The "Toddler Moir" post chews Moirville's ass, while nailing Scott to the cross. The post blamed Scott to the extent that he can't say no to Moirville, but most of the shots are at Moirville:
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| All Moirville's fault! Poor, poor Soctt. |
I've also said that the sham photos show us things we don't want to be seeing, but that we can't avoid seeing.
Not what's in the photos, but what the photos suggest about the dynamics of the people behind the photos, especially when someone is aware of Scott and Tessa's actual status as married parents. Those dynamics are unpleasant.
I've decided to lift up the rock and look at what else might be crawling under there. How fangurl am I being with this, for instance? I was bashing Scott, sure, but for martrying/victimizing himself to the "real" villains - Moirville.
That does strike me now as fangurly. He is, as I've said enough times, 26 years old (in a few days). A big boy.
He's absolutely in love with Tessa, it's true, whom he's been with forever. Faithful to Tessa - we can see that even in the strictly observed boundaries of the sham photos:
 |
| The Rule of the Dolphin |
He's never kissed a sham girlfriend on social media with any more enthusiasm then he's using on that dolphin up there. And I don't think he's cheating on Tessa with that dolphin.
However, Scott doesn't progress to dolphin until he's been shamming over a year. And being in love with and faithful to Tessa doesn't preclude other dynamics in play.
It kind of comes off like the reason Scott holds back at first is because he and she don't know each other too well and he's not all that comfortable. But once he's warmed up, he decides he should be kissing them on the lips in these photos.
If it's that important for the sham, he'd muster up straight away. It's all performance, after all. Instead it's like once he's used to the girl, he steps up his game because he figures he's owed some perks.
He's been with the same girl (Tessa) a long time. In the kissy shots, he certainly is scrupulously flaunting his observance of boundaries - look at those chaste arms, the chaste posture, the chaste fish lips - so much so one might wonder what's the point, actually. It's almost like he's playing chicken there. Or a little protesty too much.
I.e., - Look what I'm doing! It's totally inside the ISU's own rules!
He does like to push the envelope on ice - why not off.
Scott IS a semantics guy. And math was his favorite subject in school. It just seems a little too "letter" of the law and not so much with the spirit, and he knows it.
The chronology of both shams does make one wonder. When things started with Jessica she's Bryce's girl, not the greatest English-speaker, the face slash heroine, etc. etc. and one imagines posing a la bf/gf is a little awkward.
A year later it's old hat and boring and what's in it for Scott? How about kicking it up a notch?
Here's what I'm thinking.
The sham with Jessica starts out like this:
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| Dube Family wedding summer 2008. |
and a year later, we're here.
 | |
| One of three dolphin kisses in a single photo op. The things Scott does for the sham. |
The actual kisses are no big deal, and in fact that's kind of the point - if they're no big deal, why bother with them? If they're no big deal, why wait to start kissing until you get to know the girl a little more?
If you wait til you get comfortable and only then start acting like it's important to be kissing, it starts looking like something else.
They're not a big deal for the sham but if you look at it from a really obvious angle it looks like it's a perk Scott wants once he's settled in and sure of his footing.
Shamming at weddings, concerts, holidays, group outings and vacations - so boring and he goes through it every year. A guy should get something out of it, even if just for his ego. And it's kind of Scott-clever with the way he's doing it - kissing the girl while signaling all things he's NOT doing at the same time.
A little having it both ways action.
 |
| Then. |
 | ||
| Now that he's settled in. Why shouldn't he get something out of this? |
This makes me a little uncomfortable. Where does Scott draw the line? Why would Tessa be fine with her husband getting anything out of kissing other women?
ReplyDelete6:24, this also makes me a little uncomfortable. You're right, where does he draw the line? Does this not ever bother Tessa that he's doing this?
DeleteThe idea is loathsome. This is the Scott Moir you want to believe exists? The one who gets his jollies by pretending to date a woman who isn't his wife? What kind of fucked up relationship do you think they have?
DeleteI'm just putting this out there as an obvious take on it. As he's not actually cheating - or even kissing them seriously, Tessa may see herself as sophisticated and secure. She's joked about him having crushes on various people, such as Reese Witherspoon. And she's a psychology whiz.
DeleteHowever, since I went after the overinvested, tasteless Moirville clan hammer and tong in the post below and since in that post I let Scott off the hook compared to them, I thought it only fair not to look at what else the pattern suggests and see if he doesn't have more ownership of the content than we're allowing. Again, he's a big boy and his brain does at least nominally function. He knows the smoochy stuff isn't a requirement to keep the girlfriend pretext going. And once you look at the pattern you can't not see it.
It doesn't negate his love for Tessa or his fidelity, it just makes it immature, vain and gross, and as usual we're the pretext for it, which is extra gross. I think they all have an exhibitionistic streak in them.
Here's what makes me curious - WHAT is uncomfortable? That it's been brought up on the blog, or the idea that this sometimes looks like a side perk for Scott? Like he feels he'll come off as a nun or something if he DOESN'T kiss them, or he wants to cross a legal line? Or that Scott's being a little exhibitionistic in a minor key?
DeleteThe thing is - we're not going after this. This stuff is aimed at us. Therefore I believe it's appropriate to look at how it comes across, not just how they intend it to come across.
@ 7:36 are you serious that this cannot be considered? Scott is the one going around LIP-KISSING and pretending to cuddle with women who are NOT his wife. Neither the fans nor anyone else forces him to do this.
DeleteSorry, but he brings it on himself.
He could, you know, decide to act like a big boy instead of like a guy getting his jollies from this game he WILLINGLY keeps going.
OC 7:38, that actually helps a lot with my own processing of this.
DeleteI think one of the hardest things for many (and likely many others) in trying to figure out why are they doing this and what makes them think this is ok is that I (others) have filters and instincts that they don't seem to possess or that they just out right ignore.
