What to say after "I,Tonya"

Yesterday I watched a film that I had heard about and have been wanting to see for quite some time. I, Tonya which is labeled as a comedy, but if it's funny, I would call it dark humor. I didn't think it was funny at all. I thought it was very tragic. There are many videos you can watch on youtube that show the comparisons of the actors portrayals of the characters to the real people they were playing. I watched some of that before I watched the movie to prepare myself for any hoopla that the director might have wanted to do to the audience using sensationalist tricks. I remembered the story of Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan back when I was just starting college in the early 90s. I always loved to watch gymnastics and figure skating in the Olympic games. My good friend at the time was a huge Kerrigan fan, so we were watching the skaters. When Kerrigan got hit, it was huge news for weeks. I was left thinking that Tonya Harding and her clan must have been monsters. After watching the movie, I see that I was almost correct. Her clan were completely monsters, but Tonya was a victim of abuse from family and a victim of the "system" (just like me) being made to believe that she had a fair shot coming from "poor white trash" - when the truth is she was doomed from birth.

Through the film we get to know Tonya and I really felt bad for her. Her mother was a great coach in some ways, very strict and harsh, but so trashy and very abusive both verbally and physically. While her mother worked hard as a waitress to support Tonya's skating lessons, she also made Tonya feel guilty about it every chance she had to voice it. She beat her up often and usually for no good reason. The only escape from white trash life that Tonya had was her ice-skating. She was an amazing skater. The only skater at that time who could land a triple-axel. However, even on the ice the judges made her miserable ragging on her costumes, her mannerisms, and her way of speaking. She was the best skater, but they refused to acknowledge it because she didn't "fit in" to their "society" and the way they wanted skaters to look and behave. As if being raised poor and being abused meant that you could never enter that world. If her mother loved her so much, she should have sat her down and made her watch the musical "My Fair Lady" and maybe if Tonya had watched that movie enough her circumstances would have been clear to her; Maybe she would have understood how important the "other stuff" was. She had two other excellent coaches and she was successful in many ways on the ice, but the judges continually gave her low scores. They cared more about the politics over the actual skating.

She married a white trash guy and he took over the role of beating her up for no good reason. Just like her mother, her husband would punch her just because he didn't like what would come out of her mouth. In a country complaining about Freedom of Speech, we should really watch this story of Tonya and see how many times she turned the other cheek because she had NO freedom of speech what-so-ever. The beatings were brutal and probably caused brain damage and PTSD, in my opinion.

However, the husband was so convinced that he was madly in love with Tonya that he concocted a gang of idiots to "level the playing field" by planning the "incident' which was basically where Kerrigan got hit by a crowbar on her knees and was unable to skate. Tonya fairly made it on the U.S. team but because most people believed that she knew of the incident previous to it happening, she had to fight in court just to stay on the team.

In the end, after all was said and done, even though she didn't know anything about the incident planning, she was barred from all skate competitions and associations. The judge that made that decision should have just taken out her heart at that moment. He basically told her with that verdict "Everything you are and have worked for your whole life is over." She was not educated and did not even get her G.E.D. She had nothing else in life except waitressing like her mother. At the end of the film they show her using the leftover popularity of her name, and the hatred that the people felt for her because of the media reports to her advantage as she got into female boxing. She was already accustomed to getting her face smashed in so she figured it as the perfect transition. At least in the ring, she could fight back.

I really feel sorry for Tonya. The most significant thing she said in the movie to me was this, paraphrased: "I was getting abused all the time and no one cared. Kerrigan got hit one time and everyone acted like it was the end of the world." That doesn't mean that Tonya had anything to do with it or didn't care about Kerrigan. Tonya and Nancy were friends. Tonya said that because she was trying to express how unfair she perceived people and the world to be. Based on my life story, I agree with her 100%.