Part 4

Theme from Jaws.

Tessa must really love you because I think you need breath mints.
Also - that swift head turn gave me whiplash.

When I sleep with a woman, I don't play.

The classics never go out of style.

"Jesus Christ he fake bit my face."

I'd be lucky if Scott Moir even remembers my name after he goes home.

I'm not frigid. I'm focused.
Oh God, oh God, will my girl parts ever work!?

"I love my dog!"
"I love your dog!"
"Let's make a lot of space between us for the dog!"

I got nothin.
Casssandra: Show business even more exciting than I dreamed it would be!

It almost looks like I'm limply hand-jobbing a tiny wang.
(Not Scott's. His is ENORMOUS.)

Tessa and her sexless Liz Lemon slipper socks.

Tessa and her sexless everything.

I - I had to get out of bed this morning. There was a new message in
my email in-box. I saw another vehicle at the cross street when I reached
the stop sign. The orange juice at The Bag Lady had pulp in it. I think
I have to re-fill the gas tank in my car. My i-phone made a sound
when Marina texted. The security guard at the arena called
me "Tessa".

Next week:

P-Chiddy is straight but if he wants any poontang Scott says he
needs to go through Scott.
Oh - rilly?!

Part 3

The question has come up - what the fuck is the narrative for this reality show? Set aside agendas - i.e., showcase Moirville; reaffirm the platonic lie, make a few bucks since this is the sort of project available to them absent a legitimate sports management team like IMG and since the plug was pulled on the deal with Roots.

When you do a reality show, you have a narrative. Until now, the narrative in reality shows hasn't involved out and out lies. It's about reframing context and selective emphasis and sometimes pretending that something is hanging in the balance when in actuality, a decision has already been made or an alternative was never seriously considered - or totally made up.

The fundamentals are basically true; their presentation is radically skewed. Something not so important becomes hugely important/dramatic in the editing. Something routine becomes dramatized (i.e., how the racehorse Zenyatta's habit of staying in the back til she made her run in the stretch was turned into melodrama in the reality show Jockeys).

IOW, the common denominator among reality shows is the PREMISE is true.

I.e. - this is a family. Here's how it breaks down.

Or - these are jockeys and this is the meet.

Or - here are 24 eligible women and one eligible guy. We're going to put them through a lot of scenarios until he weeds the women down to the two he tells us he likes best.

This Tessa and Scott reality show is different. The premise is a hoax. The fundamentals are lies. It's the equivalent of having 24 happily married moms compete on The Bachelor as single ladies.

But it has a storyline. What the fuck is it?

I think I see a storyline, but it seems to be built on how Scott and Tessa believe they're perceived by fans. Which is = golden children. Everything's easy. All the talent. All the looks. All the luck. Natural chemistry not seen in skating since Gordeeva & Grinkov a generation before.

Tessa. Model gorgeous. Once in a generation talent. Guys drooling over her. An incredible dancer and athlete. Courageous, appetite for risk, all out commitment and an ability to immerse herself in performance at high stakes competitions.

So the story in this "reality show" seems to be - none of that is true.

a. Tessa isn't a golden girl. She's an insecure, absolutely exhausting, dreary, neurotic, whiny drama queen who can't cross the street without a crisis of confidence. She's got no sex drive and low self-esteem. She can't let anything fucking drop and is a complete pill. She's perfectly happy to let Scott cock block anybody who wants to date her because she's hoping that some day Scott will become masochistic enough to get with a girl whose idea of a good time is crying into her cell phone and having twelve meltdowns a day. She trowels on the make-up just to hang out at home in her p.j.'s. Her coach has to coax her like a baby to get her to try anything hard. The second she meets resistance, she crumbles. Everything with her is a chore: "Try the lift." "Noooooo." She's hard work for everyone around her. Also? Incredibly boring. Tedious as hell.

"I find responding. To emails. Heh heh heh heh.
Is really stressing me out."

b. Scott isn't a guy who has loved one woman since he was a child. Scott is the stud of Canton, Michigan, and, needless to say, London, Ontario. He's "hot and heavy" with his "pretty new" relationship, but if that chick has one doubt about his relationship with Tessa, over the side she'll go.

