?! Didn't he skate that at uh....the last olympics?!?

[Melodie]

43 minutes ago, yuzuangel said:

What?!?! Didn't he skate that at uh....the last olympics?!?

Yep, well, it's all rumor for now so we'll see LOL. 

[rockstaryuzu]

18 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?😅

He's definitely speaking in early 21st century California teenager, that's for sure. It's so discombobulated. 

[rockstaryuzu]

16 hours ago, KendallKlaire said:

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.

I'm not quite sure that's what Nathan was trying to do, but even if it was, that's problematic. The fact that this scenario is regrettably common and many male figure skaters have been hit with it from non-FS interviewers over the years is a problem too. Yes, Nathan could have had the presence of mind to answer in a less unfortunate way, and him not doing so shows that he still has some work to do to grasp the concept. I don't think he needs to be dragged backwards through the mud of Twitter commentary to teach him that lesson, but what do I know? 

 

What I don't like is that this kind of attack on the sexuality of all figure skaters is still going on, just because they happen to be figure skaters. The men get it coming and going: if they're not gay, they get backed into a corner with all the 'oh, you're a figure skater, you MUST be gay' comments and end up feeling like they have to prove something*. If they're gay, they get attacked for being gay and suffer harm, more often than not. The constant, continual message, over and over, is that figure skating is not a sport acceptable for men of any sexual identity to do, and that's just sad. 

 

In fact it's beyond sad. When are we going to free our minds from this 💩? What's so threatening and wrong about men skating, anyway?

 

* Yes you could argue that no one should feel threatened or insulted by being called gay and  you'd be right; however the current reality is what it is. One day it will change. 

[Paskud]

5 hours ago, Melodie said:

And then there is the rumor that he is skating to Mozart's Requiem for the FP next season.

No way, my bet's on something by Asian American,

[Figure_Frenzy]

7 hours ago, IceWings said:

With regards to him being Straight, I thought this was hilarious

 

 

 

Oof, straight (heh!) to the jugular... 

[Melodie]

2 hours ago, Paskud said:

No way, my bet's on something by Asian American,

Ya think he will go for something connecting to the Chinese culture? Karen and Vincent have already gone this route and it makes sense but I wouldn't be surprised if he does something similar. 

 

ANYWAY, it will be the funniest thing in the world if he really does classical music. Truly so. 

[Pammi]

 

I thought this was a good thread about the history of this "debate"

 

 

 

[rockstaryuzu]

3 hours ago, Pammi said:

 

I thought this was a good thread about the history of this "debate"

 

 

 

I was a figure skating fan during that era too, I remember all that. Strangely, despite all his protestations about masculinity etc, for some reason, at the time EL was the one who gave me the impression that he, well, wasn't straight...ironic, no? Whereas J*hnny just seemed like a guy who made strong artistic choices and had a point of view...I was not expecting him to come out and was surprised when he did. 

 

All that's neither here nor there except to say that sometimes figure skating audiences aren't concerned with or focusing on this issue, we just want to see interesting skating. So the conversation that seems to be going on, internal to the sport, in regards to that issue, maybe misses the point. Instead of panicking about trying to attract an audience through over-emphasized masculinity,  maybe the skating world should take some time to understand the audience they already have and why they watch, and build on that information.  

[Melodie]

 

He apologized.

 

So the damage control went like this: took down the video -> "media" gearing the attention away from him / saying the guy is too young, he didn't know what to say, the interviewers were to blame and blah blah -> he posted a video to apologize and suddently became so eloquent and supposedly sincere. 

 

IMG is good. 

 

Oh well, if he really means it, good for him. If not, well...

[fyere0]

His agent has come a long way, from the days of making her client pretend that he got hacked to say foolish things, to now actually making her client acknowledge that he said foolish things.....