Invincible Summer
27th February 2010, 21:08
I didn't think I would find an article discussing the validity of gender roles and people who bend them in a mainstream newspaper.
Article: Here's the rule: Men are men and women are ladies (http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/Here+rule+women+ladies/2620771/story.html)
Minutes before the puck dropped in the hypermasculine Canada-Russia hockey game on Wednesday, the Olympics heard the shoe fall as well. Or rather, the stiletto.
For it was at that moment that Johnny Weir, the "flamboyant" American figure skater, chose to hold a news conference to address comments about his masculinity, or lack thereof. The lack thereof part comes courtesy of Claude Mailhot and Alain Goldberg, broadcasters with Quebec's French-language RDS network, who mused that perhaps Weir should be given a gender test or compete against women.
Having firmly established their own masculinity with such comments, the broadcasters apologized, though that wasn't enough for the Quebec Gay and Lesbian Council, which filed a complaint with the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council. Similarly, people across the country and around the world, both gay and straight, expressed outrage at the comments.
Such comments barely fazed Weir, though, and he handled the matter with grace, saying that he doesn't want kids in the future to be ridiculed for who they are, and that "I think as a person you know what your values are and what you believe in, and I think that's the most important thing."
Amen to that. Yet the outrage over the RDS comments, as puerile as they are, does seem a little misplaced, since Mailhot and Goldberg are hardly the only ones who expect male (and female) figure skaters to act in ways appropriate for their gender. Indeed, much like the sexuality of many male skaters, it has long been an open secret that skating organizations, judges, advertisers and commentators all expect skaters to adhere to strict gender roles.
The secret threatened to become a little more open last year, after Debbi Wilkes, Skate Canada's director of marketing and communications, attempted to send a message about how "tough" skating is. That led some observers to charge that Skate Canada was trying to make figure skating more macho, that the "tough campaign" was really code for "degaying" the sport.
In response, Skate Canada CEO William Thompson issued a press release, stating that skating is a "welcoming and inclusive sport" and that there never has been any tough campaign. Instead, Wilkes merely used the term "tough" to mean difficult -- to impress upon casual viewers how physically and mentally tough skaters are --rather than as code for some nefarious anti-gay program.
This is probably true. Yet there is abundant hard evidence that a campaign does exist, a campaign to ensure that both male and female skaters perform their genders appropriately. And make no mistake about it, gender, unlike biological sex, is a performance -- one performs as masculine or feminine through dress and deportment.
Let's start with dress: Rule 612 of the International Skating Union's Special Regulations & Technical Rules states that in ice dancing, "Ladies must wear a skirt ... Men must wear full length trousers: no tights are allowed." And Rule 500 dictates again that men must wear trousers and not tights in singles and pairs skating.
As for the "ladies" -- more on that, anon -- the skirt rule was apparently implemented due to the trauma suffered by ISU officials when they witnessed Debi Thomas wearing a full body stocking at the 1988 Olympics. As for the men, just in case they don't read all the way to Rule 612, Rule 500 tells them once again that tights are a no-no.
As Occidental College sociologist Lisa Wade states, these clothing rules mean "that the performance of femininity and masculinity, as defined by the ISU, is required if one is to be a competitive figure skater ... all skills aside."
But that's only the beginning of the performance. Men and women -- I mean ladies -- are expected to act and not merely dress as such. Now about this "ladies" business: Check the Vancouver2010.comwebsite and you will see women's ice hockey, women's speed skating ... and ladies figure skating. That's right, the ISU demands that women be called ladies, which suggests that it takes its notions of femininity and masculinity from Gone With The Wind.
Women ought to give a damn about that, since it dictates how they're supposed to skate. For example, while both men and women complete a variety of jumps, it is only women who perform the layback spin, a move that Abigail Feder describes thusly: "back arched, eyes closed, mouth slightly open, arms extended for an embrace; it looks like nothing so much as popular conceptions of female sexual climax."
In her essay A Radiant Smile From A Lovely Lady, Feder also documents how female skaters are described in ways that fit an antiquated notion of their gender. In contrast to male skaters, whose athleticism is highlighted, commentators spend a great deal of time speaking of female skaters' looks and loves.
That's bad for the women, obviously, but that doesn't mean it's good for the men. On the contrary, as Ellyn Kestnbaum explains in Culture On Ice: Figure Skating and Cultural Meaning, men might have it even worse, since they're participating in a stereotypically feminine endeavour. This means that they must always and everywhere -- on and off ice -- reaffirm their masculinity.
Off ice, male skaters are often portrayed engaging in manly pursuits, something exemplified by the constant emphasis on Elvis Stojko's martial arts prowess.
On ice, male skaters' masculinity must also be constantly and unmistakably on display, through militaristic uniforms and war metaphors, and through eschewing "the curved arms, arched back and flowing quality associated with the ballerina" in favour of "straight or angular body lines and lifted chests ... to emphasize solidity and muscularity of movement."
In an environment like this, one wonders if a less stereotypically masculine man can get a fair shake. So it's not surprising that many people questioned whether Weir's failure to perform in a sufficiently masculine manner contributed to his sixth place finish. It is a legitimate question, one that skating organizations ought to answer. Because it is skating organizations, along with promoters, advertisers and commentators -- that is, the culture of figure skating -- that ought to be feeling the heat, rather than a couple of sports broadcasters who recognize that culture for what it is.
