"Johnny Weir responds to commentators who questioned his gender, example he sets"

[browngirl]

If this journal were made of paper I would cut this article out and paste it in. So... that's what I'm doing.

Johnny Weir responds to commentators who questioned his gender, example he sets
(by Mandi Bierly)

"Johnny Weir held a press conference Wednesday in Vancouver to address remarks made by two veteran sports commentators during the Olympics suggesting that his fabulousness (our word) is a bad example of, and for, male figure skaters and joking that he should undergo a gender test."

The part I wanted most to remember:

"As you’ll hear him say in the two clips we’ve embedded, he’s not asking for an apology. He says he believes in free speech and wouldn’t want these men fired for expressing their opinion. (“I’ve heard worse in bathrooms and whatnot about me,” he quipped.) He just wants them to think before they speak — and to imagine the damage they could do to people like him and to generations of children whose parents may not give them the same freedom and support his did if they think their child will only be ridiculed for being who he or she is. “I would challenge anyone to question my upbringing and question my parents’ ideals and feelings about bringing up me and my brother, who’s completely different from me but taught very much the same way that I was,” Weir said."

"He summed up his message — ”I hope more kids can grow up the same way that I did and more kids can feel the freedom that I feel to be themselves and to express themselves” — and his belief that the concepts of masculinity and femininity are old-fashioned. “There’s a whole generation of people that aren’t defined by their sex or their race or by who they like to sleep with. I think as a person you know what your values are and what you believe in, and I think that’s the most important thing.”

*refrains from commentary on the phrase "this may not be politically correct, but..."*

The whole article is worth reading (though the comments contain assorted sorts of ignorance, as ever).

Comments

[achinhibitor.livejournal.com]

OMG!!! A figure skater might be gay??? Next, someone will be telling me that women hockey players like drinking beer (http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/2010wintergames/Controversy+takes+some+shine+gold/2631173/story.html)!!!

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

Shocking, I know.
(Man, what a party that must've been!)

[brownbetty]

I know, I love that it's an OMG controversy.

My mother, (clearly a Canadian) asked, “Well, did they get cigar buts on the ice? Because then the reprimand is very understandable.”

Me: “From the Olympic committee? Just let the zamboni driver loose on them.”

[achinhibitor.livejournal.com]

More seriously, there is this modern trend that to be an athlete, politician, or otherwise in the public eye, you must be an exemplary human being in all ways. Whereas not too many decades ago, it was understood that you would choose your occupation as much by your character flaws as by your skills. In this case, someone is dumping on Johnny Weir for not living up to his standards of masculinity. But Johnny Weir isn't running for Mr. Universe, he's doing something damned close to ballet on ice. (And when did we lose the principle that the attraction of a career in journalism was its compatibility with alcoholism?)

Perhaps the ne plus ultra of this silliness is Tiger Woods. As far as I can tell, his body count is at least an order of magnitude less than JFK's, and nobody thought that got in the way of JFK being president. (And LBJ was mightily annoyed that JFK had more of a reputation for being a horndog than he did.)

... grumble, grumble, the kids these days, grumble ...