There's plenty more where she came from - plenty of girls are available to Scott Moir. He even decides if OTHER guys can get girls chicks. He's got the body, he's got the package, he's got the booty. Tessa's sweet and all, but Scott's a young guy with all the options, and to be honest, Tessa is a pain in the ass.

Chemistry is natural? Hah! They're numb to each other. They can't feel it. They've been doing this since they were children and they just can't react to each other anymore. The physical indifference has become an obstacle to convincing performance. They need a ballroom dancer to come in and coax them to feel each other up and take them step by step faking it til they make it. It's so freaking DIFFICULT. They STRUGGLE with their chemistry.

At least Scott can relax on weekends in London in his model home (I loved the recapper that called it that - the absolutely depersonalized space with the white plates set on the bare table - I think Scott and Jessica's empty restaurant dates had more versimillitude.)

What does this accomplish? Okay they have to work for everything - give them the gold?

They're actually not appealing personalities? Scott's peurile, patronizing and sexist - a wannabe player, and Tessa is hard work?

I'm pathetic. What if he doesn't show up? I should leave.
5 more minutes. If he doesn't show by then, I'm leaving for sure.
I'm such a loser. Why would Scott Moir even want to have dinner with
someone like me? He can have any woman he wants."

Well you can tell by the way I use my walk I'm a woman's man, no time to talk.

What's new pussycat? Hate to keep a pretty little lady
like yourself waiting.

How could you give your love to someone else
And share your dreams with me
Sometimes the very thing you're looking for
Is the one thing you can't see

But now we're standing face-to-face
Isn't this world a crazy place?
Just when I thought our chance had passed
You go and save the best for last

"Snap OUT of it Tessa! It'll never happen! I'm
just fooling myself!"

The magazine said to try this. Oh God.

"Tessa ..."

"Fuck. I blew it."

"You're embarrassing yourself. I'm sorry."

Also. This reality show suggests that Scott's near-lifelong devotion to and uber-sensitivity about Tessa must have absolutely chapped Moirville's hide, and, over the years, they let Tessa feel it to the extent she's compelled to counterspin the whole thing in this reality show. That is some kind of self-abnegation Tessa is engaged in in this program, and absolutely counter to reality. What was the problem? His family couldn't stand that he was so in love/vulnerable to this woman? It burned their ass? It wasn't manly enough?

Next Part 4 and conclusion.

________________________
Additional thoughts:

After seeing this episode, I hope anyone who bashed Marina when Marina alluded to Tessa's last season confidence problem now understands that when it come to what she says in public, Marina says what her skaters want her to say.

The obvious: Tessa and Scott have a three year old daughter. A female child. A pre-woman. A future "chick", right, Daddy?

In this show, everyone has agreed that this little girl's mother, a woman the Canadian media has held up as a role model, should portray herself as an asexual, pathetic head case so ruthlessly self-critical she's nearly paralyzed. She gets in her own way and taxes the patience of everyone at the rink from her partner to her coach to her technical specialists. She's discouraged before even making the attempt. She lacks the fortitude to even try. She has to be jollied, babied and shamed into doing it. She takes the blame for anything that goes wrong even if it's Scott's mistake.

Off ice, her self esteem is in the toilet. She has no sense of herself as a woman whatsoever. If there's anything attractive about her to men, she's oblivious.

Also off ice, her partner is involved in a "new" relationship that has progressed rapidly to "hot and heavy", so certainly the MAN in this partnership has no confidence issues. In fact, his girlfriend better be secure in herself because if she's not, she can be replaced overnight.

One reason Tessa is socially isolated is because, it is heavily implied, she has an unrequited yearning for Scott. The problem is she's way too irritating for him to see her that way, although he does feel a little sorry for her. He's just not going to give her what she wants - his romantic attention.

He will, however, control who she talks to, who can talk to her, where she can go and with whom, and he'll speak for her while she stands there either mute or giggling. Then he'll get smug about it when he talks to the camera.

So even though he's not romantically involved with Tessa, that doesn't mean he doesn't control her sexually and romantically.

That stuck out so much in that scene with Chris Mior. It was about Scott and Mior while the women sat there fucking mute, like potted plants, waiting for their fates to be decided by Scott fucking Moir.

