Not that they'd say that of course.
Then there's three-time American champ Johnny Weir. For the short program to Camille Saint-Saens' "The Swan," he was dressed as the bird itself. The bottom of his costume was black with cutouts that look like feathers. The silver-and-white top appeared to be covered in feathers, and a red glove on his right hand -- he's dubbed it Camille -- made his arm look like a swan when he raised it.
It was, uh, interesting. And it could have been worse. The designer's idea was to have molting blue feathers running down the left arm, on top of the fishnet.
"I thought that was a little much," Weir said.
You think?
[UPDATE: Original title "Don't be so gay." Hey, I feel more clever at 2 am.]
Posted by binky at February 22, 2006 12:11 PM | TrackBack | Posted to SportsSports critics have made fun of Weir's flaming tendencies for years.
But while a lot of the criticism aimed at the attempts of male figure skaters to be "artistic" (which of course they are required to be given the competition) often come across as lame gay jokes, it's important to not that not all of the criticisms of different creative outfits routines are from people who laugh at/are threated by teh gays. Evan what's his name (the US guy who's better looking than Weir - I'm afraid I have watched men's figure skating in the last 4 years so I'm not too up on the details of these guys) was roundly criticized for a routine he did that had a Grease theme. And of course there were a lot of people who complained about Elvis's thing for leather. So these skaters face criticism for being too flaming in some instances - but from another angle they get criticized if they want to skate routines to things that aren't by, say, classical composers.
So I guess they skate a thin line - trying to avoid pissing off both 1) manly sports writers and 2) skating world traditionalists who want to hear a lot of Verdi while these guys spin around at tremendous speeds in tight outfits.
Posted by: Armand at February 22, 2006 12:48 PM | PERMALINKSure. However the criticism about Weir has been pretty consistently focused on the flame.
Posted by: binky at February 22, 2006 01:02 PM | PERMALINKum, the article is a fashion article for crying out loud. would you prefer beer-swilling sports enthusiasts to be the ones critiqueing the fashion sense ofa figure skater?
the topic is what dictates the gayness, not the skater. and the mockery doesn't strike me as being about weir's gayness so much as the queer-eye sensibility of the writer. fashion snark, even when indulged by straights (and i'm not above it), is a fundamentally campy exercise.
Posted by: moon at February 22, 2006 04:31 PM | PERMALINKOh, I've been reading a lot of other sites about Weir (from PerezHilton to Jossip to etc etc etc). It's pretty consistent. This is just the one that hit me on the front page of CNN today.
Posted by: binky at February 22, 2006 05:14 PM | PERMALINKi also just noticed that it's an AP article, which undermines my critique. although i suppose the AP has fashion reporters too.
Posted by: moon at February 22, 2006 05:34 PM | PERMALINK