Viewing Single Post From: Growing up puts Meissner's career on thin ice

Viewing Single Post From: Growing up puts Meissner's career on thin ice
kioewen	Jan 26 2009, 04:58 PM
Novice Posts: 109 Group: Members Member #242 Joined: July 22, 2008	Thank you for posting the link. I don't personally see the appeal in Meissner, however it's a devastating article about figure skating. The most infuriating line is this one: Quote: "I've mainly just become more womanly," she said with a nervous laugh, adding quickly, "that's a polite way to say it." It's heartbreaking to hear of any young girl being "nervous" about talking about weight, and looking for a "polite" euphemism about becoming womanly -- as if becoming woman is a bad thing! As if it's something to be regretted rather than celebrated. What nonsense. The same kind of thinking pervades the fashion industry, and causes models to die -- literally die -- from starving themselves. And the skating profession is plagued by this as well. Shame on skating for making young girls think this way about themselves. It should be building their self-confidence and body-image, not destroying it. If anyone wants to know why skating is losing popularity, here's the reason: Quote: During the past two decades, figure skating has become gymnastics on ice, where the ability to jump trumps all else. Artistry has taken a back seat to physics. For the broad mass of the general public (not the tiny cadre of athlete-worshippers) to love figure skating, they want to see artistry, not gymnastics. Who ever comes to see stadium-shows of gymnastics? But they come -- or used to come -- to see skating, because it is beautiful and artistic. Or can be. Or was. A lot of people would rather see a beautiful, womanly figure skater dressed in a feminine costume do an elegant, graceful, poetic routine with only doubles, rather than see an emaciated athlete garbed in a track suit do a physics routine with seven triples -- but the latter seems to be the way this profession is headed. The final point is devastating too: Quote: One wonders what we are doing to these young women in the name of sport. The little jumping beans are rising and falling faster than ever. There has never been a more uncertain, turbulent time in U.S. women's skating As soon as someone attains even a modicum of stardom, she vanishes. That impairs the popularity of figure skating as well. It takes years for a performer to gather a large fan following and bring new people in to the sport. If they leave soon, then the sport loses its new fans. - - - - But I will say one thing: Consider how much better-positioned Emily is than Meissner. First of all, Emily was always curvy, so she doesn't have to "adjust" to a new body. Emily was always womanly (and beautiful for that very reason). When she has time to devote to skating again, she'll be brilliant. (Emily became thin late in 2008, and that didn't do anything for her -- in fact, I suspect it created the Meissner problem in reverse: performing with a figure that was thinner than what she was used to.) And consider something else: Emily has had challenges, but she has been at university full-time. Meissner, on the other hand, has been skating non-stop. That too argues for an advantage for Emily, both in terms of her skating future (once she has 100% time for it again), and afterwards.


Growing up puts Meissner's career on thin ice · Skating Discussion