Then I look at Scott and Tessa's careers. For the past ten years plus - Marina Zoueva. Different co-coaches and specialists, but Marina Zoueva. Igor Shpilband goes away and they stay with Marina Zoueva. Jennifer Swan is one of the authors of the ground-breaking, innovative Carmen program. Maria Mountain - is the revolutionary (literally) trainer who conditions Scott and Tessa to execute their elements. Marnie McBean is one of their mentors. Mary Branagan got Tessa through her battle with CES.

Who runs the ISC? Alma, Carol, Marj.

Are they proud that so many women have made such a strong contribution to their careers? Is Scott proud that he has probably the most talented, courageous, athletic, competitive partner his sport has ever seen? Is Tessa proud of herself in any way, shape or form - about ANYTHING? Is she confident about ANYTHING? Does she have competency about ANYTHING without first being pushed or cajoled?

Apparently not.

They're not proud of all these women. They're ashamed in the face of the public.  It's zero sum to them, apparently. All these women emasculate Scott.

They should look up zero sum. That's not how it works. All these women don't drain Scott's masculinity. It's just talented people working together. It doesn't have to shrink his balls.

But they seem to be ashamed.

So there's another great lesson for their daughter, along with all the other messages, overt and subliminal, she'll grow up experiencing. You can be a strong, accomplished, smart, in-charge, talented woman. Just make sure you act ashamed of it. It's like something out of the fifties where smart women were told to act dumb so they didn't scare away potential husbands.

Part 2

Marina lives in a renovated chapel? Cool.

"Jean-Marc is screaming, loud, he's so incredibly gay creative.
Jean-Marc is flaming crazy.
You need to know I recognize that.
I always recognize The Other."

I am secure in my sexuality and have no problem hugging him.

Wha..?

How did Tessa get the inside spot? I totally wanted it to be me.

Choreography by Jean-Marc Genereux.
Dialogue by Michael Patrick King.

I could totally act.

Part 1

I mustered the resolve and watched the whole thing, sound and all. Nobody warned me that it's dull.

First off, FSU needs to petition the W Network for screenwriters credit.

I amend my previous sight-unseen remarks to say that Scott looks fairly pathetic and insecure, and his overcompensation in his portrayal of Fake Scott is sad, and not only with the fake gf.

Tessa's doing something else - it's like she thinks people believe she's a hellacious slut, so this reality show is a rebuttal. She won't rebut with "I'm married to Scott." So, she's made her girl parts factory new and spends her evening in patterned pajamas, slipper socks and full make-up, reading a book and making healthy smoothies.

This show reminds me a lot of Jockeys, an American sports reality series that aired on Animal Planet in 2009. That also had manufactured storylines (i.e. the female jockeys fight for their place in a male sport and discuss the issue in expositional, over-literal dialogue among themselves), and the track caller who called the actual race was replaced by Animal Planet voiceovers pretending to call the race. For instance, back then there was a champion racehorse called Zenyetta, who had one way of running - last. She'd run last all the way around the track and make her move in the last quarter to eighth of a mile, run down everybody like a freight train and win sailing away. She never ran any other way, so when her races were called, the caller always acknowledged she was running to form, and he'd alert the viewer/crowd when to look for her patented move. But, on Jockeys, the fake race caller kept saying "OMG - Zenyatta is still last!" "The first half mile in 47 and change and Zenyatta is still last!" and the camera would switch to the jockey's girlfriend biting her lip and stressing. It had absolutely nothing to do with how the race actually unfolded, which involved the jockey sitting chilly on Zenyatta, not WANTING her to move til the end.

In the Tessa & Scott previews, it looked to me as if not only did they replace the music in the sd, they also faked the commentary. Also, they set it up as if they were disappointed in their Quebec short dance, never mentioning the huge score. It's so much like Jockeys I wonder if there's any production team cross-over.

Seriously, I'm sad for him.I mean - squee!

"So, do you ever think about the Olympics?"

"Dude, you didn't tell me the dialogue would be this retarded."

"If we don't win, it's a failure. And this
hair is already a tragedy."

"I've created a monster."

