Does A Male Has The Right To Watch Figure Skating?

[DKNY Loves MK]

As a male figure skating fan, I often been laughed by many of my "male friends" for watching skating. Why? Because most of my "male friends" think that figure skating is only for women to watch, and if a male who likes skating it must mean he is a gay or something like that. Do any of you think that figure skating is only restricted for female to watch? BTW, Michelle was the one who inspired me to become a fan of skating.

[Willowdale]

two words: OF COURSE!! I vigorously diagree that a male is a gay if he likes figure skating. First of all, my dad, who is my hero and has great personality, is a *huge* fan of figure skating and he often said to me " <font color="e43117"> <font size="4"> figure skating is a great sport which combines both artistry and atheletics very well </font> </font> " when I was very young. He first made me like figure skating, and I remember we were both rooting for Kristi Yamaguchi at 1992 Olympics. :) My dad's most favourite skater was Katarina Witt, but he hadn't often seen her performances, though. Well, I began to love basketball and volleyball more than figure skating as I grew up, but Michelle Kwan made me love f.s again. I strongly DISAGREE that a male is a gay if he likes figure skating. I would like to say it is one of the stupidest thing I have ever heard in my entire life!! As you know, there are MANY MANY outstanding male skaters and great male figure skating coaches, male judges, and male choreographers, etc, etc. They love this sport not because they are gay but because they appreciate its beauty and athletism. Here is a quote from Edward Z. Epstein who is a "MALE" author of the book "Born to Skate; the Michelle Kwan story" and other great books such as "The life of Mia Farrow" and "A biography of Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward". " <font size=4> <font color="e43117"> For me, figure skating has proven a fabulous, enduring pastime, a wonderful an reliable source of entertainment and pleasure. There is nothing quite as exciting as being out ther on the ice; it enables you to expand your creative horizons, stretch your capabilities - and it keeps you out of trouble! </font> </font>" Finally, I just want to add that I am a proud fan of figure skating and my baby-brother who is *male* enjoys watching MK and other skaters' performances with me. :)

[Joshua]

DKNY Loves MK....really? I've never been laughed at by my male friends for watching figure skating, and they aren't, at least to my knowledge, gay in the least. Then again, maybe it's because they know that I love Michelle. Surprisingly, I've found out that some of my male friends/relatives actually enjoy watching figure skating.

[Aaron W]

Well, I'm a guy and I'm not gay. Yet I love figure skating. I don't care what other guys think about the sport. I think that most guys don't understand the sport and therefore don't realize that it is a very athletic sport. They don't realize that everything a skater has worked on for an entire year (and for their entire life) is riding on certain performances. One slight mistake and everything that the skater has worked for is gone. People who talk badly about a sport but don't take the time to understand it are just plain ignorant. There is no other way to describe it. Fortunately, my guy friends understand how much I love skating and don't make fun of it. I worry about next year though. I'll be heading to college and I wonder what others will think. I just hope that I get an understanding roommate. However, no one in this world is going to make me ashamed of liking figure skating.

[kwanette]

My friend Pat and her husband ...an older couple...have been my friends forever. He is a tough former football player for Drexel University. He still loves his Eagles, but he loves his figure skating, too. At 98 Nats, he sat there keeping score while Pat and I ran around getting autographs and making fools of ourselves. The day of Keri Lotion, he was working in the yard, and Pat yelled to him that MK was coming on. He wouldn't miss it for the world, goes every year to COI and SOI...loves it. It is a SPORT...Guess what? I love football...go every week to the high school games...We are an equal-opportunity sport....

[sw10025]

DKNY, I think its great that you (and these other male posters) are secure enough in your manhood to appreciate the finer things like figure skating. Your friends can't help it if they don't have as refined sensibilities and good taste as you do. They've bought into outdated stereotypes and they don't have enough confidence and security in who they are to get past these ridiculous assumptions. Pity them, for they know not what they're missing. There are plenty of men with their wives and girlfriends at the FS tours. Figure skating is like ballet. Take Baryshnikov: there's no way you can convince me he wasn't a better athlete than 90% of the football, basketball and baseball players out there. And I'm sure he spent a lot more time training, conditioning, working hard, and honing his craft than most major sports stars. Figure skating is an extremely difficult sport and there are so many fewer top notch athletes in the sport (male and female) than there are in the NBA, NFL, AHL, skiing, tennis, baseball, name your sport. And its one of the few sports your girlfriend is actually going to enjoy watching with you!

