Figure skating: the marquee event of the Winter Olympics. Characterized by grace, agility, skill, charisma and intense facial expressions, figure skaters capture the hearts of fans around the world once every four years. Top skaters can earn more than $5 million in endorsements and grace more magazine covers in a year than Gemma Ward.

There’s no question that the spectacle of figure skating is enchanting, but given recent criticism of its methods– is it a sport?

A sport should require athleticism, of which figure skating has plenty.  Training for figure skating requires hours of strength training and conditioning. The skills executed in programs, from jumps to spins to spirals, are not easily acquired. Take away the glittery costumes and lilting music, and figure skating programs appear grittier and tougher.

But athleticism means nothing if there isn’t an objective and regimented manner to determine winners. At the moment, all competitions operated under the International Skating Union (including the Olympic Games) adhere to a scoring system that assigns points for the difficulty of skill and the quality of their execution.  But consider that in this year’s men’s singles division at the Olympics, Evan Lysacek captured the gold medal despite his failure to attempt any quadruple jumps (the most difficult skill to execute). Other skaters, including silver medalist Evgeny Plushenko, successfully landed quadruple jumps. Some argue that Lysacek’s win is fair, because artistry should be just as crucial to scoring as difficulty, while others believe the Olympic champion should be someone who performs to world-class standards, quad jumps and all. Read More »

[Got a Dude itch you just can't scratch? Sick of getting the pity-eyes as you sift through the Self-Help section at your campus bookstore? Over wondering what those boys are thinking?  We got your back, girlfriend. Send your question over to askthedude@collegecandy.com. The Dude won’t sugarcoat it, beat around the bush, or any other weird cliche that means lie to you. Like a nice, juicy hot dog, he’ll be 100% real beef, 100% of the time.  So bring it on, ladies.]

Dude,

My best guy friend and I started hooking up 4 weeks ago after a kinda testing the waters to see if we were both interested in becoming more then friends. I am OK with being a FWB but am also OK with more. That being said, I am having a hard time reading his signals. He has always been the guy who will come pick me up and go to dinner, or just hang out and watch TV. He’s a nice guy. He likes to cuddle and to just look at me and kiss my body. Don’t get me wrong I’m a fan of both, but they catch me as more relationship behaviors. We are both virgins but I know that he wants to have sex and, to be honest I want to have sex, too. I’m 20 and he’s a guy that I can completely trust with anything. Am I fooling myself into thinking we can just be FWB if we have sex, does he like me more?

-New at This Read More »

It’s that time of year again: lease-signing season! But before you head out into the jungle of real estate and red tape to search for a new nest, check out our top five things you need to know before you go apartment hunting!

1.    Who do you want to live with? Sure, you’re best friend is awesome to hang out with, and she’s promised to stay tidy and bake cookies every Saturday, but is she really going to hold up the deal? And even if she does, is it really the best idea to spend 24/7 with your BFF? When considering roommates, make sure you consider how you will live with someone and not just how you feel about that someone. There is a very big difference and knowing that could make or break your friendship.

2.    Where do you want to be? Location is the most important factor in real estate, so really think about where you want to be. Do you want to be close to class or close to your boyfriend? What is more important to you when you oversleep: a short walk, or being close to quality coffee? These are questions that only you can answer, but you should think your preferred location through before you get swept away by the in-house washer and dryer in an apartment on the wrong side of campus. Read More »

So maybe you’ve never gone more than 24 hours without food. Maybe you’ve never taken a laxative or made yourself throw up after eating too much. You don’t have an Eating Disorder. But how much of your day is spent thinking about food?

When you are out with friends, are you comparing what everyone else is eating to what you are eating, figuring out the calories instead of enjoying their company? Have you ever doubled your workouts to compensate for splurging on a slice of pizza? Can you barely even remember a time when you weren’t trying out the latest diet?

You don’t have to have an eating disorder to have an unhealthy relationship with food. It’s called Disordered Eating and it can be emotionally draining, physically exhausting or even lead to a full blown Eating Disorder.

Disordered Eating starts with a mentality rather than a behavior. If you are lucky to eat one real meal a day during finals week because you are so crazed trying to cram everything in, it’s not good for you, but it’s not a symptom of Disordered Eating. If you only eat one meal a day during finals week so you can at least be in control of your diet since everything else is so hectic, that’s Disordered Eating. It can present itself in many ways, but here are a few of the most common. Read More »

Gosh, I’m tired. I guess that’s what happens when you stay up late watching Bode Miller/eating a tray of brownies and then you’re so wired from the excitement/insane amount of sugar you just ingested, you can’t fall asleep until 3am. And then you wake up and discover there’s still one brownie left so you eat it, feel great for about 30 minutes, and then completely crash.

