Women On Ice: Feminist Responses to the Tonya Harding/Nancy Kerrigan Spectacle [Paperback]

Cynthia Baughman (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 19, 1995 | ISBN-10: 0415911516 | ISBN-13: 978-0415911511 | Edition: 1

The attack on Nancy Kerrigan at the 1994 U.S. Figure Skating Championships set the stage for a Winter Olympics spectacle: Tonya versus Nancy. Women on Ice collects the writings of a diverse group of feminists who address and question our national obsession with Tonya and Nancy and what this tells us about perceptions of women in twentieth century America.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Books about female ice skaters who compete (e.g., Chin, Fleming, Hamill, Yamaguchi, Trenary) are generally written for children. In this collection of feminist criticism, 18 women and one man focus on the social conditions in which women skaters conduct their lives as well as mass media stereotypes of such women. Editor Baughman (cinema and photography, Ithaca Coll.) provides an introduction to the attack on skater Kerrigan at the 1994 U.S. Figure Skating Championships that was media-cized into woman vs. woman. The glossary of skating terms and scoring techniques is helpful in coping with why Kerrigan missed winning a gold at the Winter Olympics. These are scholarly (notes, references, etc.) but definitely readable essays most libraries need in women's studies, psychology, and mass media collections.?Helen Rippier Wheeler, formerly of UC-Berkeley, SLIS
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

The soap opera from hell explained with a genderized twist. -- A Weekly
The contributors of Women on Ice, all aficionados of the forever up-and-coming academic discipline of cultural studies, scrutinize the Kerrigan-Harding wars in ways that have nothing to do with sports but everything to do with winners and losers in America. -- IN These Times, Dec.25, 1995
That these passages constitute bad writing is merely our opinion. It is arguable that anyone wanting to pursue an academic career should assiduously imitate such styles as are represented here. These are your role models. -- Philosophy and Literature
...most essays in this collection are are as intellectually agile, impudent and occasionally dazzling as one of Surya Bonaly's trademark backflips...There's also a nifty glossary of skating terms in the back of the book that'll be a must-have TV accessory for the next Olympics. -- Newsday, Sun.,Nov.19, 1995

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Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (October 19, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415911516
• ISBN-13: 978-0415911511
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,061,730 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #72 in Books > Sports & Outdoors > Winter Sports > Ice Skating & Figure Skating

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A powerful dissection of class and gender roles in skating., August 22, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Women On Ice: Feminist Responses to the Tonya Harding/Nancy Kerrigan Spectacle (Paperback)

this collection of scholarly essays examines skating as a field by focusing on the events leading up to the 1994 Winter Olympics. The essays are thought-provoking, and cover a wide range of topics -- from the role of the media in creating a spectacle of women's bodies, to an essay on the prominent role of fairy tales and fantsy in skating. Highly recommended for skating fans and those interested in sports culture.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Comprehensive scholarly essays of superb social analysis, January 12, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Women On Ice: Feminist Responses to the Tonya Harding/Nancy Kerrigan Spectacle (Hardcover)

This book is a collection of over a dozen essays from disparate authors (mostly women) on the Harding/Kerrigan debacle of the Winter '93-'94. Its emphasis is on the Social Analysis of what may often be referenced as a preeminent U.S. feminist issue and exercise to determine the "why it happened". As such, this book shines with countless thought provoking aspects that have references back to classic mythology and all the stuff of a consuming dissection. It blows this big media event apart discussing every aspect from dress colors, selected music scores to the class standings of these two women Olympians. If you just want a superficial book on skating, this may not be the book for you. But if you want to deconstruct the how's and why's of what makes the perverse part of human nature and society tick, with the skating included, this collection can't be beat.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The ugly side of figure skating!, May 24, 2006

By 

Sylviastel - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Women On Ice: Feminist Responses to the Tonya Harding/Nancy Kerrigan Spectacle (Paperback)

Until 1994, I was an avid figure skating fan. Then this whole debacle regarding Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan began. It didn't begin there. In 1992, the press particularly the american press fawned over Nancy Kerrigan like the next Dorothy Hamill. Even though, it was Kristi Yamaguchi who won the Olympic Gold Medal. Nancy and her blind mother received far more attention than Kristi and her win. Sad but true, the press treated Nancy like a princess because she was prettier than Tonya and Kristi at least to the opinion. It was no wonder that Tonya who skated and landed a triple axel something neither Kristi nor Nancy ever completed in competition was left in the dust. Then when Nancy's legally blind mother said her daughter deserved the gold in 1994, nobody pointed out that she was legally blind in the press. The 1994 Winter games also showed an ugly side to the beauty of figure skating. I saw something that I never saw before. I always thought that the figure skaters were like one big happy family but watching figure skaters like Kurt Browning, Scott Hamilton, and Peter Carruthers show their true side lost me completely to the sport. It tarnished my image. I have to say that forgiveness is not in figure skating. Thanks to Tonya's actions, all of those figure skaters became wealthy and treated her like a leper. In HOllywood, they would have easily forgiven her. I did and I still feel sorry for Tonya because Nancy has gotten everything because of her. Tonya's actions are forgiveable and I wish people would see that Tonya was herself a victim of spousal abuse. I wish Tonya best. I'm sad that figure skating has an ugly side of competition but the figure skaters could have shown some forgiveness. They tarnished their sport by being ugly human beings rather than forgiving ones.
Unlike Kerrigan or Yamaguchi, Tonya had no emotional support. Her relationship with her mother was estranged and there were accusations of child abuse which probably ring true to the person that Tonya turned out to be as an adult. She was in an abusive marriage to Jeff Gillooly who only saw dollar signs if his wife won the Olympic Gold Medal. Tonya's support system was lacking. She came out of poor working class Oregon. She had talent that she should have been a blessing instead of a curse. Her skating was the one asset that could have gotten her a better life. She made poor decisions but that doesn't excuse her but you have to understand why it happened. Of course, the Kerrigan camp could have simply called a truce and made peace before the Olympics instead they capitalized well on Kerrigan's situation as the victim. If I was in Kerrigan's shoes, I would have called a truce or cease fire rather than go to courts and allow it to go any further than ruin or tarnish the sport itself. For example, Mike Tyson, a convicted rapist, is still allowed to box while Tonya is forbidden to skate. There was a lot more ugliness in the sport that surfaced during this time. It's been 14 years and it's time to let this go.