Thoughts?
Article: Here's the rule: Men are men and women are ladies (http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/Here+rule+women+ladies/2620771/story.html)
Minutes before the puck dropped in the hypermasculine Canada-Russia hockey game on Wednesday, the Olympics heard the shoe fall as well. Or rather, the stiletto.
For it was at that moment that Johnny Weir, the "flamboyant" American figure skater, chose to hold a news conference to address comments about his masculinity, or lack thereof. The lack thereof part comes courtesy of Claude Mailhot and Alain Goldberg, broadcasters with Quebec's French-language RDS network, who mused that perhaps Weir should be given a gender test or compete against women.
Having firmly established their own masculinity with such comments, the broadcasters apologized, though that wasn't enough for the Quebec Gay and Lesbian Council, which filed a complaint with the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council. Similarly, people across the country and around the world, both gay and straight, expressed outrage at the comments.
Such comments barely fazed Weir, though, and he handled the matter with grace, saying that he doesn't want kids in the future to be ridiculed for who they are, and that "I think as a person you know what your values are and what you believe in, and I think that's the most important thing."
Amen to that. Yet the outrage over the RDS comments, as puerile as they are, does seem a little misplaced, since Mailhot and Goldberg are hardly the only ones who expect male (and female) figure skaters to act in ways appropriate for their gender. Indeed, much like the sexuality of many male skaters, it has long been an open secret that skating organizations, judges, advertisers and commentators all expect skaters to adhere to strict gender roles.
The secret threatened to become a little more open last year, after Debbi Wilkes, Skate Canada's director of marketing and communications, attempted to send a message about how "tough" skating is. That led some observers to charge that Skate Canada was trying to make figure skating more macho, that the "tough campaign" was really code for "degaying" the sport.
In response, Skate Canada CEO William Thompson issued a press release, stating that skating is a "welcoming and inclusive sport" and that there never has been any tough campaign. Instead, Wilkes merely used the term "tough" to mean difficult -- to impress upon casual viewers how physically and mentally tough skaters are --rather than as code for some nefarious anti-gay program.
This is probably true. Yet there is abundant hard evidence that a campaign does exist, a campaign to ensure that both male and female skaters perform their genders appropriately. And make no mistake about it, gender, unlike biological sex, is a performance -- one performs as masculine or feminine through dress and deportment.
Let's start with dress: Rule 612 of the International Skating Union's Special Regulations & Technical Rules states that in ice dancing, "Ladies must wear a skirt ... Men must wear full length trousers: no tights are allowed." And Rule 500 dictates again that men must wear trousers and not tights in singles and pairs skating.
As for the "ladies" -- more on that, anon -- the skirt rule was apparently implemented due to the trauma suffered by ISU officials when they witnessed Debi Thomas wearing a full body stocking at the 1988 Olympics. As for the men, just in case they don't read all the way to Rule 612, Rule 500 tells them once again that tights are a no-no.
As Occidental College sociologist Lisa Wade states, these clothing rules mean "that the performance of femininity and masculinity, as defined by the ISU, is required if one is to be a competitive figure skater ... all skills aside."
But that's only the beginning of the performance. Men and women -- I mean ladies -- are expected to act and not merely dress as such. Now about this "ladies" business: Check the Vancouver2010.comwebsite and you will see women's ice hockey, women's speed skating ... and ladies figure skating. That's right, the ISU demands that women be called ladies, which suggests that it takes its notions of femininity and masculinity from Gone With The Wind.
Women ought to give a damn about that, since it dictates how they're supposed to skate. For example, while both men and women complete a variety of jumps, it is only women who perform the layback spin, a move that Abigail Feder describes thusly: "back arched, eyes closed, mouth slightly open, arms extended for an embrace; it looks like nothing so much as popular conceptions of female sexual climax."
In her essay A Radiant Smile From A Lovely Lady, Feder also documents how female skaters are described in ways that fit an antiquated notion of their gender. In contrast to male skaters, whose athleticism is highlighted, commentators spend a great deal of time speaking of female skaters' looks and loves.
That's bad for the women, obviously, but that doesn't mean it's good for the men. On the contrary, as Ellyn Kestnbaum explains in Culture On Ice: Figure Skating and Cultural Meaning, men might have it even worse, since they're participating in a stereotypically feminine endeavour. This means that they must always and everywhere -- on and off ice -- reaffirm their masculinity.
Off ice, male skaters are often portrayed engaging in manly pursuits, something exemplified by the constant emphasis on Elvis Stojko's martial arts prowess.
On ice, male skaters' masculinity must also be constantly and unmistakably on display, through militaristic uniforms and war metaphors, and through eschewing "the curved arms, arched back and flowing quality associated with the ballerina" in favour of "straight or angular body lines and lifted chests ... to emphasize solidity and muscularity of movement."
In an environment like this, one wonders if a less stereotypically masculine man can get a fair shake. So it's not surprising that many people questioned whether Weir's failure to perform in a sufficiently masculine manner contributed to his sixth place finish. It is a legitimate question, one that skating organizations ought to answer. Because it is skating organizations, along with promoters, advertisers and commentators -- that is, the culture of figure skating -- that ought to be feeling the heat, rather than a couple of sports broadcasters who recognize that culture for what it is.
Thoughts?