After Atalanta

I know that this story is already out there but it deserves more discourse. Plus it allows me to think again about the Olympics which seem so far away now, especially in this very odd 60+ degree pre-spring weather I am experiencing. So the story is that Johnny Weir was not asked to participate in the Stars on Ice Tour sponsored by Smuckers and the Discover card and organized by Scott Hamilton. Party line is that there is not room for him--which we all know is a crock of [low-quality, sweetened-with-high-fructose-corn-sugar jelly]. The allegedly family-friendly show is more worried about Weir's unabashed flamboyance. Apparently Weir has been trying to get into the show for years, but keeps being turned down. Smuckers denies the allegations which have been taken up by GLADD, too. Stars on Ice has been deemed one of the more conservative shows as compared to, for example, Champions on Ice, in which openly gay skater Rudy Galindo once performed seemingly without issue. Note that Weir c...

I've been thinking a lot about bullying lately. I live in an area under intense scrutiny for a recent bullying event that lead to a suicide in a local school. It is the second such incident in about a year in my area. The film Straightlaced about teens who do not observe conventional gender norms and often confront bullying because of it is being shown at a local theater this weekend, partly in response to these incidents. And these things have made me think about Johnny Weir. He was pretty much overlooked in Vancouver. This was not surprising. The US Skating Federation has never really appreciated his outspoken ways and neither have other conservative factions of the international skating community. This was his last Olympic games. His style of skating is not rewarded under the current scoring system (which is desperately in need of another overhaul I think. Curling is easier to understand than how jumps and spins and footwork elements are scored!) I have been watching Johnny Wei...

Not my own--most of the time anyway. But all this neoliberal, neo-queer stuff is really confusing. Especially in the context of the Olympics. So according to Pat Griffin , the person I go to for such information, there are only 4 out athletes at these Winter Olympics (all women), plus Johnny Weir who sometimes epitomizes these neoliberal, neo-queer discussions for me. But four! That number is quite low. So we enter the "it's the 21st century and I don't need to be out; I am who I am" kind of discussion countered by the idea that that's just baloney (articulate, eh?) and queer people are making themselves more invisible in this age of increasing visibility and controversy over issues of sexuality. But this latter argument is hard to put on someone like Weir, who will not discuss his sexuality because it's "private" (though he has no problems with privacy when showing his ass on his Sundance Channel show) but is not at all subtle in his behaviors and c...

I went to a hockey game! My first collegiate women's game of the season. Yea! My team lost. Boo! Also irksome was that it was the "Stick it to cancer" event which meant that everything was pink. Pink shirts and shorts and pj bottoms for sale. Pink programs--which I refused to even pick up. Thankfully my father snagged me a normal one. And pink tape on the players' sticks and socks. Oh, and pink scarves on the female coaches. The male head coach--no pink. What was interesting was that all of the verbal announcements in the pre-game ceremony, etc. only talked about cancer--not breast cancer. So either we're afraid of saying the word breast at a hockey game or this is a general fight cancer event which means the whole pink thing is even more bizarre. And speaking of pink, when I saw this year's ball persons uniforms at the Australian Open I bet (only myself which isn't as fun) that it would take Pam Shriver less than one hour to comment on the color. And I wo...

I'm not going to go into my "I really do like Dave Zirin, but sometimes..." intro here because, well, that pretty much captures it. A recent Zirin column asks "Which pro athlete will come out of the closet?" It's a curious question because, of course, there are already out professional athletes. Athletes who came out or have come out during the course of their professional careers. There's Billie Jean King (forced out but still) who Zirin invokes in his article as a pioneer for women's rights. She was an out athlete. As was Martina Navritilova. As is Amelie Mauresmo. As is Lisa Raymond. But these are all tennis players, you say. Well, ok so: Vicky Galindo (who plays professionally for the Chiacgo Bandits), Rosie Jones, Sheryl Swoopes, Lauren Lappin, Latasha Byears. But they are all women, you say. Well yes, they are gay women. (Galindo identifies as bisexual.) Gay is not a gender-specific term. The gay liberation movement means gay men and women so...

