What is special about the ladies?

Tolstoj · Nov 24, 2017

[email protected] said:
Some people keep saying they do not watch ladies any more. They say it persistently from one thread to another. But it does not help. The same as for the general public figure skating is mostly about Winter Olympics for the GS public figure skating is predominantly about ladies. I just counted - on the front page of the Edge there are 12 topics about ladies and 11 about all other events combined.

3 threads on US, Russian, and Japanese ladies have almost twice as many views as all other threads on the Edge front page combined (Programs by discipline aside)

Skate Canada ladies discussion was on 110 pages - all other three events had 143 pages combined.

Why is that? What is special about the ladies in figure skating to make it the center spot of discussion and interest?

No matter what some user here say, the Ladies event is always the most important of each competition in figure skating, that's the one most of the people look forward. The fact that Evgenia and the russian ladies are dominating don't change anything, it was the same with Yuna and Mao, or Michelle and Irina.

Singles skating has always been more important than pairs skating, at least in the past 20-30 years.

I remember Jenny Kirk at TSL used to say that frequently back in the days, and also Elena Tchaikovskaya switched from ice dance to singles for that reason.

sinnerspinner · Nov 25, 2017

I mostly watch ladies. Occasionally, I watch men.

The ladies are more flexible. I love watching women be strong, athletic, and bendy. I also love dance, ballet, rhythmic gymnastics, and artistic gymnastics. I dont watch a lot of male dominated sports now that i think about it.

sinnerspinner · Nov 25, 2017

More thoughts after reading other posts...
I'm more into footwork and spins. Seeing men jump quads isn't as attractive to me as seeing Lozko bend herself into a pretzel while spinning. I do love Yagudin's footwork.

Winnie_20 said:
This sums it up perfectly for me. The focus on quads just makes the Men's competitions bad. And I just don't like watching guys fall again and again.
Also, I prefer shiny and colorful costumes over the bland outfits a lot of guys feel are "costumes". Sport it is, but I'm also here for the entertainment. :sarcasm:

I love the costumes, too. I generally have a weakness for womens costumes, swarovskis crystals (loved wearing them on stage),makeup, tutus, pointe shoes, etc. I love the presentation.

prettykeys said:
This is my main reason as well...some sort of vicarious princess/superwoman fantasy in me.

I watch blood sports as well (MMA), and I follow both the men and the women, but the women more intensely for the same reason. The men are still much more skilled as a group, but I guess I find it more personally inspiring when I see the women being fit and amazing. I imagine that it's more possible for me, while I sit on my butt...

Ditto! I wasn't allowed to play sports when i was young. i suppose I am living through others. I watch little girls achieve things I could only dream of. I could at best be a late bloomer.

megenta said:
I wonder if there are any sports that have women not wearing skimpy clothing that is popular world wide. Can't think of any.

To be fair, figure skating costumes aren't that skimpy...Much of the gowns have overlay, and usually the ladies wear bloomers.

college pat · Nov 25, 2017

easy look up old youtube of events-2014 skate american sp.

they showed the falls of the ladies-why it matter if fell in short and long. it hurt your chances at podium finishes.

rabbit1234 · Nov 25, 2017

Because in the US and Europe, figure skating is thought to be a ladies sports, is not it?
Man will play other sports such as football, basketball, baseball, golf, tennis.
The boy who chooses figure skating is minority.

But now ladies is boring. There is no technological progress for thirty years.
Now, there are few competitors with individuality.
Debi Thomas,Harding, Bonaly, Witt, Chen, midori, Kwan, yuna, asada etc, I think that everyone was more diverse and individual rich.
They each had their own unique drama.
I think ladies need technological progress, and I think that we also need rules to encourage it.

I think that it is difficult for ordinary people to understand the difference between GOE such as raising their hands during jump instead of the difficulty of Elements.
Also, I think that diverse races and diverse countries need to enter figure skating. I think that it will expand the market and lead to the development of figure skating.

Manitou · Nov 26, 2017

I don’t care about PC, so I will say that as far as I remember, and that goes to early 70s, figure skating was about women. It’s a sport about beauty, flow, grace and femininity. Until maybe the 90s, while being a die hard fan of FS, I refused to watch men. I simply refused them. Men’s singles was against everything I believed in. Elvis Stoiko was the first man I started watching. His loss to Urmanov in lace gloves was an insult to me and to the sport in my opinion. Now I see it a bit differently, but that’s how I saw it back then.
It’s only very recently I started to let go on my views, but it it’s rather related to my age than to the contemporary gender propaganda. Only recently I started appreciating such incredible artists as Hanyu, Cizeron or others.
However, Kevin Reynolds is still too much for me and he is the factor that lets me appreciate functionality of fast forwarding.

