[img]7|left|||no_popup[/img]Figure skater Johnny Weir is caught up in a well-deserved furor over his now-withdrawn intention to wear fox fur at the Olympics. The whole affair not only is a slap in the face of compassionate living but also a strike against the ideals of sportsmanship.
“I totally get the dirtiness of the fur industry and how terrible it is to animals. But it's not something that’s the No. 1 priority in my life,” Weir said Tuesday night. “There are humans dying everyday. There are thousands if not millions of homeless people in New York City. Look at what just happened in Haiti. I tend to focus my energy, if there is a cause, on humans. While that may be callous and bad of me, it’s my choice.”
And talking to ESPN at the nationals:
“Don’t attack me for a personal choice. There are soldiers dying all around the world. Choose your battles, don’t pick on mine.”
Yes, it is choice. And yes, it is callous and bad of him to make that choice considering that he could just as easily wear fake fur as real. This is the point: It doesn’t cost him anything to wear fake fur. He doesn’t even have to pick out the fake fur himself; he has a costume designer to do it for him. The price is paid by the animals abused and killed to provide him with his fur when he claims wearing products of cruelty are a personal choice that shouldn’t be “picked on.”
What makes his decision especially galling is that he offers humans and animals as a choice, as if you can only help one but not both. Of course, that’s not a choice he is personally faced with. He doesn’t have to choose between using his limited time to volunteer at the animal shelter or join the Peace Corps. He doesn’t have to choose between donating his very last dollar between the Humane Society and UNICEF’s Haiti relief fund. And how about this? As far as I know, he’s not out there feeding the homeless in his spare time. He’s not even so bothered about soldiers’ deaths to campaign to end the wars abroad or to advocate on behalf of veterans’ care here at home. He reportedly did join the Board of Directors for an organization, the nPlay Foundation, dedicated to fighting childhood obesity. It’s curious, however, that he didn’t mention nPlay and childhood obesity – his chosen cause, apparently – when he had the opportunity to do so. Callous? Oh, yes, Mr. Weir. And self-serving, too.
But perhaps he is implying that animal rights groups are wasting their time with animals when there are humans suffering. What a narrow moral outlook it is to believe that we can only do one thing at a time, we can only support one cause at a time, we can only care about some suffering but not all. We don’t really have to make such draconian choices. Between voting, contributing to non-profits, volunteering time, or just speaking out, we can all make a difference in a number of ways for a number of worthwhile causes at the same time. In fact, that’s life; dealing with many overlapping and competing challenges. Weir’s reasoning might be dismissed as naïve and good only for reducing itself into absurdity if it weren’t so tragically common. How often do we justify doing nothing, or very little, on the basis that something worse is inevitably going on elsewhere?
While Mr. Weir has apparently backed down from wearing real fur, it’s sadly not because he developed a conscience in regards to animal welfare. Rather, Weir’s agent, Tara Modlin, cites alleged death threats from groups like Friends of Animals – death threats that have been deleted, the NYT reports — as well as the need to focus on his Olympic skating without further distraction. While it’s impossible to say whether he did or did not receive threats based on the available evidence – and shame on anyone who resorts to such vile behaviour in an attempt to change Weir’s position on fur – even his supporters illustrate how animal rights are seen as unimportant even in comparison to Weir’s figure skating. The facts remain, however. The fur trade cruelly abuses and kills animals to provide a product that is not necessity, but a luxury. Figure skating is also, as an endeavour, a luxury; however beautiful to watch and technically demanding of skaters, the sport does not nothing productive to improve society or the planet. While I do think some latitude is necessary in deciding what animal-derived products to wear, asking Weir not to wear fur on his skating uniform is not asking him to make a sacrifice. It is asking him to demonstrate the fairness and good character that defines sportsmanship as an ethos beyond winning or losing a game.
Frédérik invites you to visit his blog at www.inkandashes.net.