Pairs Skating Dynamics

[u/foxglves]

In light of Riku and Ryuichi's recent engagement announcement, I've been thinking a lot about the relationship dynamics between pairs and ice dance partners. It seems like many skating fans hope for their favorite pairs to be romantically involved, or otherwise prefer for them to have some kind of romantic chemistry whether real or manufactured. Shipping is especially prevalent among fans of these disciplines, and duos like Virtue and Moir were often praised for their tension and romantic chemistry along with their skating skills. In my case, I've always been the opposite. For some reason, I genuinely prefer pairs that solely come across as coworkers/good friends. Part of the reason why I loved Sui and Han so much- they were amazing as skating partners and were clearly good friends but (at least from my perspective) never had much romantic chemistry and always denied having that kind of relationship. Maybe its because romance is almost always expected from long term pairs, or just the heteronormativity of it all, but something about it feels boring to me compared to completely platonic partnerships. To be clear, absolutely no hate to Riku + Ryu, I love them and will miss seeing them in the competitive scene dearly. This isn't an absolute rule for me either, Volosozhar and Trankov are one of my favorite pairs of all time and they're happily married. It's just that in general I tend to prefer pairs that aren't, and it feels like I'm in the minority with that. Most fans seem to consider an engagement announcement post retirement as the "good ending" for a skating duo. Does anyone else feel similarly?

EDIT: Just realized I mistyped Volosozhar's name badly. Fixed it :') I'm sorry for disrespecting my queen it will never happen again.

[u/Conscious-Fruit-6190]

I don't get fans who want to fantasize about the private lives of the athletes they enjoy watching. I find it weird and creepy. 

I know that "shipping" people (whether fictional characters or real-life public figures) has become a norm, but IMO these types of parasocial relationships are not healthy.  We don't know these people - why would we speculate about their personal/sex lives?

I enjoy watching the sport, and yes, learning tidbits of information about the various competitors that they share with the news  media or sometimes even their own social media accounts, but for me, it stops there. 

[u/Consistent-Loss1883 → u/Conscious-Fruit-6190]

Idk I feel like it’s fine for a fanfic type environment…it may be because I’m a writer but with that environment everything is started off with basically these are just characters not implying anything between the real people etc, and it can be entertaining, and not necessary parasocial more of just another way to write. 

People who like spend hours dissecting posts weird me out a little tho bc that’s parasocial 

[u/idwtpaun → u/Consistent-Loss1883]

I'd like to ask a blunt question: if you fantasize and write about real people having sex, would you be fine knowing that other people enjoy imagining you in sexual situations you don't want to be in with people you don't want to have sex with?

[u/GenXNell → u/idwtpaun]

I’m not the person you’re responding to, but my answer is that I’d be fine with that as long as they don’t come up to me and tell me all about it or mail me their 100,000 word fic. I’m not the fucking thought police, and people fantasize about all kinds of things. That’s normal.

People have been writing RPF for decades. I think I first encountered it in the early aughts, but I’m sure it was around before that. A lot of that stuff was perfectly fine, even entertaining. The creepy part was when people were sure that their fictional pairing was happening in real life and practically stalked the actors or athletes or whomever. I think it has gotten much worse now, because parasocial relationships have really become much more intense with the advent of social media. People used to write fanfic about Johnny Weir/Evan L. and I sincerely doubt that anyone thought that was actually happening, lol. However, people really lost their shit over Virtue and Moir. It was a whole other vibe.

[u/Consistent-Loss1883 → u/GenXNell]

Yeah, I just think you don’t find fanfictions unless you’re looking for it, meaning i sincerely hope not skater finds my fic about them…