7:07/8:06 again.
Delete"Here's what makes me curious - WHAT is uncomfortable? That it's been brought up on the blog, or the idea that this sometimes looks like a side perk for Scott? Like he feels he'll come off as a nun or something if he DOESN'T kiss them, or he wants to cross a legal line? Or that Scott's being a little exhibitionistic in a minor key?"
No, the blog bringing it up isn't what's making me feel uncomfortable. It's the idea that this sometimes appears to be a side perk for Scott that's causing every bit of my discomfort. He is married. He is the father of a small child. Shouldn't there be some sort of filter kicking in? For most of us, there is a filter there. Our lines would be totally different, etc. The conflict between what most of us would do and what Moirville (Scott) is doing is uncomfortable.
Why would they continue with this game? Nay, not just continue but RAMP IT UP? This makes Scott look like some guy who can't keep it in his pants. Either he's fucking around on his wife or he just wants to show the world that he's banging a hot chick and screw you guys who think that he and Tessa are soooo cuteeeeee.
DeleteWe're months out from the Olympics and the hot topic of conversation about them isn't their programs or their skating, it's that Scott Moir may or may not be banging Cassandra Hilborn. WHY THE HELL DO THEY WANT THIS AS THEIR STORY?? And you know that they're just going to egg it on even further with the premiere of the series.
Or, more my point 8:04, he could go on as he begins, instead of escalating. It begins with basic photos that most every skater with a legit SO on facebook has - inoccuous present-as-a-couple photos. The fact that this approach remains the same for about a year and then abruptly switches to more exhibitionistic material makes you wonder why.
DeleteThe nominal reason for the sham - the public reason (meaning the reason they give out to all the little sham minions clamoring to participate, to the community members who aren't part of it, to everyone who knows) is privacy.
We all know that considering the skating media is synchopantic, simply denying they're a couple and saying they're dating others is plenty to take the topic off the table. P.J. isn't the only "wordsmith" who has to clear what she asks with Scott and Tessa. Think about that one. They are shamming to protect their privacy, presumably, in a media world where they get to approve anything they are asked (non-sports related). Even if they admitted the truth, that they're married with a child, they could still rule off questions they didn't care to answer, or all personal questions, for that matter.
But convention dictates that a certain degree of sedate shamming take place to bolster what one has claimed in public. That's it. It doesn't require THIS. This is absurd.
So it's not privacy. There is no logic test on this planet that can take the material the sham has pumped out to date and claim the agenda is privacy.
Of course, this being Moirville and VM, they go ahead and make a shitfest out of it - separate tactics on mainstream media than social media in full view of everybody consuming both, complete lack of professionalism and rudimentary respect, tons of pettiness, malice, mockery, sloppiness, stupidity, carelessness and pique.
AND we've seen that when they have nothing but privacy, in fact, at a time of year when all of the fans are talking about the skating, new programs, the coming season, the possible scoring, deconstructing past seasons ....
INCOMING! The first lip kiss of the Cass Zero Sham!
It's not privacy. The obvious - that it exists to occupy the groupies in Moirville, including some with close connections to Scott, a bunch of groupies that apparently have added new members now that the Hilbowns have enlisted and now that maybe some UWO girls haven't found meaningful employment -- is, well, obvious. The evidence of groupies crawling all over this is all over social media, including this blog.
However, that explains the tone of the sham. It doesn't really explain the content of the sham. Scott is a guy who by all reports and everything we can see, is very devoted to Tessa. Yet he still ends up escalating to delicate lip kissing just as soon as he and the girl are better acquainted. And we remember he's been with the same woman all his life.
I would like to point out that until this instagram hit instagram, we were all talking about the skating. The season is around the corner and everybody on this blog was buckling down to talk about the Olympic programs, DW's skating versus VM's skating, the ISU, the politics, what's ahead, blah blah blah.
They didn't put out this photo for themselves. They put it out for us. Why ignore that fact? The blog is here to talk about that stuff. It's not here to pretend along with the Moirs.
And to restate something I said above:
Delete1) this photo is aimed at us
2) we are perfectly entitled to look at it and see what's coming across, not just what they are trying to put across
3) it's not my problem that I know what I know - that he's married to Tessa and has a child with her, and so therefore when I look at this photo I know it's not his girlfriend, I see the sham production differently than someone who doesn't know or believe, and as the photos aren't what they pretend to be, what the hell are they? A sham, yes, but why is the content what it is?
Some people who want to keep the sham idea going think it's really rude or something to know that Scott and Tessa are married, instead of going along and pretending to be an idiot. It's funny they don't mind being rude themselves.
6:24 - I think Scott is demonstrating in the photos where he draws the line. He's practically showing off with it. What I'm asking is - why does he need so many demonstrations?
Delete<<<<<We're months out from the Olympics and the hot topic of conversation about them isn't their programs or their skating, it's that Scott Moir may or may not be banging Cassandra Hilborn.<<<
DeleteYEP. We were talking about skating and they decided they wanted us talking about this. See how craaazzzzy fans are? We don't care about skating at all! We're obsessed with Scott and Tessa!
It's making them right - they obviously care about that and that alone. Of course their case is undermined by the fact that they're proactive and they INSTIGATED it, and the only reason the conversation shifted was because they dropped the photo because they WANTED to change the conversation to this. It doesn't suit their agenda (fans are psycho) to have fans talking about Scott and Tessa from a skating point of view.
"It's making them right "
DeleteThat's what I hate about this. It is, essentially, gaslighting.
Because at the end of the day, what happened? There's a picture of Scott kissing another woman and we are freaking out. We're freaking out because he's a married father and we know this is intended to bait us. But we're not supposed to know that, so it just looks like "SEE! All the shipper fans are freaking out, because Scott is kissing someone that's not Tessa! These people are obsessed! THIS is why Scott and Tessa need to protect themselves!"