My opinions might be insulting to many of you, but that’s the reality with the mainstream public. Figure skating is about feminity, and feminity is reserved for women, like it or not.

Sam L · Nov 26, 2017

The earliest figure skating pioneers were all men. Axel, Salchow, Lutz. Having said that, I never used to like men when I started to follow figure skating. But I think the ISU judging system favours men because it pushes them to go hard in the technicals and that's what men do best in which is why over the last decade or so men's figure skating has become more compelling and interesting than the ladies. Ladies figure skating is still the blue riband event at the Winter Olympics and forever it will be but I think the men are up there now.

KwanfordWife · Feb 7, 2018

Manitou said:
I don’t care about PC, so I will say that as far as I remember, and that goes to early 70s, figure skating was about women. It’s a sport about beauty, flow, grace and femininity. Until maybe the 90s, while being a die hard fan of FS, I refused to watch men. I simply refused them. Men’s singles was against everything I believed in. Elvis Stoiko was the first man I started watching. His loss to Urmanov in lace gloves was an insult to me and to the sport in my opinion. Now I see it a bit differently, but that’s how I saw it back then.
It’s only very recently I started to let go on my views, but it it’s rather related to my age than to the contemporary gender propaganda. Only recently I started appreciating such incredible artists as Hanyu, Cizeron or others.
However, Kevin Reynolds is still too much for me and he is the factor that lets me appreciate functionality of fast forwarding.

My opinions might be insulting to many of you, but that’s the reality with the mainstream public. Figure skating is about feminity, and feminity is reserved for women, like it or not.

I'm REALLY late to this party but I gotta say: this whole post is offensive. For a variety of reasons and on a whole bunch of levels.

Figure Skating is a sport. A beautiful, complicated, diverse artistic sport where the athletes, unlike in any other space, are judged on their ability alone.

We as skating fans should attempt to live up to that ideal and if we can't and choose only to see lace gloves, then maybe it's time for the "fans" to use that fabulous functionality and fast forward to a another sport more aligned with said fan's personal sensability...i hear NASCAR is fun

narcissa · Feb 7, 2018

IDK about online views or TV ratings (but I have no doubt most casual viewers tune in to watch ladies), but ticket sales are a whole 'nother issue. It was hard to sell extra ladies' SP/FS tickets for the Olympics and I had to let them go at huge discounts to get rid of them, but most men's tickets sold at or near face value. Some people are selling theirs for way higher than face value. So there's that.

But yeah I think most of the interest on the men's event lies with a handful of skaters, whereas there are more interesting ladies' skaters. So the mean is the same but the variance is higher for the men? I couldn't give away my ice-level Skate Canada tickets months before the event for free

Also most of the hype in the U.S (where I'm from) seems to be on Nathan. They moved the events around so that the men's FS at Nationals had the Saturday Prime Time slot when for the last how many decades the ladies had that spot.

Mathman · Feb 7, 2018

narcissa said:
But yeah I think most of the interest on the men's event lies with a handful of skaters, whereas there are more interesting ladies' skaters. So the mean is the same but the variance is higher for the men?

Imteresting observation.

I couldn't give away my ice-level Skate Canada tickets months before the event for free

I remember back in the 1970s, the Detroit Piston's basketball team was so bad that they just opened the doors and let people come in for free.

Also most of the hype in the U.S (where I'm from) seems to be on Nathan. They moved the events around so that the men's FS at Nationals had the Saturday Prime Time slot when for the last how many decades the ladies had that spot.

That makes sense, though. Nathan might win a gold medal at the Olympics, whereas U.S. ladies are not expected to be a factor this time around..

j00mla · Feb 8, 2018

[email protected] said:
What is special about the ladies in figure skating to make it the center spot of discussion and interest?

ladies 100% of beauty
pairs and ice dance 50% of beauty
men 0% of beauty

TylerW · Feb 8, 2018

It wasn't until this year I actually started following the men. I had kinda been following the sport of figure skating this quad, but only by a very basic point of view. Basically I thought as long as a figure skater jumped and landed, they didn't mess up haha. If you would have thrown the words edge call and under rotated at me, I would've thought you were crazy. When I actually started hard core following the figure skating scene this season, I started to explore it as a whole. Not just the ladies event. I have a tendency to like women in sports than men, I'm not sure why.