"I'm patterning my performance after Mario Cattone."

"Scott, do you ever get that not so fresh feeling?"
"No. I'm more concerned with how come this t-shirt gives me breasts."

"I kind of fucked up the twizzles and
I'm pretty sure it's because I was pushed off axis
by the weight of these eyelashes."

The Evil American Flag.

Grandiosity and limited personalities

You know how you can circle around something and not quite land but you're close? The reality show is doing that to me.

So I went to google with the idea of searching "Grandiosity and low self esteem" to see how much these two traits are paired. I typed in "grandiosity and", and low self-esteem auto-filled, so it's right up there.

Some quotes:

Grandiosity, or the delusion that you’re special and/or don’t have to follow the normal rules, underpins nearly every aspect of perfectionism

Tessa has spent how much time telling us about her perfectionism? Usually that's meant to trigger empathy - she's hard on herself, she's self-critical = humble, never good enough. But we've seen with Jessica, who also loves the label, that it can be a pretty histrionic, self-dramatizing self-description.

This next writer is a little florid and precious for me in the adjective department, but her descriptives do evoke what we see from Tessa and Scott, what they project and what's missing. I think I'll highlight what we see missing in Scott and Tessa.

And mostly, it got me thinking about the difference between grandiosity and self-esteem.

Grandiosity is a cover, an attempt to divorce yourself from pain through self-elevation. Self-esteem is an acceptance of your pain, your strengths and weaknesses, because you understand the incredible value of your very Being.

With grandiosity, you pursue your vision to the exclusion and detriment of your dear self and others. With high self-esteem, you cultivate your dream and garner the resources to make it happen.

Grandiosity makes you feel special, and separates you from others. Self-esteem connects you to others through your humanity.A grandiose brag is designed to impress, but merely turns others off. A high self-esteem brag is a celebration of one’s gifts.

The one thing we can CLEARLY see with Scott and Tessa, however we choose to armchair psych/spitball it, is a desire to separate themselves from others. Others as in - the common horde. There is no arguing that. We can see it from space.

On the ice, they've separated themselves. That's a given. They're extraordinary talents.

However, they and their community have an equivalent drive to separate themselves from others off the ice, and what they end up proactively doing is alienating themselves from others.

Alienation is one way of separating yourself out off ice and it's the easiest way. The 'elevation' part seems to be built-in due to their status as celebrity athletes and the public's lower status as fans,

I think the part that I'm not so on board with is the "pain" part. Who knows what they're compensating for, but a healthy personality isn't grandiose. I do know Moirville projects itself as having very restricted personalities. BIG doesn't mean full personalities. They have narrow-spectrum personalities that appear to be fixed. There's no development.

Tessa goes on and on about the wonder that is Kate, her mother, as if we have Kate to thank for all that Tessa has become. I don't think Kate does Tessa's skating for her, but she was influential in the development of Tessa as a person, to which I can only say, mother of fucking God. I don't think anybody has to wonder about the Virtues in this anymore. They produced Tessa. That's all we need to know.

I also went googling for the difference between "nice" and "kind" as I think Scott and Tessa both make no distinction, and there's a big distinction.

This is a second hand compilation of the difference I found on the web - it's schematic but it gets the point across:

Nice: adj; pleasant or pleasing or agreeable in nature or appearance; socially or conventionally correct; refined or virtuous

Kind: adj; having or showing a tender and considerate and helpful nature; used especially of persons and their behavior; characterized by mercy, and compassion

A “nice” person is one who conforms his behavior to what he believes society sees as “nice.” A “kind” person doesn’t necessarily care about what “society” thinks of him; he acts out of a deep-rooted love for his fellow living beings.

On the surface, this might not seem to be a very important distinction. However, when we look deeper at the roots of these two behavior patterns, we see two very different human beings.

The nice person is focused on himself – he does nice things in order to be perceived (by others and by himself) as a “nice person.”

The kind person is focused on others – all he wants is to relieve the suffering of the living, conscious creature in front of him.

When we dig deeper into these two “personalities,” we will find some extremely intense differences.

The core of a “kind person” is love. The core of a “nice person” is fear.
The kind person is strong. The nice person is weak.

