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When I started this blog somewhere around early 2011 (I'll look at the archives later) fake news (a/k/a "propaganda") wasn't widely perceived to have been mainstreamed. Virtue and Moir's lies about their relationship was a seemingly home brewed enterprise that seemed equal parts "protect the privacy of the kids" and "give the hometown friends and family (and the spotlight hungry at Skate Canada, and the complicit media) something to make them feel involved and important." It was marked by an unnecessary malice and poor sportsmanship, tackiness and contempt that stood in unpleasant relief vis a vis the Moir & Co. incessant bragging about core Canadian values. It didn't have the most professional sheen. Many people outside any sort of fandom could see pretty easily what was going on. For those that knew what was going on for other reasons, it was like a two way mirror where you could see and hear people talking shit about you behind your back. "Oh, they can't hear us! We can mock them!"
When Virtue and Moir did their reality show, the blog noted that, apart from Virtue and Moir being ice dancers, "Tessa and Scott" stood alone in the universe of reality shows as complete fabrication. Not even the premise was true. I said the premise of other reality shows, from the Kardashian output to the various Bachelor iterations, were essentially real even if the format and plot developments were warped. I.e., - the Bachelor(ette) is an unmarried individual in a cast of other unmarried individuals. The Kardashians ARE a blended family. Etc.
I don't think that's the case anymore. Lots of things have joined the W Network's "Tessa and Scott" as a complete fake masquerading as a realish life narrative.
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1. There was a lot of pushback when Forbes named Kyle Jenner a "self-made billionaire." This for a young woman fronting what is essentially a glorified license agreement. The pushback featured a word that's become nearly radioactive (not to me, but to some) - i.e., "privilege." I know just seeing it and some people stop reading.
Don't be delicate. Be vast and brilliant.
That's officially (for now) Tessa Virtue's favorite quote. It's innocuous as a mantra for an elite athlete (although some day I'd like her to explain how one becomes "vast", or is able to choose brilliance), but as words to live by, it's insipid and exclusionary.
I'm not fond of the "follow your passion" truism - it's not real. It avoids dealing with or even acknowledging the many inherited privileges that make that pursuit possible for very few at a young age, while, due to systemic realities, it's out of reach for most people due to the mundane need to, you know, survive.
And let me say that's quite a favorite quote from someone as chickenshit - and procrastinating - as Tessa (and Scott) when it comes to something that would require real, non-instagramable maturity, courage, conviction, and honesty - outside the bubble of her sport where they exist as exceptional. It would require humility. They prefer the marketable kind of courage and passion.
Most people can't follow their passion (there was lots of pushback on the Kyle cover but this from "ManRepeller.com" was my favorite. It makes no bones.)
2. Read the below on tumblr from a woman claiming to work in pr - it's something we already know, but it nutshells things so well:
Do you want to know who the pioneers of “Fake News” are? The PR firms and the PR teams. We CREATED “Fake News” to sell you the truth we want to depict. “Fake News” is both a PR generated concept and a result of dangerous PR games.
This tumblr vent went on to say that the goal of ALL pr - her agency's goal, every agency's goal, is to make people feel bad. I think Virtue and Moir succeeded with that one (remember "Hi, I'm up and at 'em early on instagram on Scott's birthday solely to make the point that you CAN'T MAKE ME wish him happy birthday on this platform."). She CAN feel him up on a nationally televised reality show though, as part of their 2014 Olympic prep - isn't that sort of thing the primary reason one hires expensive ice dance choreographic talent?
They have boundaries only when they're not getting paid to to violate them. If someone offered them big bucks to come clean, they'd lose their scruples, I promise.
Virtue and Moir were little amateur trailblazers in the fake news arena, but there was a tidal wave right behind them and they jumped aboard.
Both Scott and Tessa do a lot of "empowerment" signaling (I ripped that off from virtue signaling, and how I hate the word "empowerment) while sustaining a ten year history of gaslighting their fans, who are mostly women. It's exploitation at its most basic, and built upon the inherent inequality. Nobody can argue that Tessa and Scott didn't manipulate and lie above and beyond, a hundred times over than what was arguably necessary to "protect" whatever they claimed they were protecting.
They were aware of what was being said by fans, and fed it back, even when it contradicted earlier narratives. They didn't have the common respect to account for discrepancies - it was always out with the old that we previously insisted you to believe, in with the opposite. Fans were like a bug you poke under a magnifying glass.
They were often uber-controlling, overheated and intense about it, trying to crawl into fans' heads, which I've never understood. They always made fans wrong, even about the skating (fans loved Carmen, Virtue and Moir claimed they didn't),.
I never understood why they needed to humiliate fans so completely. It's still humiliation even if the victims are unaware. What was behind the overkill? Maybe their competitive spirit, which shows itself even in an unequal contest. Or maybe it's greed.
Their fans are mostly women of a demographic that is probably least valued in north American culture, and therefore least respected.
From time to time, Virtue and Moir will issue a straightforward and sincere statement, as they did when Denis Ten's murder was reported. They did the same when they supported the right of women in sport to be free of predators. But IMO, it's not possible to really have it both ways like that. Their sincerity is poisoned. You have integrity, or you don't.
