In many ways, the sport of figure skating reinforces dominant notions of sex and gender in our society. Its categories, expected performances and scoring systems are all based on the notion that there are just two genders, "man" and "woman," that correspond respectively to the behaviors we regard as "masculine" and "feminine"--and never the twain shall meet. The lives of real human skaters, however, are rarely so simple. In Red Nails, Black Skates, Erica Rand (a professor of art and of women and gender studies at Bates College) explores the vast gray areas between our traditional sex/gender categories and the actual life experiences of many skaters--including Rand herself. In a series of essays, Rand examines costume conventions, skate boot colors and issues of sex, gender, race and class that affect who participates in figure skating's elite events and at neighborhood clubs.
A self-identified adult figure skater and queer femme, Rand reports from inside competitive figure skating, as well as from personal forays into related sports like hockey and roller derby. Although figure skating's traditional elements, training rituals and accessibility to minorities (or lack thereof) have limited its ranks to a comparative few, Rand never takes this fact as grounds for pessimism about the sport itself. Her personal love for skating shines through the essays collected in Red Nails, Black Skates, leading to an incisive yet upbeat analysis of both the sport's shortcomings and the depths of its potential. --Dani Alexis Ryskamp, blogger at The Book Cricket