And then you have PJ acting completely oblivious "oh a fan contacted me to tell me the young woman is not Tessa" oh gee golly, now, hmmm, why would that be relevant? Oh yes, because he's married to Tessa.
So - try to make people believe something other than what's plain as day, and then when they get mad about the lying, use that anger to justify the lie. Total gaslighting and circular reasoning. Just like OC said, we were all talking about the skating.
8:12 up there says it him/herself, and I quote:
DeleteWHY DO THEY WANT THIS AS THEIR STORY!!
This is another thing that ought to be pointed out to PJ and to other journalists. This is EXACTLY what they do.
They don't WANT us talking about the skating. They want THIS AS THEIR STORY. Look at those intensely interested skating fans! And look at the timing of this - the high performance camp, the announcement of DW's programs, the Olympic season about to start, all the message boards, including VM's, talking skating.
BAM - first liplock pic with Cass complete with cheerleading hashtag from tastefully attired pal!
Then they can pretend that even with the biggest season of their career about to start, all fans care about is the personal life.
However the bait is out there on instagram - it didn't start with fans. They DID "want this as their story." That's a good question for PJ - see if she pretends fans are only interested in Scott and Tessa's personal life, or if she acknowledges that Scott and Tessa themselves want this as their story.
It's total manipulation, but this time I think it was overobvious because nobody was talking about their personal lives until Moirville very obviously set about trying to get people to discuss it.
But WHY do they want this as their story, I just don't get them, they didn't stay in another grueling four years for anything but the skating, so why wouldn't they want the attention on that? :(
DeleteIt's the good money after bad theory. It's about all the shamming they've already done.
DeleteThis group has shammed for SIX FUCKING YEARS. Scott has lip kissed two different women, posed all over the freaking world with them, they've done this up extreme and involved the entire community - and at one point, all of what passed for Skate Canada's marketing, communications and business development departments was primarily focused on facilitating, staging and planting items about this sham.
There has to be a good reason, right? It can't be busywork for a bunch of self-important assholes, can it? I mean six years - seven now - of lies and ridiculous charades, posturing, interviews, blah blah blah, all because fans have an intense interest in VM's special relationship.
How awkward if it turns out the fans were mostly interested in the skating all this time.
Follow? :)
Great post oc. It is time this was mentioned.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, that wedding picture with Cassandra came from this wedding in Calgary, this past 25 May.
https://www.facebook.com/shylo.harvey/media_set?set=a.516178681769600.1073741828.100001324190410&type=3
Yep. The Moirs flew Cassandra to Calgary just to attend a wedding.
It's ramping up to kissing, yes. This other stuff, like sitting next to a woman who is not his wife - on purpose, as his "date" - during an occasion most in-love couples would consider sacred is almost as disgusting and disturbing as the lip-kissing. There's a real problem with boundaries with these people.
Why would they do that? At what point will everyone have to accept that Scott is not married to Tessa and is, in fact, dating Cassandra?
DeleteHe is, in fact, married to Tessa and they have a child together. He isn't dating Cassandra.
DeleteThe comments section guidelines are loose, but the main one is no bullshit. No piggybacking alternate theories onto the comment section, which is what this is. No I'm bored and I think I'll fuck with the blog, or my weekly mood swing has kicked in and I'll chew on it in the comments section, OR, no, I'm new to this but I think I'll drop in on the blog and conduct my own, separate conversation.
Address me if you like, but this other shit where the blog and the blogger are the TOPIC in the comments section is bullshit.
We can't address you. You won't listen to anyone who isn't 100% dedicated to this fantasy.
DeleteBut you want to have this conversation among yourselves HERE?
DeleteAs it's not a fantasy, but a fact that Scott and Tessa have been married nearly four years and have a child, no, I am not going to pretend, just to humor people with the fuse of an infant, that the facts aren't facts. Sorry. Does it work like that with facts where you're from?
But I'll say something else - are Cassandra's friends PISSED that people don't believe Scott is with her? Did they think because they rated her as hotter or prettier than Jessica that people would go ahead and not know what they know?
There just seems like a lot of selling of Cassandra by the additional members of this sham effort. I would like to think that those who sell her by ripping down Tessa have no connection at all to the Hilborns.
They don't have any connection to her at all. Cassandra and her friends are content to just ignore that Tessa exists -- the tearing down of Tessa is being done by no one with any connection to the Moirs or this supposed sham.
DeleteI can see who is doing it - when it's one and when it's multiple and when it's one working both sides - just by looking in the background of the blog.
DeleteI get that and that's fine. I'm not trying to hide anything. I'm just as confused as the next person around here and trying to find answers but none seem to be forthcoming.
Delete8:52 - you will forgive me if I'm assuming something, but I think what you're trying to find is PROOF. I have never said how I know what I know for a fact and if that's what you're waiting for you'll be waiting awhile.
DeleteI can give you one answer here - Scott and Tessa are married. They have a child. That is a fact, I know it for a fact. You don't have the proof of it - those are separate things.
Answers to WHAT exactly? How two people can be married with a child and yet the sham? Not "A" sham, "this".
No logical universe supports this sham existing because of privacy from fans and the media, even though that's the reason they give out.
So we have to look at actions/behavior and that's what the blog has been doing. We can draw some conclusions from that, that's for sure, BUT, the psychology behind it we can only guess.
This post about Scott is more about getting off psychologically - vanity, ego, experimenting, exhibitionism, whatever. It's completely legitimate speculation - after a year they drop this in our laps. It's aimed at us. We've speculated about Moirville; now I'm speculating about this. If it were any other guy it's the first place we'd go. It's very basic. Ha ha ha a little harmless fun - why shouldn't the guy have a little fun.
