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Check how carefully Neal Karlinsky tiptoes through a minefield of sex-role stereotypes in his preview of next year's Winter Olympic Games from Vancouver for ABC. His story concerned the initiative by Skate Canada to change the image of the men's figure staking competition. "Canada says figure skating needs to get macho," was how Karlinsky put it. Karlinsky did not explicitly come out and say that homosexuality and machismo are incompatible or that only heterosexual men are masculine but he did seem to endorse Skate Canada's prejudice that "frilly, sequin-clad outfits" are harmful to "figure skating's image" whereas an emphasis on the sport's difficulty and its "grueling even dangerous" side would improve it.
By quoting gay advocacy group outsports.com as opposing the initiative and Canadian "figure skating hero" Elvis Stojko's conciliatory attitude towards "the gay guys that are skating or the gay public that is watching it," Karlinsky seemed to subscribe to the stereotype that strong, powerful skaters are straight and that graceful, well-groomed skaters are gay. The suggestion that gay athletes do not compete in difficult, grueling or dangerous sports is, of course, preposterous yet I think Karlinsky's report subtly made such an insinuation.
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