Are the men's judges coming after Heath Thorpe?

[onodian]

I mean don’t we all sometime wish the wag judges had looked at a cat double and said “no thanks, i think we will pass on this”???

I don’t think we can claim to know what is behind a decision like that. I think that’s ok, and that thorpe can keep trying to find his own voice and style on fx. Maybe that’s not the direction they want, and i can find many reasons that are just simply not homophobia. That doesn’t mean it isn’t, but I’m not claiming to know their motivation.

And as to homophobia and expression and all of this, I’ll always remember putin and the whole no-gay shit and then clapping for plushenko in sochi, who is basically a drag queen on slightly thinner pumps in my eyes. That one always comes back to me when i think these things are clear.

There’s also quite a lot of differences between the us and Europe as to what counts as feminine or whatevs. I didn’t mean to go too much into detail. I’m just here to remind you all of cat doubles

 

[Doug1233]

I would totally be on board with them awarding it a B value and moving on. It is illogical that a butterfly is in the Code but these leaps cannot be. Although they might argue that a butterfly is at least partially acrobatic around the somersault axis?

 

[onodian]

I mean I have no idea whatsoever, but I would understand why a butterfly is in but not a split leap.

But, I also have been known to hate gays.

 

[GymBeauty]

@navyblue Thank you for your intelligent, insightful, personal thoughts. You definitely get it.

I’m sorry certain people are accusing you of being patronizing while themselves being patronizing.

it’s homophobia that a male gymnast has to make a joke of it if he wants to try out the beam?!

There is exactly an ingrained homophobia in men doing something like practicing on a balance beam. Hence why they are only ever allowed to do it if it’s treated as a joke.

the FIG is an international organisation and the stereotype that artistic sports are feminine actually don’t exist in all countries and cultures and are primarily confined to the Anglo sphere.

Disagree. Conservative people exist in all countries and the stereotype does exist globally. Any country you go to in the world, there will be a LOT of people who equate being a man with not doing things that appear to make them look soft. In Russia where ballet is “accepted”, the men still must behave sternly, they are not allowed to act like women do. Russia (and many other countries you seem to be giving a pass to) undeniably have a huge homophobia problem, and perceive gay men as being weaker and more feminine.

Most men in gymnastics are scared of being perceived as being as feminine or gay, and leaps are considered to be in that genre. It isn’t a “strength” skill. So then, why is it that only strength skills are being allowed in Men’s gymnastics? The answer is quite obvious.

Even if it were true that a majority of people within the Men’s leadership of FIG don’t have a certain degree of fear about being perceived as gay, it only takes a small number to prevent change from happening. Or even if the leadership aren’t themselves homophobic, they could still be scared of the perception of the sport, and think it’s financially necessary to appeal to conservative audiences.

I mean don’t we all sometime wish the wag judges had looked at a cat double and said “no thanks, i think we will pass on this”???

But that’s because they were ugly. Heath’s skills aren’t.

Also, nobody has ever done an actual double cat leap in competition. It was always underrotated, hence why they looked ugly. The foot always landed crooked and people awkwardly stepped out of it, yet were erroneously given credit.

 

[MaryClare]

It would appear that the only person equating the feminine trait =must be gay stereotype, is you sadly

 

[onodian]

I think that’s an interesting conversation, that’s where my disconnect in the Plushenko example above comes too. So please let’s kill it on the spot and go back to L-hop-bashing