P.S. - reading descriptions of the reality show below, it looks like Virtue Moir can't maintain internal logical consistency even inside a single episode of their own fan fic'd reality show. To wit: apparently Tessa goes on about how she's bad at flirting and she needs coaching from their choreographer about how to look at, touch, and respond to Scott (all of that, btw, sounds like Scott and Tessa have decided to use themselves as masturbatory aids for their fan base. NICE.).

FF to their poignant dinner and Tessa is rubbing her red stilletto flat against Scott's leg. Which is it, lady?

She's not good at flirting.

The reviews are in

Scott.

Not since this guy:

As for Tessa:

I'd say as regards this show, and in her public history, she doesn't ping on all 20. She really hits 1, 2, the first part of 3 (channeled in skating, of course, but also in lying and upping the ante), 4 for sure, 5, 6 and 7 (crying on cue).

She's got a lot of people running to see how many boxes she ticks lately. There's something amiss there:

1. GLIB and SUPERFICIAL CHARM -- the tendency to be smooth, engaging, charming, slick, and verbally facile. Psychopathic charm is not in the least shy, self-conscious, or afraid to say anything. A psychopath never gets tongue-tied. They have freed themselves from the social conventions about taking turns in talking, for example.

2. GRANDIOSE SELF-WORTH -- a grossly inflated view of one's abilities and self-worth, self-assured, opinionated, cocky, a braggart. Psychopaths are arrogant people who believe they are superior human beings.

3. NEED FOR STIMULATION or PRONENESS TO BOREDOM -- an excessive need for novel, thrilling, and exciting stimulation; taking chances and doing things that are risky. Psychopaths often have a low self- discipline in carrying tasks through to completion because they get bored easily. They fail to work at the same job for any length of time, for example, or to finish tasks that they consider dull or routine. *

4. PATHOLOGICAL LYING -- can be moderate or high; in moderate form, they will be shrewd, crafty, cunning, sly, and clever; in extreme form, they will be deceptive, deceitful, underhanded, unscrupulous, manipulative, and dishonest.

5. CONNING AND MANIPULATIVENESS- the use of deceit and deception to cheat, con, or defraud others for personal gain; distinguished from Item #4 in the degree to which exploitation and callous ruthlessness is present, as reflected in a lack of concern for the feelings and suffering of one's victims.

6. LACK OF REMORSE OR GUILT -- a lack of feelings or concern for the losses, pain, and suffering of victims; a tendency to be unconcerned, dispassionate, coldhearted, and unempathic. This item is usually demonstrated by a disdain for one's victims.

7. SHALLOW AFFECT -- emotional poverty or a limited range or depth of feelings; interpersonal coldness in spite of signs of open gregariousness.

The one thing that strikes me with Tessa is that her COMFORT zone is 1, 4, 6 and 7, especially. That's the unsettling part. Her comfort level is more with deceit than with candor. For ends justifies the means people, the focus, IMO, would seem to be the ends. The lies are the necessary evil. The blog has said many times that the tail has been wagging the dog where the sham is concerned, and for a long time. Tessa brightens up when she's lying. She becomes hyper glib and she doesn't know when to shut it and she also gets brittle in her facial expressions.

P.S. - I'm understanding they introduced Cassandra by teasing it might be Tessa. They really HAVE had a lot of douchebag pent up since they restricted their facebooks. Called that one.


_______________________________
*Here is where hiding a pregnancy while appearing and skating in public, the faked quad spasm at the 2011 4CCs, appearing on entertainment programs while pregnant to discuss one's platonic relationship with one's husband, and signing onto a reality show is somewhat explained. "Need for stimulation" "taking chances and doing things that are risky." This pays off (or would, in a fairly judged world) in their skating. Tessa obviously gets high doing it in real life. Maybe the "risky" part explains her appetite for pushing Scott to go further and further in physical demonstrations of affection with the pseudo girlfriend, as I don't believe he breaches any barriers Tessa doesn't push him to breach. She may get high the further he gets from the truth in public and that's why the ante keeps going up. Do more Scott.

What a pathetic person he is.

Moirville - 0

The reality show IS showing "The real Scott and Tessa." Like it or not.