Pop Star on Ice: The Johnny Weir Story . Yes the good side to this lousy weather that happened to come while I was on vacation in P-town (but thankfully a day after the bike ride here) is that it's a great opportunity to go to the movies. It was also really good for the Provincetown International Film Festival. So when the weather took its gusty turn yesterday I headed to the program guide and was psyched to see the Weir documentary--which I had never heard of previously--on the schedule for the last day of the festival. And I also thought, " Pat Griffin would want me to see this movie." So I went. I thought it would be a big draw here in P-town among some of the gay boys but it was not sold out and the crowd was mixed in terms of gender, sexuality, and age. And after seeing the documentary, I have a better understanding of why. The filmmakers establish early on--in case you didn't already know--that Johnny Weir is a little bit different; that he knows what people say...

1. I am getting daily alerts--more than one a day actually--about the female ski jumpers and their fight to get their sport into the 2010 Olympics. There does not seem, however, to be much new news. But every time something little happens, the Canadian media, most often the Globe and Mail , report on it. But I thought this article was worthy of a brief note. Former jumper Eddie Edwards has said that he does not think the women are ready for Olympic-level competition. This is fairly ironic because Edwards is none other than Eddie "The Eagle" Edwards from England who qualified, via a loophole in the regulations, for the 1988 winter games where he gained instant notoriety despite being the worst jumper in the field. Edwards does not think battling the IOC decision using a human rights argument is a good idea and that the women should just wait it out. Quite a disappointing statement from someone who himself was not qualified for competition; I would actually bet that most of the...

This is a smorgasbord post of little things from the past few days I have come across. Venus Williams's Wimbledon win made the cover of TIME magazine's Best moments of 2007. Pretty impressive given that tennis doesn't get all that much attention in the US. Former national champion Christopher Bowman died from an apparent drug overdose. Bowman "the Showman" was always a little bit of the wild child on the ice skating scene and had drug problems after his skating career ended. Last I had heard though he had straightened out a bit when he became a coach. Seems the former child star syndrome strikes athletes as well (though Bowman was also a child actor--he had a part in Little House on the Prairie .) A commercial for the Big Ten Network--on a Massachusetts radio station. I live far outside Big Ten country now and was quite surprised to hear the network advertised out here. Of course the commercial was touting all the men's basketball you could ever want to watch...

...women are still relegated to "gender-appropriate" sports and physical activities. I went to see the Bodyworlds 2 exhibit yesterday and because I was not all that into what I am guessing was the main goal of the exhibit--to look at body parts and learn more about what goes on inside us (and camels too which was actually more interesting to me!)--I had plenty of time to consider the things I like to focus on: gender and sports. Many of the bodies have been posed to illustrate how muscles look when they are kicking, throwing, stretching, etc. So many are in exhibit are engaged in sports and other physical activities. Here's what the male bodies are doing: playing soccer, ski jumping, and a male figure skater holding his partner. Here's what the women are doing: yoga, ballet, and being flung around on ice skates by a male partner. It was a little disappointing that even the dead bodies have been placed in positions/activities that not only are stereotypically "fem...

Michelle Kwan withdrew from the Olympics today because of a groin injury--allegedly a different one from the injury that prevented her participation in the US Nationals that serve as the Olympic trials for figure skating. When Kwan received a bye from the powers-that-be I was almost entirely supportive of this move despite my sympathy for Emily Hughes, the third-place finisher at Nationals whom Kwan replaced essentially. I was a little suspect of the possible economic motivations for the bye (i.e. Kwan's appearance in Coca-Cola Olympic-themed commercials and Visa too I believe) but she is the reason the US could send 3 skaters this year and she is an icon--one who's ability has not, in my opinion, waned. But her withdrawal makes me a little uneasy. This was it for Kwan--her last chance. The competition is still a few days away. Kwan always seemed like the type to push through adversity. This situation reminds me of the one a few weeks ago in Australia when Justine Henin-Harden...