It was the same way with gymnastics. I am a HARDCORE gymnastics fan. Gymnastics over figure skating haha. But even when I dived heavily into the sport of gymnastics, I only watched womens. It wasnt until Rio that I actually paid attention to mens. Even then I still thought it was boring. Now, a year and a half later, I love watching mens gymnastics (womens is still my favorite). I'm sure it'll be the same way with mens in figure skating. I watch it, but it's still not my favorite (yet). I'm reallllllyyy trying to get into pairs and ice dancing but I still don't find them as appealing.

TunaKeem · Feb 8, 2018

KwanfordWife said:
I'm REALLY late to this party but I gotta say: this whole post is offensive. For a variety of reasons and on a whole bunch of levels.

Figure Skating is a sport. A beautiful, complicated, diverse artistic sport where the athletes, unlike in any other space, are judged on their ability alone.

We as skating fans should attempt to live up to that ideal and if we can't and choose only to see lace gloves, then maybe it's time for the "fans" to use that fabulous functionality and fast forward to a another sport more aligned with said fan's personal sensability...i hear NASCAR is fun

Completely agree with you...Online figure skating forums is THE very LAST place I would have expected to see comments about "femininity" being "reserved for women". You'd think being part of this community, a pre-requisite would be tolerance of those things but I mean stranger things have happened I guess..

NadezhdaNadya · Feb 8, 2018

j00mla said:
ladies 100% of beauty
pairs and ice dance 50% of beauty
men 0% of beauty

Say that to the fangirls of the male skaters.

moonvine · Feb 12, 2018

narcissa said:
IDK about online views or TV ratings (but I have no doubt most casual viewers tune in to watch ladies), but ticket sales are a whole 'nother issue. It was hard to sell extra ladies' SP/FS tickets for the Olympics and I had to let them go at huge discounts to get rid of them, but most men's tickets sold at or near face value. Some people are selling theirs for way higher than face value. So there's that.

But yeah I think most of the interest on the men's event lies with a handful of skaters, whereas there are more interesting ladies' skaters. So the mean is the same but the variance is higher for the men? I couldn't give away my ice-level Skate Canada tickets months before the event for free

If you ever have this issue again, just pm me!

As for Olympic ticket sales I'm glad at least there will be a full arena for the ladies. It was discouraging to me to see the arena so empty during the Team event.

I started out primarily liking ladies because that's what was pushed on TV and we didn't have the options we have now (the first Olympics I remember watching was 76 and Dorothy Hamill and everyone went nuts after she won - had to get the haircut and everything.)

Now I prefer men's because it is less predictable. Even though everyone had the gold awarded to Nathan Chen, if he skates like he did during the team event, that's not going to happen. But it does seem the top 2 spots are already awarded in ladies even if they fall multiple times, which is going to make it a huge yawnfest for me.

zanadude · Feb 12, 2018

Sam L said:
The earliest figure skating pioneers were all men. Axel, Salchow, Lutz.

Don't forget Loop and Flip

Mathman · Feb 12, 2018

zanadude said:
Don't forget Loop and Flip

You mean the Rittberger and the Mapes?

LiamForeman · Feb 12, 2018

Don't forget about Mr. Cherryflip!

cell · Feb 13, 2018

Ladiezzzzz have more boring stereotypical programs than men on average IMO.

Mathman · Feb 13, 2018

^ What? Oh. no. Look at Zagitova's short program versus Osmond's! (True, ladies' long programs suffer from the necessity of working in all the required elements come hell or high water.) But look at the recent Olympic team event. Every lady showed us something unique.

On the men's side, there are two kinds of programs. There is the quad quad quad program for those men who can do quad quad quad. And then there is the other kind for those who can't.

Anyway, none of it is boring. (That's what I think, anyway.

)

What is special about the ladies?

Tolstoj

sinnerspinner

sinnerspinner

college pat

rabbit1234

Manitou

Sam L

KwanfordWife

narcissa

Mathman

j00mla

Made in USSR

TylerW

TunaKeem

NadezhdaNadya

moonvine

All Hail Queen Gracie

zanadude

Mathman

LiamForeman

William/Uilyam

cell

Mathman

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