I'm speculating that its root is psychological because after all he'd have to be a bit younger than 26, and a lot less experienced than a married man and father, to be literally getting any serious sexual thrill out of kissing a girl like she's a dolphin. But other thrills, sure.
Yes. How can Scott love his wife and child and do this.
Delete9:11 this is extremely fucked up.
DeleteI did this post because when I thought about it we're talking about a grown man here who does have this pattern. It was kind of obvious.
At the same time, it bears remembering that Moirville has patterns along with Scott, and the season is about to start, AND they are doing a documentary whose press release alluded to the "intense interest" of fans in their personal relationship. It's also an Olympic year. This is one of the few times media outside the usual suspects pays attention to figure skating.
Does it really serve the Moirville's extremely righteous perspective - the perspective they're selling- to have fans animatedly discussing actual figure skating at this time? Like real sports fans?
How do we get their attention and get them to act like foaming at the mouth overly invested nutjobs?
Incoming liplock. As the banner noted, the cardiogram in the Cass sham has been a little flat, and it's a bit hard to justify all this shamming if your audience isn't paying attention. If your audience is acting like sports fans, not fangurls.
High Performance camp is next week too.
And for them, mission accomplished - the talk has switched to his personal life!
Except not really. The fact that this is calculated to provoke a response doesn't change the content of the photo and Scott's part in it, and I think it's a little problematic that they actually set out to provoke interest in his personal life exactly at this moment. They've got their hand in the cookie jar with this one.
So if the kissing photo was put out as a "gotcha" about the blog's banner, which is believable given the timing, then what's the "gotcha" for comparing the kiss to the dolphin picture? Public groping? Tequila shots off her stomach? Topless beach photos? Sex tape? Subtle pics of Cass sporting an engagement ring and reviving that pinterest? A baby bump?
DeleteTen bucks says they'll go the engagement route. it's already out there.
DeleteWell, this post has given them a boost by speculating Scott may consider kissing these girls a perk for his ego, experimental side, etc. They might prefer that to just blowing off the photo as the kindling it is obviously intended to be. At least it's a reaction to the content - it's not being dismissed.
DeleteIf they did decide to one-up the dolphin photo, that's up to them. What I think is important is that however uphill it is, that it is pointed out outside this blog, and wherever possible that Scott Moir and Tessa Virtue attempt to change the subject to their personal lives whenever the fans talk about skating, and this instagram is Exhibit A of many many many prior examples. I think it should be put in the faces of people like PJ, Rosie DiManno, Pyette, and anyone else who comes out and acts as if Scott and Tessa are actually reacting to fans when this time they have made it clear as day they're instigating.
How Scott can love his wife and do this is one thing. How he can love his CHILD and do this is another.
Deleteat anon 6:45 pm
ReplyDeleteYou're expecting the blogger and her sycophants to act rational? Have you not read this blog? It's anything BUT rational, mature adult thinking.
It's full-on obsession, no doubt Skate Canada is aware of and probably has undercover security around V/M. Just to make this "fan" doesn't take it beyond the virtual world.
No kidding. I'm not sure what her angle is or why she's so set on trying to force this onto people. It's fairly obvious to me that Scott has no interest in Tessa outside of being her partner. So, the women he chooses to date don't live up the lofty standard of Tessa Virtue but obviously he doesn't want someone like Tessa or else he would be dating her.
DeleteYou know, this sham has a LOT of groupies - a few examples above. They're really really into it, and they feel entitled to project their contempt onto people they're actually spinning with lies. The whole thing is ugly. That's the most uncomfortable part of it all - what it says about the visitors up above, that most likely they know the sham is a sham.
DeleteThe entitlement to MOCK people you're hoaxing is sort of a new angle on p.r.
But very very typical of Moirville and the new cast members for this sham, especially. Since the contempt has been their from day one, it must be default and nothing to do with Scott and Tessa's privacy. Just everyone not one of them is fair game.
DeleteI'm not Moirville. I don't even live in the same fucking province as Moirville. Why does it anger you so much that someone has trouble accepting what you say?
Delete^Oh please with that.
DeleteAnd act out somewhere else.
At the end of the day, how is this ANY of your business? Answer that question for me.
DeleteIf it's a sham, it's a shame. Fine. Still NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS.
Of course it's our business - it is aimed directly at us!
DeleteSeriously that's like asking how an ad for New Coke is any of our business.
Furthermore, we are fans of the team and the skaters and their connections routinely lie about fans on line.
Asking how a freakin sham targeting fans is the business of the target makes no sense whatsoever. How come you can't answer that for yourself?
We have a choice - those of us who know they're married can ignore how we're being treated or we can call it what it is. Your tone implies that we should be POLITE when we, as fans, are treated like garbage.
"Of course it's our business - it is aimed directly at us!"
DeleteAmen, OC!
IMO, it became our business when they started scapegoating onto we fans and gaslighting us. They drug us into this, therefore, they made it our business.
On a different note, I'm also a big fan of P/B. The way they treat their fans is entirely different. There is genuine appreciation that comes through instead of contempt.
If you're angry with how you perceive you are being treated, I don't see how devoting a blog to their PERSONAL PRIVATE LIVES is going to help your cause-- other than drive them further away.
DeleteAs fans, you get to watch them skate. Maybe meet and say hello. Maybe get a signature. That's how fandom works.
That does NOT mean you get to be privy to their personal lives (unless it's on THEIR TERMS). That does NOT mean you get to intrude, post their pictures, stalk their tweets. If you don't like THEIR terms, tough shit. It's their personal life, NOT YOURS.
You come off as those crazy fans who start stalking movie stars because they feel that the star was "talking to them directly."
Seek some therapy. You sorely need it.
But the fandom is happy to focus on other things. The tweets and pictures are there solely for our consumption. It's not "intruding on their personal lives" once you understand that this isn't their personal lives. This is something that was concocted for just this purpose. It isn't intrusive for fans to look at it, it is the entire point of its existence.
