they outlawed this move just because she was the only woman who could do it.
Surya Bonaly was infamous for (among other things) doing a one blade backflip in the 1998 Olympics, and is the ONLY figure skater who’s ever pulled that off. Not just the only woman, the only figure skater PERIOD. There’s like all of three Olympic-class male skaters who did backflips in their routines, and NONE of them could do it one blade.
But wait, there’s more.
Backflips were banned from the 1976 Olympics onward on the official justification that skating jumps are supposed to be landed on one blade, whereas backflips are landed on both blades. The unofficial justification was it was too dangerous, both to the athlete and to the rink — if you didn’t land it perfectly, you could not only break your ankle, but also punch THROUGH the ice surface.
Surya Bonaly was openly contemptuous of the figure skating judges, because they were a bunch of openly racist white men who always screwed her over by giving her lower scores than she deserved. That one-blade backflip was her ultimate FUCK YOU! to the Olympics judges, because she took an “illegal” backflip and made it legal by landing it on one blade. Pretty much DARING them to mark her down for being epic awesome and pulling a move that their precious coddled white girls didn’t have the guts to even think about.
They did, of course. White racism knows no bounds. But she utterly owned them with that move.
not only did she do a fucking backflip and land, she landed then went right into a triple loop. like holy fuck
This is one of my favorite moments in “fuck you” history.
Sometimes, people laugh at translation fail. This translation fail made me want to brush my hands gently over the tiny grass and consider existential questions about my place in the universe.
This may be a story from last January, but we just saw it, and it’s pretty awesome.
A Japanese Twitter user found this going through her dad’s old stuff. Turns out he spent seven years drawing it in his free time while working as a janitor at a university!
Happy Korean American Day! This year marks 130 years of Korean immigrants in the U.S.
Seo Jae-pil, pictured here with his wife Muriel Armstrong in 1930, was likely the first Korean American, arriving in December 1884.
Nagasu went to the ice knowing she needed a solid performance to stay in the Olympic hunt, and she delivered it.
Skating second-to-last on Saturday, her movement around the ice was composed, powerful and confident.
Nagasu was a machine. Sure, there were slight hitches here and there in her routine. It certainly wasn’t perfect, but she fought through it all and refused to falter.
She completed her skate with what appeared to be an Olympic-berth-worthy performance.
So writes Bleacher Report. As far as we’re concerned, Mirai earned it. I guess we’ll have to wait and see what happens in Sochi to know if the U.S. Olympic Committee made the right call…
We’re deepening the #NotYourAsianSidekick conversation. Come participate in the next evolution.
Y'all I just pushed a new notyourasiansidekick.com live and I’m really proud of it and wanted you to see it.
I also want you to come to our first live forum online on Thursday! Info behind the link.
Mazie Hirono is not your Asian sidekick:
What are some of the other things you notice that are different for a woman than for a man, things that people who aren’t in Congress might not be privy to?
I’m pausing because every senator makes a huge difference. Regardless of whether you’re male, female, Republican, or Democrat, every Senate vote counts. From that standpoint, it’s not necessarily something that is a gender issue.
Right. So where it matters most, you’re truly equal.
But clearly, though, with the press, they seem to be really interested in the women of the Senate and when we don’t seem to agree on a path. I’m specifically talking about sexual assault in the military. [New York Democratic Sen.] Kirsten Gillibrand and I — and others — have supported a pretty significant change to the Code of Military Justice. [Missouri Democratic Sen.] Claire McCaskill has a different path. But we all agree that sexual assault in the military should be prevented and there should be prosecutions when these crimes occur. But there’s been a lot of press about why it is that we’re not together. I don’t think that’s an issue very much when men disagree.
It’s a very specific example of how the press still looks at our presence in this environment.
Years ago I found a 1950s article at the Library of Congress about [former congresswoman and Title IX author] Patsy Mink. The lede was something like, ‘the cutest politician you ever saw.’ So, one one hand, you think how far we’ve come, but then you still see coverage thatreferences women leaders’ haircuts and outfits.
Or how petite we are. That sort of thing. You notice that a lot more still with women.