[BMWMKFan86]

I am a guy, and I think it is a great sport. People often make fun of me, but if you ask me the people who laugh can barely touch their toes. :)

[Amelia]

I was reading Dear Abby yesterday, and someone wrote in about this guy who got teased a lot because he enjoyed dancing and cooking. The woman who was writing said that she had a friend in a similar situation, and when some of his guy friends teased him about getting ready for ballet while they were getting ready for football, he replied, "Excuse me? You're going to go run around with a bunch of huge, sweaty guys, and I'm going to go be with a bunch of girls in tights. Who has the problem here?" Amelia

[BMWMKFan86]

Hey Amelia that is so good. I have to tell a few people that ~Michelle Kwan in a BMW 528i~

[sw10025]

I love that, Amelia. Thanks for sharing. [Background snickering noises muted.] :-) (P.S. You can tell your buddies that I'd be willing to bet that any of the ladies posting on this board would *dearly love* to have a figure skating fan for a boyfriend/husband/significant other. I know I would!)

[muri]

Until you, DKNY made this a topic I didn't think it was one. Figure skating is an art, can men enjoy art? Do men paint? Is something wrong with a man because he can paint or play an intrument or sing? Well?

[taf2]

Don't worry Aaron W, contrary to popular belief, guys are more mature in college than HS, so you shouldn't have a problem. (Hard to believe when you hear about the drinking games,etc, huh?) One of the enduring images from FS that I retain is the night Rudy Galindo won his national championship-during the standing ovation, the camera was on a big husky man standing in the back with tears running down his face. What a riveting moment! My husband doesn't like FS, but the only person at work that I can talk FS with is a hetero man-he's a #1 soccer fan, but he's not ashamed to admit he also loves to watch skating. He says it's partly because he's so amazed at what these athletes can do.

[SJB]

I think that some men may have the idea that men could not like figure skating unless they were gay because they have the idea that skating is some kind of dance or "graceful" performance, as if it were a Broadway show. I think that people who are not very informed about skating have no idea how extremely difficult is it athletically, and that skaters have to be super strong, well conditioned athletes to even step onto the ice. Especially when we see the top skaters (seemingly) effortlessly throw in a quad, it seems like, oh, that's really not so hard or physically demanding. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; They could not be more wrong; the more I see of skating, the more I think it is one of the most athletically demanding of sports. It's like the analogy with ballet that was made in another post--they go out there and make it look so easy. Yet I remember an interview with Baryshnikov when he retired, where he was reminiscing about the various injuries he'd sustained over the course of his career, and the interviewer just could not believe that dance was so athletically demanding that he could have suffered such serious injuries. She finally asked, which bone have you fractured the most often during your career? Mikhail thought, and came up with his left ankle--he'd fractured it *twelve times*--and that's just one bone. He usually continued to dance on it, too---oh, fractured an ankle during a the first act? No problem, get out there and finish the performance on that broken bone, doing so well that people can't tell he's injured. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Anyway, I think that skating is on that level of physical difficulty, and I agree that skaters (and dancers like Baryshnikov) are probably stronger and better conditioned athletes than most who play other sports. There is no basis to the stereotype that men can't enjoy figure skating as a sport (or enjoy the artistic side of it as well--after all, there are many, many male balletomanes, who are not automatically regarded as being gay).

[gymnskate]

Some people are just sick, DKNY, just sick. They *must* be sick to think you and I are "gay" because we love to watch young women in short skirts! ;-) Okay, I am a serious fan of skating and gymnastique, and I love to watch the athletes drive their bodies to amazing feats. And I do not understand why so many fellow males get so much pleasure from watching guys in padding grunt and run into each other and tap each other behind. Are the male audience just drunk? Why do they watch that? To see Michelle Kwan spiral or sharlot, or to see Kurt Browning footwork: that's athletics and entertainment! Good sport!!!!