DeleteAnd the corollary to your argument is that if T&S want a private personal life, they oughtn't be publishing books and interviews about their "special connection" and posing as husband and wife in a magazine. Those aren't related to skating either. They cultivate that interest, then put out sham material to discount it (and the fans as crazy). They're the ones that have thrust this particular topic into the spotlight for discussion. Not every skater does this.
10:05 you're exhibiting the disproportionate hysteria, projection and complete lack of logic that characterizes blog visitors who show up just to have a fit because they've been frustrated in some way - usually in an area of control or bullying. And also, if I may say, a lot of laziness.
DeleteLack of logic - the blog can't be "angry at how we're being treated" AND be exposing their private lives at the same time. If these tweets, instagrams and photos were actually their private lives on display, there would be no mistreatment. It would be just another athlete douchebag acting in questionable taste on social media - no news there, nothing really to be mad about. The blog wouldn't be here if this material were their private lives.
It's not their private life. It's their public life. It's them directly manipulating the public, sidestepping mainstream media (where there would be some accountability) via social media (where for people as low ranking on the sports/celebrity scale as ice dancers, there is no accountability).
What part of their private lives has this blog revealed? The blog has revealed their status. They're married and they have a child. That is as basic a set of facts as there is, a status they have in common with billions of private citizens. It's not intimate information.
This blog has not discussed their private lives. It's discussed how they have hoaxed the public by proactively manipulating the public on the one hand and reaching for their wallets with the other. It has discussed how they've lied about the public, constantly lied about the public. Easy for them to do as it's been observed, maybe for the first time, in at least a few quarters outside this blog that the skating public is treated like absolute garbage by people inside and outside the sport.
Fans are NOT obligated to sit around and pretend to be morons. I know for a fact they are married, this is a fact known by much of the media that is around figure skating and it's known by the majority of what we may as well call the international figure skating community and its various connections. I knew this well before the blog ever started. Not only Scott and Tessa, but some of the media have smirked and winked at this supposedly very sensitive, very private information, having a laugh at the expense of such an easily duped demographic.
Scott and Tessa and their connections began to stir the shit with fans on purpose, to bait them so as to get them to react, and then to mock them once they reacted. They are the ones violating their own private life - their sense of privacy is purely situational and opportunistic - if there's something in it for them the veil drops and the tease ensues, strewing bait left and right. When there's not, they hold forth pious in the media about fan overinterest.
This blog is not concerned with their private life. This blog is concerned with their behavior in the public realm - their manipulative, self-serving, exploitative treatment of the public, and the reasons behind it.
You are clearly unaware that social media is the public realm and that Scott and Tessa and their connections know this perfectly.
I can call this behavior what it is because I know the status of their actual relationship. I am under no obligation to enable their behavior by pretending I don't know what they're doing and how they're treating people.
You are being a complete idiot ranting about social media output - tweets, facebook, instagram, that exist ONLY to be seen by and reacted to by fans. None of those photos are of their private life. They are as much a construct as a skating performance, although of course a great deal slimier and shadier, but still a construct, not reality.
Scott keeps his actual private life off social media. He puts his scam on social media, aimed at us. Ergo - our business.
At the end of the day, who cares? Why are you so invested in this? If this is a "scam," turn the other way and just enjoy the skating.
DeleteYou have that choice. You simply choose not to because that would make this blog completely irrelevant. You would lose the recognition, admiration, and validation you get from your readers. Can't have that now, can we?
Anon 5:33. I have seen lots of comments lately saying the same thing. Well you know what, since none of the sham bothers you and you think it's irrelevant, you can follow your own advice and choose not to read this blog.
DeleteI choose to read and I appreciate the blogger chronicling Tessa and Scott's lies because I AM a fan of Virtue-Moir and a fan of their skating and I WILL NOT roll over and play dead and step aside to politely let them bs me.
I (the fans) am not the one running a hoax on social media nor baiting and gaslighting people who care about me just because I can. This blog chronicles someone else's lies. It's on them to stop being assholes. It's not on the blog nor the blog's readers to stop calling them out and/or turn a blind eye to what THEY are doing.
I'm glad this dialogue has opened up. I'm really not comfortable with the narrative that this is all Moirville needing something to do or asserting ownership over VM or that lying keeps them from getting all into VM's business. If VM didn't sham, what exactly leverage would Moirville have? What would they talk about - Tessa can't cook, Scott's favorite sexual positions? Can't they spend their time on Believe shirts and gold tournaments, which actually make them money?
ReplyDeleteAnd poor Scott is just too exhausted or too much of a pussy to have this fight, so he begrudgingly gives up and donates much of his precious off time in the Olympic season to run paint marathons and go to concerts with some random chick instead of be with his little family? I just don't buy it.
If Moirville has leverage over Scott it's because of the secrets and lies they're perpetrating. If he doesn't want to deal - just tell the truth. Or at the very least, say no to shamming this frequently. He doesn't even need a quarter of the Cassandra output he's done to have people believe this is the gf. People were believing it at Skate Canada, what, 10 months ago? Based on one or two fuzzy photos. One or two more photos in the year would suffice plenty. She isn't even a skater. People wouldn't expect to see her everywhere.
I've also read speculation that Tessa is the one who wants the sham to go on, so Scott falls on the sword and does all the work.
I am going to go with the simplest explanation - Scott is the one out there hustling, so SCOTT is the one who is invested and getting off on it.
It's clearly not a physical attraction (love the analogy to the dolphin), so what is it, the attention? If I were Tessa I'd be less angry about these platonic kisses and more angry about having to focus my whole life, all my travel, and seating arrangements at the family weddings around this bullshit... but since this is happening, I can only believe she supports it.
