A TEMPEST IN A TIARA

The New Republic, which prides itself on making "insightful" sociocultural observations (remember, Andrew Sullivan was once an editor for TNR), had the following to say about American men's figure skater Johnny Weir, who came in fifth after the long program (after placing second after the short program):

"THE CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE OF JOHNNY WEIR:
TNR was against the Olympics before being against the Olympics was cool, so pardon me if I don't get too worked up about Johnny-come-latelies like Bryant Gumbel. (DRL: Gumbel recently dismissed the Winter Olympics as boring and denounced these games for the fact that almost no Africans and black people participate in them. African-American participation is pitifully low, but is slowly - very slowly- on the rise. If his complaint is that African nations do not participate, Gumbel apparently forgets that pretty much no Central American, South American, or South Asian country does either. Why? Because all of these countries are in the southern hemisphere, where there's no snow. Nice to know that Gumbel is still a blowhard. I'm not complaining about the overrepresentation, statistically speaking, of African-Americans, in certain Summer Olympic sports, and wouldn't expect anyone else to either. Perhaps Gumbel, who fancies himself a mouthpiece for black people, has put one and one together, and without realizing it, has stumbled on to the "fact" that black people don't like the Winter Olympics, and therefore do not participate in them, because they find them boring. Well, Bryan, case closed!).

Of course, one of the most annoying things about the Olympics is the unbelievably saccharine, jingoistic television coverage it receives. (DRL: See, e.g., yesterday's blog entry). Which is why one bit of coverage from NBC a few nights ago is so remarkable.
It was your basic up-close-and-personal profile of the American figure skater Johnny Weir--except that none of the things about Weir that presumably might upset the average viewer in Peoria (DRL: Weir's hometown) were edited out. He was presented as the opinionated, outrageous, flaming diva that he is, from the opening shot--a long pan of his body, starting with the Ugg boots on his feet and ending at the oversized JT-Leroy-style sunglasses on his head--to the accompanying soundbites--such as, "I know that a lot of people, especially the more Republican-style people, are very afraid of what I mean to the sport. ... I'm not going to be the shiny, sparkly, flower-holding figure skater. ... My critics can eat it." (DRL: Weir believes that flower-holding by a man is a sign of machoness?)

At one point the profile even includes Weir dissing a competitor's efforts as "a vodka-shot, let's-snort-coke kind of program."

Really, see for yourself, it's an amazing clip and, in a weird way, a greater sign of social progress than Brokeback Mountain. I mean, if NBC execs--whose job it is to make Americans fall in love with our Olympic athletes--think this is the way to do it, then it really does speak to America's growing tolerance and acceptance of homosexuals.

P.S. Although, full-disclosure, the pop-up graphics of pink triangles that appear on the YouTube clip did not appear on NBC's original broadcast.

P.P.S. Uh, one potential problem with the above: An editor has informed me that Weir has never actually publicly said that he's gay. So, while you can certainly infer a lot from some of his statements (such as when he described himself as "princessy"), to say nothing of his wardrobe (do any straight men wear Uggs?), I should note that there's a chance Weir is heterosexual."
--Jason Zengerle"

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I express no opinion on whether Weir is gay (expect a grand post on the topic of how people create their own definition of this word that applies to everyone but them as they say "not that there's anything wrong with that" but really mean "gay=loser" soon), but certainly can note that, whether he is gay, straight, or anything in between, the clip that TRN found newsworthy isn't. It's just another athlete making fun of his rivals under the guise of respecting them; just another athlete expressing, in reductively non-rebellious language, what a rebel he is, and it's just another athlete whose act is to claim to care not what his critics think, thereby revealing that he does indeed care (in other words, the more things "change," the more they stay the same). If you don't believe this, witness his fuming walk off the stage after the long program, as he knew the cameras were right on him and the judges were looking straight at him. The walk-off was classic anti-Norma Desmond's last line in Sunset Boulevard. Not sure of what I mean? Go out and rent the movie. Warning, though: you might become gay afterward. But only if you tell someone you saw it. Someone who has seen it who may or may not be gay, but who knows that the fact that YOU watched it makes you gay.

Confused? Consider the last six sentences a preview of the aforementioned grand post, which will explain everything, or.... nothing.