A side note - when Debbie had her TV show years ago in Toronto, my uncle had the contract to deal with her wardrobe as a delivery man. He could not stand her because of how nasty she was so he used to wrinkle her clothes up in a ball and do everything he could to annoy her. No one at the production company was ever mad at him....Of course.
Everything Debbi projects, the sham projects, and still projects even in its current fitful state. That's not coincidence. That's the culture Skate Canada has created. A culture where we're better then you, you're all nobodies, and I'm treating you like nobodies. Where my sense of humor is about mocking others and malicious enjoyment of what I consider other people's shortcomings, and to amuse myself, I'll set people up to make idiots of themselves, without their knowledge.
Isn't that how the sham operated and how "Scott" has managed most of his social media? That particular brand of asshole?
Was this a perfect storm of phony, pompous, know-nothing fuckwits all with the same vulgar preoccupations coming together in a common enterprise while enabling each other? Or is it a case of someone like Debbi setting the tone and influencing the culture while everybody else - Moirs and Virtues, Dubes and Team Skate Canada abdicates responsiblity because they prefer to focus on their higher purpose? Unlike Debbi Wilkes, the Moirs and Virtues are delightful in person. The Moirs operate a functioning figure skating program. When the Moirs feature participants from their skating programs on social media, the participants are the focus, not Moir self-promotion.
It's towards the abstraction of 'the fandom' that they're awful people.
That dichotomy is of course a cop-out on their part.
The culture Debbi has created is an alienating one. Look at her now, at Skate Canada 2012. She can't shut up. Turning people off. Making attendees squirm.
What foresight. There are parents at Skate Canada. There are potential sponsors and other connections at Skate Canada that don't announce themselves immediately to Debbi. It's an international event; a functional organization would understand it's an opportunity for the organization. Debbi doesn't care. What's Debbi thinking? Captive audience for me. She is going to suck up every fucking moment someone isn't skating and fill it with her insufferable.
The public at Skate Canada aren't just a bunch of nobodies dumb enough to purchase event tickets for the privilege of having the experience destroyed by Debbi's verbal diarrhea and creepy self-enchantment. They're not there to endure the boorish deportment of the Skate Canada delegation when it mingles with the common people, either. Yes, we get it, Skate Canada delegation, the world is your toilet. Common consideration is beneath you; all "common" things are beneath you. You've even managed to convince two seemingly inherently decent people like Scott and Tessa to think the same way.
Here's the thing with Skate Canada 2012. There are actually people there who might consider Skate Canada a worthwhile potential corporate partner, an entity worth sponsoring. If anybody had that idea, Debbi makes sure it's not entertained for long. Would you want to deal with her? With an organization represented by her? She's had one day of commenting and people want to kill themselves. How she's handling this "showcase" Skate Canada is foisting upon the public (which is also any potential sponsor's MARKET) tells us all we need to know about Skate Canada. So no thanks.
The way Debbi treats nobodies: There's an old post on this blog called The Camera Loves Debbi Wilkes but is only in Like with Barb MacDonald. In that post are screen captures showing Debbi Wilkes positioning herself in the background of Scott and Tessa's interview with P.J. Kwong. There she stays. She's dead center, facing 3/4ths our way, framed by Scott and Tessa's heads, and while the background is populated with camera crew, other skaters, other venue personnel, only once does someone block the sightline from Scott and Tessa towards Debbi Wilkes, and that person is immediately told to clear the sightline, and does. Look at the screen caps, no audio required. Nobody even crosses behind Scott and Tessa. That center sightline is ruthlessly kept open for Debbi Wilkes. And for what? A 3/4ths full body shot of herself showcased in the middle-distance behind Skate Canada's star ice dancers at a training camp in a video hardly anyone will see. She's that rapacious.
What is required to get that done? Everybody working in the field of vision of the camera filming Scott and Tessa was explicitly instructed to keep the sightline clear for Debbi. They were told how to stand and where, and to keep their faces turned away from that camera - that was Debbi's camera.
It means Scott and Tessa themselves were told how to stand so as to keep that window between their heads clear for Debbi - and they DID it.
That is pitiful.
I responded to the anon comment above by saying you only need to watch Debbi a few seconds before knowing she's a phony.
Let's look at somebody who has genuine, enduring popularity, in Canada and in the US. My beloved Tracy Wilson. You watch her for a few seconds and what do you immediately understand? That she listens well. In an interview, she focuses on the other person. She's composed. When she speaks, it's worthwhile. She has an unforced, natural warmth, obvious empathy, and you can see she's smart and no fool. She's generous. She's got good taste. She's down to earth. She's funny.
The behind the scenes stories about Tracy match how she presents herself in front of the camera, just as the behind the scenes stories about Debbi do, although Debbi doesn't appear to be aware that people watching her or listening to her via the media can see what she's like.
I just enjoy how Skate Canada keeps upping the ante of douchery. Two years of title sponsor fail, here comes Skate Canada and they still don't get it. Or can afford not to care, which is quite interesting. There's no accountability.
So. Let's force the public watching at home and in person to listen to Debbi Wilkes' inanities, as that's what her vanity demands. Ignore that there may be people watching and listening who are in a position to help advance Skate Canada's best interests as an organization. Skate Canada, represented by Debbi, never can see past its own petty ego concerns, the ego that requires the public be considered a bunch of nobodies, mostly because, at heart, that's what Debbi is.
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