Judges Gender and Their Skating Preferences

[rack]

I was thinking last night about skaters and I began wondering if gender affected judges' opinions of them. We've all read or participated in threads about Eastern bloc and Western bloc judging, and Russian style vs. North American style. But has anyone looked at gender as a determining factor in judging? Is there a gender preference for power or flexibility or speed in any of the four disciplines?

I suspect an absolute determination would end up as long and complex as a PhD thesis (first listing specific qualities- height of jumps, depth of edges- then rating each skater by quality, then finding out how each skater was judged and then determining the gender of the judges), so I'm not asking for that. But if anyone has any thoughts on the subject, I'd certainly be interested in reading them.

[TashaKat]

mmm, I really don't know BUT each of the four disciplines are so different anyway I'm counting Ladies/Mens as two disciplines) so I guess that individual judges WILL have preferences though I'm not sure that it comes down to a gender 'thing' more a preference for a certain style of skating.

I'm female but prefer mens to ladies even though I prefer to see artistry than sit through a jump fest (figure that one out!) and even though I do dance I prefer to see a good Pairs couple than a Dance couple :?

My preferences are for power and strength, artistry, grace, flexibility and good basic skating! I suppose it's typical for a female to want her cake, to eat it AND to have seconds ;)

L x

[loveskating]

Hi Rack:

I'm not really sure about this, but I've often wondered if the whole costume issue -- which is minor, but can affect the presentation mark -- has something to do with gender bias. This is perhaps a much broader cultural issue having to do with "sophistication" vs. "the mass pop appeal" or whatever they are calling that these days...but I will never forget all the talk by Bezic re: Kulik's Pagliacci costume...which was totally appropriate to the music. Seemed to me when all was said and done, they were saying it was not macho enough, or that to be macho, it had to be in theatrical lighting. To me that implied a definition of "maleness" which is uniquely American and thus biased.

Mostly, though, I think its just personal preference, and the source of that for each individual is too complicated to decipher.

[Emilieanne]

Costumes are NOT as minor an issue as some would think. There have been a lot of costumes out there that I have not been crazy about, but they were appropriate for the music and well done, so no problem.

No matter what the style, I do know that judges do NOT like is anything that is distracting, poorly-fitting, poorly made, and so forth...no matter what the gender of the skater or the judge. Some of the dancers look like escapees from a very bad fright show. The paper shredder followed by the toilet paper factory explosion look that was so prevalent recently was a total nightmare. Judges also do not like to look at skaters that look like they are allergic to soap either. Judges expect a competition to be given the same kind of respect as a job interview...in other words, for skaters not to look like slobs!