The book “Little Girls in Pretty Boxes: The Making and Breaking of Elite Gymnasts and Figure Skaters” by Joan Ryan (Amazon.com link) put many people off figure skating almost a decade ago. Here’s a post from Dr. Violet Socks entitled, “Just in case you still had questions about where women’s figure skating fits in the grand scheme of things”:
“From an actual article today by an actual newspaper reporter: “The Olympic women’s figure skating competition, which concludes Thursday night with the long program and the adornment of a new gold medalist, has the required elements of beauty, style, seductiveness, skill and tension.”
“Seductiveness? Seductiveness is a requirement now?
“And Slate’s article today on women’s figure skating is headlined, “Sexy Gypsies on Ice : Russian dynamos and American flirts fight for Olympic gold!” Yeah! Fight for that gold, you sexy gypsies and flirts! The article is by Meghan O’Rourke (Slate’s”culture editor”), who seems as interested in the women’s lip gloss as in their skating routines.
“But what about the seductiveness of men’s Nordic combined? Or the sizzling sexual energy just under the surface of the men’s curling competition?
“And by the way, Apollo Ohno is wearing way too much blush.”
This WaPo article is kind of stomach-turning too.
