My son skates on a synchro figure skating team. I appreciate synchro specifically because it's a co-ed group of kids. Last year there were 3 boys on the team and I hope more boys, trans kids, or non-binary kids feel more comfortable in the figure skating world in the years to come.

@MindfulBanter

2 жыл бұрын

🥰

ive fallen into a figure skating rabbit hole and very much want to learn, but im currently exploring it through fiction, and was wondering about the dress code for nonbinary skaters. i looked into the dress code and found that men are required to wear full length pants and women are not, but i was curious as to whether nonbinary skaters would be required to wear full length pants, or whether it would depend on their agab? other people on the internet mentioned competing “as” a specific gender even if they arent that one. what are your thoughts on this topic?

@MindfulBanter

10 ай бұрын

Oooh I might have to make a video about this. Right now you can't "formally" be a nonbinary gender in competitive skating so you do kiiinda have to pick one (don't get me started 😅). But ideally we just wouldn't have these archaic dress codes, which is what I would think would be the first thing to happen in the grand scheme of progress, at least for singles skating. But skating has such an ingrained culture that folks wouldn't break the mold for a while even after a policy update, which we've already seen in women who can now perform in pants/pantsuits or dresses.

Jadaaaaa the set up!!! Looks amazing. I love hearing your take on this too-- you're so right, the dichotomy is pretty meaningless nowadays. There should definitely be a reevaluation to reflect the way people are understanding themselves now. I am looking forward hearing more of your thoughts on ice dance-- I don't know much about the discipline to be honest, so I'll have to do some research to get the full picture

@MindfulBanter

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks! Trying something new 😝 Don't worry, way more ice dance info coming soon. It's complicated 🙃

gender variant skaters? I have found my crowd..haha (well...im not a skater yet. too poor and disabled but, i have hope one day it will be accessible.) so happy i found your channel. Thank you. I am in agreement with you, that in figure skating and sports in general, the segregation is mostly nonsense based in the way society forces gender into a strict binary, in a way that doesnt even fit biology. I saw this wonderful thread about how womens sports mostly exists because of misogyny. (Women would never win against men if it was unsegregated 😢 the men say, yet there is a plethora of evidence that this is not the case.) just because someone has high testosterone levels literally does not mean they are more stronger, and i do not think that any biological differences of anyone matter so much that we be separated. I think its mostly lies tbh. skating can be should be and deep down is for everyone. I would love to see things change in many ways for this sport so that everyone who wants to *can* experience that love of the ice, that love for skating. I love your point about boys skating with girls too, i really thing it would help boys start seeing girls as comrades more, and not some weird, inherent "other".

@MindfulBanter

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you for watching! I'm not sure of your disabilities, but they (USFSA) have been working to make skating accessible for people with a broad range of disabilities. It's not perfect, but there are attempts :/ Mostly dependent on individual clubs for those, though.

Sadly I feel like gender roles are already so deeply established in figure skating that not much is going to change :( Sure they can open up sections for same-sex pairs to complete in (which I would pay so much money to see) but there would be no pairs to compete in it since there’s a stigma against non-heteronormativity. They could open a co-ed competition but why would any cis skaters want to compete there? Of course it would be great for non-binary skaters but I don’t think there’s enough of them to even have an elite competition with each other. I feel like the whole “men have higher level jumps&women have higher level artistry etc.” standard would have to be broken before co-ed competitions would become a thing, so skaters could compete on equal terms. And as for pairs I think having a woman be the “leader” and a man be the “follower” in a pair would be a step in the right direction towards same-sex pairs. In general people need to realize how dumb gender roles are and how much more fun the sport could be if they weren’t so held back by them.

@MindfulBanter

2 жыл бұрын

All super valid points, and I agree sadly. I don't see much space past this without destroying it and starting over.

great content! thanks for making videos about this! from a fellow nb adult skater!

@MindfulBanter

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for watching 🥰

I started skating recreationally 5 years ago. I later realized that I am non-binary like 2 years ago, I used to feel the same as you that things doesn't really matter if I know who I am. I would say, figure skating did speed up that process to becoming dsyphoric about pronouns and everything else. I was often told that I should skate prettily as a girl. It's just difficult to find a way to skate as a more gender neutral or androgynous, especially in lower levels (single jumps to axel). There are so many things that I would like to change for my gender presentation, like the artistic style (though I would say it hardly exists for me), training outfits, competition costumes, make-up, and even my haircuts or body shape. What makes it even more difficult is that in my country/region, the concepts of gender expression and non-binary identities are not so known to most people. Most of my skating friends, despite some being male say that they think figure skating is a feminine or even a queer sport. I skate under the ISI Asia system, that most competitions are done with male and female separately. So it's frustrating trying to find the way to live with my ideal gender expression on or off the ice for me. I just don't know what I can do or where should I start.

Important topic :) Everybody must have freedom to skate. Same sex pairs or ice dancers shouldn't be a problem.

I'm a new figure skater and I identify as nonbinary but I fall in the woman section and people think it's unfair that I'm taking tastosterone beacuse it means that I'm "stronger"

@MindfulBanter

2 жыл бұрын

It's frustrating when people don't understand the science behind transitioning 😞 we definitely need more allies in power advocating for trans and nonbinary folks!