Maybe not how he thinks though.

I just think that when he said "Like it or not" he's saying, SORRY, we're STILL not together. Sorry, I have a girlfriend. Like we're all still clutching our hankies over that one. That's another way this reality show dates itself. It's not 2010 anymore.

Really Scott - what is the real you people are seeing here? Are any fans crying themselves to sleep because for the seventeen billionth time we're told or shown he and Tessa aren't together?

How the fuck do you win this? What are they winning? How do you win against reality? You can't. What are they winning?

I don't know, I feel as if the real "like it or not" applies in a way Moirville doesn't care about or focus upon. I feel like there's not many tears shed in the fandom this evening over shamming on the W network.

Sure, watching this thing, a few dinners may repeat, but I think whatever sadness there is isn't over the pathetic acting out in Episode 1. The sadness stems from the losing struggle some fans have with trying to give Tessa and Scott the benefit of the doubt. Trying to believe their personalities reflect their character. They seem to have such nice personalities. There's a struggle some fans wage with the possibility that Scott and Tessa's personalities mask their character. If fans are losing anything, they're losing that struggle, not losing to Moirville.

And as usual this struggle - this fan reaction, also makes fans feel stupid and foolish. That's how it usually plays out with Virtue and Moir.  There's nothing like struggling to like, benefit of the doubt, or exonerate people who go far far out of their way to show everybody they WANT you to hate them. These people (Virtue and Moir and Moirville) do seem to want that.


It does seem as if fans aren't really good enough to like them, not good enough for the simple fan/athlete dynamic. Appreciation on that level is worthless to them.

Fans are something they use to assert their superiority. Scott and Tessa do it in their lies about fans (all during Carmen), Scott's recent remarks on the reality show do it ("Like it or not"). They're superior, so they need something against which to demonstrate their superiority. Scott and Tessa have skating for that, even as they lose at every outing to DW. What does Moirville have?

The fans.

So fans must be made to continually feel bad.

Isn't that the Moirville pattern? Isn't that ALL fans have been good for? Look at us and feel bad. We're smarter and better. Fuck you for caring, joke is on you.

I know a lot of fans struggle with hating the sham while liking Scott and Tessa, and I don't think that feels like a win to Moirville and Scott and Tessa.

Liking someone is a feel good sort of thing. They want people feeling bad. Making others feel stupid is their power trip.

I don't think this reality show succeeds, because people just aren't that stupid anymore, so that was and will continue to be a Moirville fail.

But it is sad. We see what they're doing here and why, and nobody likes feeling sad, so Scott's right, we don't like it. But not because of Cassandra. But because it's sad. There's no other word for it.

_____________________

Also, with this reality show, the second hand embarrassment is huge. You know how sometimes Scott is a little TMI on camera in Kiss'n'Cry's - those times (not in recent times, but past times) when he's trying to be slick or cagey but you can see the wheels turn from space and you kind of feel bad that he's so exposed and doesn't know it, cause he thinks he's being smooth?

The reality show is like that, only without the feel bad for them part.

It reminds me of this. A friend of mine was playing a video game with a little kid. A LITTLE kid (I don't play them at all, so this is a second hand description).  He was looking at his screen, trying to get his bearings before his opponent (the little kid) found his location and wasted him.  He looks over at the little kid's screen, and the kid's POV was - the kid was right there, watching him get himself together, waiting on him. It's like he's sitting there at the center of the target and the kid is just waiting out of fair play.

Moirville feels like this. Watch Scott enact his fake relationship in order to fool US. And fans are just - oh geez. This is who he is. I wish I didn't know. It's that stupid people thinking they're smarter than the people they're fooling thing, when it's actually the other way and they haven't figure it out yet.

It's like watching someone's fantasy, only in this case, it's the fantasy of driving that roller coaster. Or it's like the time the characters in 30 Rock fooled Tracy Jordan into thinking he was going into space by locking him in a capsule and playing sound effects outside while rocking it a little bit. Scott is Tracy Jordan with the "look at me and my girlfriend here."

Or like somebody thinks they're driving the roller coaster, but they're in a stand still cart while shit is projected on a green screen, but they can't tell, so they keep on bragging.