Can I pick ’em or can I pick ’em?
Four years ago, I picked Evan Lysacek to win gold in men’s figure skating in Vancouver, and he did. The moment the new team competition began in Sochi, I knew that Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan would win the men’s gold. He just had the right combination of athleticism and artistry, focus and looseness – even if his free skate was less impressive than his short program.
Still, he was clutch while Patrick Chan of Canada, the three-time world champion, never seemed to lose his deer-caught-in-the-headlights quality. Just as some people seem to inspire confidence, others make you wonder why they can’t consistently come through when it’s all on the line. As NBC commentators Scott Hamilton and Sandra Bezic noted, Hanyu’s flawed free skate left the door open, and yet, Chan failed to walk through. Read more
Read MoreBoy, nothing says gesture politics – if I were less Jane Austenian, I would say F--- you politics – quite like skipping a major event, and when the event is the Olympics, well, the gesture is big-time.
So President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden will not be going to Sochi in a diss to anti-gay Russian prez Vladimir “Rootin’ Tootin’” Putin. Obama has also appointed Billie Jean King and two-time ice hockey Olympian Caitlin Cahow, both openly gay, as U.S. representatives to the games to underscore his point.
Some say there’s no place for politics in sports. Perhaps, but it’s there… Read more
Read MoreShould it surprise us that a man would think that an image of a naked/sexualized woman doesn’t objectify her?
In a piece for the “Gray Matter” column in the Dec. 1 edition of The New York Times, Yale psychology professor Paul Bloom states that images of a naked or sexualized woman don’t objectify her and that objectifying people isn’t necessarily a bad thing (as in sitting behind someone to block the sun). What makes pornography dangerous, he says, is the way it reduces people to their animal nature.
Fair enough, but I think the subject is even more complex than he realizes. First off, he confuses the words “naked” and “nude,” which the art historian Kenneth Clark brilliantly differentiates between in his book, “The Nude.” Naked is about reality and vulnerability. You’re naked in the shower. You’re naked in the doctor’s office. The people in a porno film are really naked, and they’re really having sex. Read more...
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