Look, very obviously there are dynamics at work here that go beyond the pragmatic. I think we can all see that. This is a lot of fucked up. The timing of this is to justify all of their sanctimonious posturing about fan interest in their personal lives.
DeleteHowever, the fact that Moirville is occupied with this does buy Tessa a certain amount of freedom - if the Moirs are managing Cassandra at some big wedding, for example, including Scott planted next to her for one photo, as Jessica as been in a past wedding photo, Tessa is exempt from attending. Otherwise she'd be going or Scott would be going by himself - and what would be her excuse not to go? This way she skips an event that has half the world up her ass. That sort of thing. When there's some huge family event and Tessa isn't there and the sham is, that is something Tessa gets out of it, nobody's feelings hurt (officially).
I recall looking at Jessica Dube's facebook over the years, and Bryce Davison's sister was up her ass just about every single day Jessica wasn't shamming. Going back to the beginning. About elements, about costumes, about her mood and motivation. On the one hand one might react (as I did at times) with the idea that Jessica is a lot of work, and Ashley was just pitching in to help out Bryce. OTOH, it was overbearing, and this is just a sister. There wasn't any area where she wasn't pushing.
If we understood the numbers involved when it comes to Moirville - relatives alone - how many are Skate Canada, how many are skaters, how many go way back with Scott and Tessa and consider themselves part of this career, and how many have NO compunction about elbowing forward with their opinion about everything from costumes to their personal life to their health to their living situation to every other decision - directly to Scott and Tessa or to each other.
If you follow some skater facebooks, you can see that some connections of same skaters are extremely, EXTREMELY involved, pushing themselves front and center. Facebooks alone. I promise you can look at Moirville and multiply the aggression a thousand fold. All of them experts.
Yes, this is on Scott and Tessa of course. I think a lot of this post absolutely applies - there is no need for where this goes in terms of content - the sham can march forward without some of this content, and the agenda of provoking us is extremely, extremely feeble.
There's a lot of maliciousness behind it, and Scott is responsible for that as well. I remember when a discussion of the sham broke out on ontd_skating. At the time - as now - the only proper stance was to believe the blog was insane and of course Scott and Jessica were dating. One poster used to use a sham photo of Scott and Jessica every time they made the point - basically in place of a HAH.
continued:
DeleteI want to point out a few more examples of why, while there's no excuse for this, family and community involvement can be beyond overbearing, particularly when the family/community is or was involved in skating themselves.
Going back to the faceslash, Ashley's reaction on Jessica's facebook was basically - this is just a bump in the road - don't let it derail you from your goals!!
Think how annoying that is. It's like being pregnant and having every stranger remind you not to drink alcohol (a woman I know experienced that at a restaurant when drinking water. A stranger passed and said "Non-alcoholic, right?"). It's not the advice itself, it's the conviction that the advice is needed, and it's how it's simply unrelenting.
Back when Scott and Tessa did TEB and Tessa gave an interview to a Russian fan/reporter, the subject of costumes came up. The interviewer clearly had an opinion they didn't so smoothly convey, and Tessa observed that "everyone has their two cents" about her costumes. She was working a mid-calf length at the time, and I can just IMAGINE the people who made it their business to let her know their opinion, and I don't mean fans.
So here we have in general a sport that appears to attract truly overbearing camp followers and groupies among the participants own family and friends. Suffocating. And we have a group - Moirville - that is both enormous and especially entitled and boorish about it.
WE are meant to be the scapegoat for their excesses on every front. They can do what they want - but for the media to enable it is, I think, insufferable. I think fans should speak up more overall - not just about bullshit in general but about how fans are treated by the skating world and the media that covers it in general.
One thing I will grant - that while Jessica and her friends did smirk and laugh about the sham "over fans heads" Jessica thrived on and appreciated compliments, attention from fans extended to her on social media, and responded in a way that encouraged more of the same.
These people - the ones involved now. Are old brats. They should have grown up a long time ago but they haven't, and since they're not doing anything meaningful with their lives, they're extra invested in this even when actual sham isn't going on. Jessica & Co. turned it on and off like a light. There was a clear demarcation between shamming season and the rest of the time. This group wants the party to keep going - it's the most attention they've had in years and they feel less like losers when they show off how much better they are than a bunch of fans and supporters of Scott and Tessa's skating.
I also find it telling that Moirville WANTS to alienate the supporters of Scott and Tessa. I've heard of being possessive but they take it to a new extreme.
That is fascinating. I'm 9:43, and you've given me a lot of insight to mull over. I can see how they might all suggest sham stuff while being told the personal life and skating are (mostly) off limits. Then they can interface with Team Cassandra or Team Jessica instead of Tessa and Scott, and Scott just shows up at the appointed place (although like you said, the content is on him). I never thought that Tessa might actually like the sham dates so she doesn't have to attend family events, lol. And if the fam is ok with that, I wonder how much they really like Tessa.
DeleteSurely other skaters have had to navigate large skating families without going through with a scheme like this. In Piper Gilles' case, it seems like her family rallied to support her goal of citizenship, instead of working against her... if only Moirville had a positive goal for something that would help VM.
The suffocating intrusion isn't a matter of liking or disliking, it's about the need of people to have a piece of Scott and Tessa. At a large event like that wedding Tessa is a sitting duck. She's more of an introvert than Scott. An introvert isn't some fragile flower lacking social skills. An introvert is somebody who is fatigued by a great deal of social stimuli, particularly stimuli directed straight at them, an introvert is someone who processes an experience very quickly, and revives when they're alone. Piper is someone who obviously thrives in the spotlight, personal and profesional.
DeleteWhen Tessa is at a big family event she is a sitting duck. I mentioned Ashley Davison below in my observations about her interaction with Jessica on Jessica's facebook. Some of the areas Ashley felt were her business were, IMO, pretty pushy. I didn't see Jessica pushing back. She was all yes Ashley, thank you Ashley.