Ugh, and there’s still two more days to go this week?

I’m going to need some major coffee just to get out of bed, and then a few 5 Hour Energy’s to get to the gym to work off the brownie binge. But before I go into a caffeine rage (similar to ‘roid rage, only with many more trips to the bathroom), let me take a moment to myself to consider the following disturbing scenario.

Would you rather walk in on your boyfriend trying on your underwear OR be forced to watch a one hour long video of your sibling/parent having sex?

Things to consider: your boyfriend in a lacy thong, your boyshorts getting stretched out, your parents having sex. Read More »

A few weeks ago, one CollegeCandy writer asked if blackout mistakes should be forgiven. In a similar vain, earlier this week, a Princeton student asked if we are responsible for our choices when blacked out. More specifically, when a girl is raped while drunk, is it her fault?

Iulia Neagu, a freshman at Princeton, recently wrote about a(n ex) friend’s claim that she was raped while drunk.  Neagu said, in response to the question of whether or not the friend was responsible for her drunken actions:

“She knew what would happen if she started drinking. We all know that the more people drink, the less likely they are to make wise decisions. It is common sense. Therefore, the girl willingly got herself into a state in which she could not act rationally. This, in my opinion, is equivalent to agreeing to anything that might happen to her while in this state. In the case of our girl, this happened to be sex with a stranger.” Read More »

Who inspires your style? Or better question, WHAT inspires your style? Many of us use T.V characters (like Joan Holloway) or celebrities (like Chloe Sevigny) as style inspiration, even though, most of the time, they are being dressed from head to toe by the best stylists. Which we don’t have. And sometimes it’s damn near impossible to work their Hollywood looks into our not-so-Hollywood lives. I’ve made it my mission to tap into the mind of a fashion stylist and show you how to take your style inspiration – whatever it may be – and make it more you!

Although today she is synonymous with drugs, alcohol, plastic surgery and being an all around hot mess, let’s rewind about 18 years back to the days when Courtney Love was in her prime.  In the ’90s, Courtney Love was one of the few women who represented the grunge music genre. As is usually the case, with different genres of music come different ways of dressing (or in her case, throwing on whatever was on the floor – clean or dirty – and peacin’ out,) and hers rocked. Pun intended. Read More »

Charlie Sheen’s goin back to rehab. Again.

Would you wear tiger print?

Adrian Grenier’s got no game.

Paula Abdul proves that ANYONE can get a job.

Topshop attempts to bring back the unibrow?

Get the no-makeup makeup look.

[There are over 100 million sites on the Internet. 100 million! You might think you know about all the important ones (CollegeCandy, Gmail, Google, Zappos...), but there are thousands of other sweet sites out there (like CoolSpotters, DailyLit and The Weather Stylist). And more showing up every day! We get it – it’s not easy or fun sifting through the crap and porn to find those gems, so we’re gonna bring the gems to you. Just sit back, kick up those feet and allow us to introduce you to the diamonds in the internet rough.]

We’ve all heard the old saying that it’s the little things in life that really matter.  But it’s easy to get so caught up  in everything else in our lives that we can forget about all those little things.

1000 Awesome Things is a nice reminder to appreciate the simple things in life.  The blog is essentially just a countdown of 1,000 “awesome” little things, posted every weekday.  Some of the things on the list will make you nostalgic for your childhood (like #805: the smell of crayons, or #660: Stomping dry crunchy leaves on the sidewalk), while others will make you laugh when you read them and think, “hey, I do that, too!” (like #777: Reading the nutritional label and eating it anyway–”Sometimes you just gotta read the nutritional label and eat it anyway.  Sometimes … you just gotta live.”).  Others, however, are just plain awesome (#765: Thinking it’s Thursday when it’s Friday, #861: Not getting a hangover when you were expecting to get one, or #983: That pile of assorted beers left in your fridge after a party). Read More »

Robert Pattinson states the obvious.

Lady reporter poops her pants on air.

Want to tone those legs? Try some of these workouts.

Whoa! Look at Hilary Duff’s rock!

Ke$ha is no Lady Gaga.

Change that dating bad attitude!