The 2022 Winter Olympics is making history for all the wrong reasons. And this is one of the sillier ones.
There are a lot of folks in the LGBTQ+TBD community who aren't happy with gendered sports categories, and figure skating is the most gendered of them all. With couples skating and ice dancing, the idea is to have men and women dancing together. As a couple. With distinct binary sexes that complement each other.
Not exactly popular with the woke mob.
This year for the first time ever, women will not be competing in figure skating as "ladies" but instead as "women," which I always thought was a synonym, but I guess not. This change is obviously not far enough for the mob but enough to satisfy it for a few seconds.
According to an incredibly long (and might I say boring) USA Today article that I selflessly read so you don't have to, this whole thing is a "step toward inclusivity."
Ice dancer Kaitlyn Weaver, a two-time Olympian and three-time World medalist, said the terminology further emphasized the gendered nature of the sport. Women were celebrated for being graceful, polite, demure — all the qualities of a "lady" — instead of being athletic.
Now I'm not saying ice skaters are not athletic (they're all more athletic than I could ever hope to be), but I always thought the sports of figure skating and ice dancing are meant to be graceful in addition to being athletic.
Weaver went on to say,
The term ‘ladies' takes away our power, our athleticism, our sexuality.
Um, I always thought it said something very explicit about your sexuality – as in, you are a lady and that comes with considerable power.
Ice dancers are literally being scored on their gracefulness. No one wants to watch a clumsy ice dancer. I mean, it would funny, but you don't tune into the Olympics for laughs.
Well, regardless of my thoughts, the change has been made and all I can say now is good luck ladies!
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