Transnationalism, Canadian Identity, and the Performance of Femininity in Elite Canadian Figure Skating

摘要

In 2002, a coach I interviewed proudly remarked that Josee Chouinard, a popular Canadian figure skating champion and Olympian in the 1990s, embodied "the essence of a respectable Canadian girl." As Canada's second-ranked sport in terms of television spectatorship and advertising revenue, figure skating has always been imagined as an important part of Canadian pop culture and identity. This is especially true for the many Canadian women who comprise the majority of skating's spectator demographic. Drawing upon anthropological fieldwork among national and Olympic-level Canadian figure skaters, coaches, sponsors, and journalists conducted between 2000 and 2002, this article focuses on women's figure skating, with special emphasis on my informants' comments about Quebecoise skater, Josee Chouinard.