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I keep wishing d**k Button would just retire. Unfortunately, I came across him judging a Canadian Skating related reality show today. Why all this hostility? d**k has been known to really live up to his name. He is one of the dinosaurs that hold skating back and his open misogyny has periodically made me wish I could slap him silly. I know he plays the grand old man of skating, and does the jolly old grandpa thing, but his obsession with the body shapes of young female skaters would be considered creepy in anyone's grandpa. He sits around mocking people for two footing jumps not thought humanly possible when Mr. button was still skating, all the while going on about how a certain young athlete is too fat and not pretty enough. Eeew. These are world class athletes in an incredibly competitive and complicated sport. Muscle takes up space. Expecting these teens to have size zero Balanchine bodies while pushing the limits of human skill and muscle and bone is unreasonable and creepy. notice he only goes after teenaged girls for not fitting his ideal body type. In a life time of watching figure skating, I have only seen him go after one man. (An older ice dancer with a visible pot belly). I wasn't okay with that either, but somehow, I doubt it was as damaging to the gentlemen making his last pass at the Olympics than it was to say 15-16 year old Irina Slutskaya, when he attacked her fore her weight every time she appeared in competition and for every other young girl who retained a bit of baby fat in her cheeks at fourteen or who's muscle develop and puberty combined to make them angular or curvy or anything but dainty little things with boyish hips.

On the upside, I see the Canadians have hired the charming Kurt browning to be a skate commentator for the Grand Prix series. He was in the first wave of the current level of jumping and he's genuinely a nice guy. It was so nice to hear him and his partner intelligently discuss training regiments and strategy, while periodically pausing to express genuine delight at someones excellent jump pass or what have you. there was discussion of whether the choice of music and choreography showed of the skater's strengths to advantage, but not a single comment about the whether the female skaters looked hippy or needed to go on a diet.