[eilaram]

Just like any stereotype and generalization, that idea is stupid. It is stupid to assume that you can know about someone's personality or personal life just based on whether they like or do not like just one sport. No two people are alike, just like no two fans are alike. I am sure that there are gay and straight figure skating fans and football fans and baseball fans and basketball fans and fans of any other sport known to man. If a guy likes figure skating it just means he likes figure skating.

[mkbutch]

I'm gay. Can I watch figure skating without besmirching your manly-manly reputations? mkDragon who sometimes gets *very* tired of being assumed to be heterosexual

[Googoo]

Uh... anybody can watch figure skating! It's a free world (relatively!)

[SJB]

Certainly. The point is that watching and liking a sport which is supremely athletically demanding and also has elements of grace and artistry has no sexual preference. Why would anyone, gay or straight, not like watching such superb athletes and performers? My former point was that if straight men somehow believe that figure skating could only appeal to gay men because it's just "dance" and "entertainment", they could not be more a) biased, and b) wrong.

[Gentle]

i am gay too and I LOVE watching figure skating and other sports as well. I know people who like watching skating and are not gay :)

[mkbutch]

Ok, Gentle, ya got me! :) That was good. Sometimes I get all grumpy about these things. Sorry. At least I got a haircut today and got the one *I* wanted instead of the one the straight female hair dresser thought I should have! Every little bit helps. mkDragon

[Icare]

Any one who has taste can appreciate, and watch figure skating. This is something good still for free. Anyone can watch f.s. regardless their sex, race, or whatever. Telling people otherwise is down right discriminatory, and no one has the right to say anything like that. It also shows how little understanding these people have about figure skating.

[DKNY Loves MK]

I feel so much better for knowing how ridiculous my friends are. From now on, I will ignore their silly comments toward male who actually like skating. BTW, I would like to thank all you peole for your gracious support and comments. You guys are the best.

[BernieToeLoop]

My Dad simply loves pair skating because he loves the "romance" involved (he used to be a very good Tango dancer . . . My brother and his "jock friends" watch skating with me all the time --- they think lady figure skaters are "hot"! (Not exactly for the love of the sport . . . I might add ;-)

[chinadoll]

oh, come on! it's a SPORT!! anyone can watch it!!

[Sharon]

Since they watch virtually everything else, why not? My husband took me to the tribute to Frank Carroll show July 3rd in Lake Arrowhead. Not only did he enjoy it, he's offered to take me every year! Yeah for me! :-). Sure, he's not into it as deeply as I am, but he's pretty good at noticing who's good or not, even if he doesn't know the jumps. I admit he is a little homophobic, but he attended a party given by a gay friend of mine and had fun. DKNY - when you're friends make comments, just smile slightly and keep on watching. We know it's the beauty of it all that you love and there missing something if they can't see it. Don't they like watching girls? As a woman, I greatly appreciate my husband ability to see beauty in many things, not just "man" things. I makes our relationship that much better, and we've been together for almost 14 years now. As far as I'm concerned, you guy watchers are many "points" ahead of your friends in the potential relationship factor. Gay or straight!

[Corbon91]

I have had friends tease me because I like figure skating. I usually respond with "Hey, I just like watching the pretty girls!" (I say this jokingly). Once I tell them that I love it because of the artistry and athleticism, they usually understand. Only a few of my friends don't and that's ok. If they don't get it, they don't get it. That doesn't affect my friendship with them. So DKNY, don't be ashamed, be proud! Yes, I'm a guy and I love figure skating! Corbon91

[Gentle]

MKbutcht, how do u like your new hair do? Is it the Ricky Martin's style haircut? I like to have short hair since it's easy to maintain. No need to blow dry, just a lot of Joico Ice gel will do the trick :) Anywayz, I am going to my beginner watercolour class now. This medium is so challenging and yet IMO is the most beautiful of all. When I get very good at it , I would like to do portraits of Michelle! Actually, I wrote a poem that dedicated to her talent and beauty that I posted it up at my personal home page. IF any of you would like to visit my site, please let me know i will be happy to send you the url. Isn't it Brian Botanio is MK's bestfriend?