And that's just one person.
Multiply that a billion times when Tessa is in-person at a community of family event. I suggest fans use their imagination, and also tap into their own impulses as fans and what they've seen of fan behavior and READ of fan behavior, even self-described, and picture what it would be like to experience that in your community.
This is very common but not in the numbers that is experienced in the Ilderton skating community, and not in the circumstances where so many are themselves involved in skating and feel a personal stake in VM's results.
If fans just ignored the "sham" then it would lose all of it's power. The focus would have no choice but to return to the skating. The analysis of which, by this blog is excellent.
ReplyDeleteHmm, new sham. Well done Scott https://fbcdn-profile-a.akamaihd.net/hprofile-ak-frc3/c60.60.752.752/s160x160/1236133_10151873794466318_1712558083_n.jpg
ReplyDeleteCharming.
DeleteDisgusting...ridiculous...even if I don't believe he is married...sorry
DeleteIs anybody pointing this out to the media or is everybody just talking about it here? This is something very obvious that Scott is doing right before high performance camp - this is meant to stir the shit.
Delete5:10 - if you don't believe he's married, why would you think the photo is disgusting and ridiculous? I think it's ridiculous as well, but they can always excuse it by pretending they are pitching it to their target demo, and this is the kind of stuff we understand. Just like when skaters justify their music and program choices by talking about how lame the demographic is.
I'm 5.10
DeleteBecause Scott tells every year that he is not on social media...but actually he is on social media only to mock the fans. Moreover i don't think that this is good for their professional image...but obviously he don't care
Oh but what's more professional than playing kissy face and grab ass with your gf and having the pics posted for everyone to see? I agree with you 5:31...he's not with Tessa and sure enjoys rubbing that in everyone's face.
DeleteI, personally, think the photo just looks like grab ass and is more inadvertant than intentional - a fortuitous action shot captured en route to taking a regular kissy face shot. Which doesn't change the fact that it was posted to look like ass grabbing and frolicking.
Delete5:10 - and what the Moirs do on social media is, P.J. notwithstanding, something everybody who covers figure skating pretends not to know about.
DeleteThey've created a construct of Virtue and Moir fans and we're supposed to play that role. The ones who are inappropriate and entitled is them. The more this goes on the more we can see what an extremely, extremely small actual number of very invested Virtue Moir fans there are on the web. Very possibly the Moirville community outnumbers the fans these is ostensibly aimed towards.
What concerns me now, purely as a matter of fairness, is the fact that fans have no means of pushing back, no voice to call this out. Fans apparently shy away from proactively bringing this to the attention of the media, even though people who, for example, want it believed that Tessa was with Pelletier had no problem pushing that on the media everywhere and anywhere. But this, the supposedly aggressive and entitled fan base just sits there and takes it.
The pic is no longer her profile one.. now it'a color run family portrait ..
DeleteIf Scott is married to Tessa, this isn't a sham. This is Scott living a double life. So, is he really with Tessa? No. I don't think he is.
ReplyDeleteAnon 5:22
DeleteWe get it. Every single time a new photo or other sham activity is made public you will rush over here to say, "See? It's real--Tessa and Scott aren't together."
You can save your breath. Neither abundance of output nor amount of kissy-face changes the facts. This is a hoax. This doesn't say nice things about Scott & friends, it's no reflection on the fans however much they want to put it on us.
Well said, 5:59.
DeleteNo amount of shamming in the world changes the facts.
I think Miss Hilborn didn't like it being said it obviously can't be physical attraction. Now she has to prove otherwise.
DeleteCome on, everyone knows no one ever takes just one photo for facebook. People put up whole albums of every little thing. That's what Jessica did. Of course these guys have more than a couple pictures of each event. Any time they want to engage in a pissing contest there's sham stuff to choose from.
Eh, I agree they're the ones looking like immature morons.
That's great logic, 5:22.
DeleteYou find it easier to believe that both Scott and his family prefer the company of a fake girlfriend to his real wife? I don't have any special sources or know anyone who knows anyone and I did, for a time, earnestly believe that Scott was shamming it up on social media but now I'm just not so sure. I think he might just be an asshole and need some serious social media re-training.
Delete9:00 am, there's not a whole lot I can do to straighten out your thinking, but your thinking is ridiculous. What about the sham tells you that he must prefer the company of a fake girlfriend to his real wife? Do you recognize the number of assumptions that inform this statement? You think he's taking time away from Tessa to sham? You think that he spends more time with this girl to sham? What on earth informs that thinking? The existence of photos?
DeleteGoing back to TEB, most of this has been organized so that Scott shams when he and Tessa were going to be apart anyway. For example the Dominican happened when Tessa was sheduled to go to France/Monaco with her mother and sister (without Scott). Jessica was originally going to vacation in Mexico when the "kill two birds with one stone" in the Dominican was brainstormed.
During the Olympic season, Tessa had hours of pt every day, including during TEB. When she was at pt, and prior to Scott and Tessa being scheduled to film an Olympic feature in Montmontre, the Dubes and Moirs posed around/near Montmontre.
Big huge family weddings and skater weddings and community weddings crawling with Moirs, fans, people vitally interested in Scott and Tessa's career, who will corrall Tessa at the reception and beat shit into the ground. (Health, DW, clothes, training, child, music, politics, etc. etc. etc.) How about if we do some sham photos at these events and excuse Tessa.
What you clearly want is the proof, because it takes a lot of purposeful dumb to insist on how you believe this must work.
And in the case of this latest - Tessa obviously has a group of friends. Scott can either go out with Tessa and six other young women (most of whom have families and SO of their own, unlike Scott's hometown crowd) when she's got something to do, or he can get business done (sham).
DeleteSo again the assumption that this is being done because Tessa isn't a big girl and can't deal with her in-laws. What does she say, "Oh, I'm not in the mood, hon...can't you take Cassandra instead?"
