"Just another sign that you were European in your past life", as my Dad would say. This one got thrown at me when I asked if we could do dinner at 11pm last night. I really believe in past lives, and so does the person I am about to talk about. As I believe, I have many many Spanish qualities about me. And it's not just the food. (yumm!) But it's the freedom and artistic value there. Even if I was not directly from Spain, I do know I did come from a country very different then America.
My dearest, Johnny Weir, believes he was a Russian in his past life. I also thought that I was Russian, at one time, in my life. Not really that I was Russian in my past life, because at 10 I highly doubt I knew what a past life was, but I knew I wanted to be Russian! I wanted to figure skate for the Soviet Union! This is soo fun right now because my dad is watching me write this so I keep asking him about my childhood. hahaha. I did get a Russian translation book and a Russian dictionary from my father. I still have them. I don't know maybe me at 10 knows way more about where I had last lived then the me now? Who knows but anyways I was obsessed with Russian figure skating and the architecture/onion domes(луковичная глава, lúkovichnaya glava). This is most likely due to the fact that I, myself, was in a deep deep relationship/obsession with figure skating right here in western pennsylvania. Figure skating was my life so I thought I should take my act to Russia but my parents kept me in the states. Ok, Ok once again I am going on and on about me and this piece is about the difference and acceptance of homosexuality within the states and over in Europe. Here is an interview by Johnny that someone wrote into a blog. Please enjoy!
There are Part1 , Part 2 for the interview , and besides Johnny, the movie directors David and James and his best friend Paris were also there.
Johnny looked confident and shining. His hairstyle was kind of funny, similar to his hairstyle in 2007 off season.
But I have no doubt he has star quality looking, and has big impact. His face looked gorgeous and cute as usual.
His public speech was awesome. He has many experiences from media attention, press conference , etc.. so it may be no problem for him to talk in public.
But I respect that.
Johnny was asked about homophobia, difference between USA and other countries and he answered that you can find homophobia everywhere, however, in Russia, Europe and Asia, they appreciate art and beauty .
Whereas in the USA, many people worry about whether the art is masculine or feminine, rather than watching the performance of art.
Also, they worry about the image of the country. They worry about children, whether it’s good for kids or not.
Children will grow to be whatever they want, or whatever they were born to be. They will be attracted to whatever they want, and this happens naturally.
Johnny’s best friend Paris also talked about that figure skating is not about feminine or masculine and it’s not important.
In the USA judges, there are of course gays and lesbians, but they don’t like to see skaters openly showing their feminine side, because they have bad image of this and so they are scared for the image of USA.
Since I became a fan of Johnny, I found many discoveries in difference between USA and other countries.
I completely agree with everything what Johnny and Paris answered in the interview.
Ray was also saying the same thing when I moved here, but I could not get it at that time until becoming Johnny fan and knowing the fact by myself.
LOL, Ray is still telling me about it, about how stubborn I was for my view.
The point is not about masculine or feminine, the point is why do people care about whether someone looks masculine or feminine, gay or not.
And the problem I think is the view of many people who see gay and feminine as something bad. And I guess they are brainwashed since generations ago.
And the point of what Johnny was saying was that in the USA , most people don’t appreciate art and beauty for itself.
I also felt that many people here look down, and they don’t respect, art and beauty. In their minds, sports is always good.
I often read that Figure skating is “ Sport “, not “ Art” in the North American figure skating forums.
Those people who are strongly saying that figure skating is " Sport " sounded like as if it have to be " Sport " , because they have an issue with art.
It seems in their minds, art = weak, feminine, and girly. This is my impression. and I don't agree with that.
According to English news, there was a study conducted where they put a group of ballet dancers on the one hand and soccer and rugby players on the other, and put them under a series of rigorous exercises and fitness tests, and then compare the results.
According to the study, the ballet dancers came out on top, as far as being stronger, as well as more flexible and with more stamina.
Believe it or not, ballet is not easy, it's extremely difficult.
It looked to me many people are are worried about the image of figure skating is considered as girly.
It was not so familiar for me to hear those kind of opinions.
It's not girly or anything. Art is not easy.
Personally, I've never thought figure skating as "Sport" since when I first saw it on TV.
Until I saw Johnny, I was not so deeply into watching figure skating, and never checked the schedule of it, never cared for who won or not.
It was just beautiful to watch, no difference from watching classic ballet. I always watch it as Art. and Of course, I always thought it looks very difficult.
Other thing I really enjoyed in the interview was Johnny and his friend Paris's friendship.
They said that they were hating each other when they first met at a skating rink. Because both thought they are diva. LOL
We have A LOT to change here. If you truly take a look at what the true vision of an "American" should look like, it's absolutely horrific. I hope you learn a lot from just this small highlighted piece. There is a lot more to come on this subject.
S
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