DeleteScott's living a double life. He has one life with Tessa and one with Cassandra. I'm not sure how that's conducive to a healthy, longterm relationship and boy, do I hope they're saving up for not only their own therapy but Toddler Moir's as well.
You're the one making the assumptions, 9:18. You're imposing those assumptions AND your worldview on Virtue and Moir and they're both inaccurate.
DeleteIt seems to me you're working out your agitation on this comments section and until it subsides you're just acting out, mostly because you're incapable of envisioning a worldview different than your own, or circumstances outside your experience.
It makes no sense that the guy would PARADE a double life. He's got his life with Tess and he's sharing with the rest of us the real action he's getting on the side. Right before High Performance Camp in the Olympic year yet!
I think your problem, 9:18, is that while it doesn't excuse it, and there are adult ways to manage it that Scott and Tessa apparently feel is beyond them at this stage of their lives, the situation is far more suffocating than a mere "in-law" situation. It would be akin to spending an entire weekend in the company of fans, without gatekeepers, all of whom think your business is their business, disproportionately focus on you over other people there, and dozens of people bending your ear with their opinions on things that are none of your business.
You may dismiss it, but you dismiss it because you don't get it.
9:18 I also think you could improve your grasp of context.
DeleteMy grasp of context is just fine. I am very curious to know what happened to yours.
Delete10:47, no you have no sense of context at all - you are making huge logical leaps with nothing in between, and a bunch of assumptions predicated on your experience, and nothing else.
DeleteI know I'm violating my own guidelines by having carried on this far but be that as it may, this is not a place for you to work out the disconnect between your emotions about something and your thinking about something, especially when you don't acknowledge or recognize the difference.
I remember Scott being quoted a few years ago that Tiger Woods was his favourite athlete but because of the possible infidelities at the time - that he would have to reassess his choice. So why has Moirville decided to make Scott's personal life a part of the Olympic cycle equation? It accomplishes absolutely nothing and if anything makes them look immature period. And to boot it gives the impression that Moirville wants nothing to do with Tessa. Great team building Scott..
ReplyDeleteThere are so many components to this that are vile.
DeleteIn no particular order, but starting with fans - it's a sports team that is putting on parade its contempt for those who support their skating.
They won't even acknowledge that there are fans who DO support their skating - apparently that category does not exist in this sport. The sham doesn't permit any positive acknowledgment of this team's fans.
I think it's sad that a pair of athletes who, whether they like it or don't like it, are participating in a sport that only EXISTS as entertainment for the public (like all sports), make a dramatic spectacle of their contempt for the people who take an interest in their skating.
It doesn't matter if this display of contempt is an expedient to divert a horde of overinvested, overgrown juveniles in their community away from smothering them and onto us.
It's extremely sad and I think fans feel sad when it comes to this (IOW, a sadness specific to this situation). Even though fans are a group, many of them anonymous, certainly not thinking with one brain, and even though it's only a fan thing, when VM fans contrast how they're treated by their favorite team compared to how every.single.other.skating.on.the.planet treats their fans, there are only two choices. This distinction means that VM fans are particularly awful, or VM are.
Which puts the fans in the position of considering themselves to be worse than the fans of other skaters, or considering VM themselves to be guilty of horribly nasty behavior.
The choices aren't great. The fans can either think "We deserve this" or they can think that the people they admire are actually people who CHOOSE to treat their supporters this way, which isn't a great feeling either.
For agendas which have been discussed here, Virtue and Moir are proactively trying to alienate their fan base. Again, NO other skater does this, and there are as many douchebags in figure skating as their are in other sports. There are plenty of figure skaters with ambivalent and worse feelings about the public, there are none other than Virtue and Moir who think their feelings are license to behave as they do.
Then there's the sideshow that Moirville also puts in our face. For example, suppose that Cassandra were a real girlfriend. Why the hell would any skater be pumping out the image product Scott's been putting our for seven years? What other skater put on display something like that Dominican photo shoot about five months before the home Olympics? Even if that were a real photoshoot of a real relationship it would be mocked from here to high heaven and I think everybody would snicker and their opinion of Scott would take a dive. You know how when skaters act like idiots on social media, the message boards have a field day. Well, I believe the reason fans didn't go to town on that photo shoot was because in part they knew on some level something was off, something didn't scan, because it just didn't jibe with what a public figure parades for a horde of strangers. It might be something a wannabe like Connor Hilborn would put out there - but Scott Moir? How much of a loser is he?
DeleteThe photos are inappropriate on every level. Maybe the Moirs don't think so. Back in the days when they all had public facebooks and albums, many family albums weren't a terrific display of what's appropriate.
If they believe there are boundaries, but are crossing them on PURPOSE to needle fans, that says much about us, not them, and that is pretty much the kindest way to construe the photo content. The unkind way is that they don't have any respect for themselves or their relationship or don't know what that looks like.
I would also say they make a dramatic spectacle of their hypocrisy. The act they put on when the camera is on or when they're in front of a crowd, or when they are in the physical presence of fans.
DeleteHow would someone from MountainView California know so much about Tessa & Scott?
ReplyDeleteThat's a good question. If VM make you so mad and you're not someone with a professional connection to them, why not tell us how you know your "facts". What's the harm in that?
DeleteWho from MountainView California?
DeleteOh - MountainView California is the global office of google. This blog is hosted by google. Maybe that's the confusion.
DeleteTessa and Scott are not together? Fine. Tessa deserves much more.
ReplyDeleteScott did not train, he chases Cassandra. Remember 4cc? They stopped and Scott fault, not Tessa.
Why do you say the 4CC program interruption was Scott's fault? I thought Tessa said she had cramping in her legs? I don't think anyone was at fault. It happened, plain and simple, whatever the reason.
Delete