jjane... cheap drugstore readers
I do think the overwhelming presence of women figure skaters generally is a deterrent to the average "guy" on the street who might not be a skater but who is interested. Frankly for a guy to fall down and wobble around on skates in front of a rink full of women/girls is more than most normal guys are up to. I'm not saying this to justify the fear, just to say that it is an insecurity that most men carry with them. We want to show off our talents/prowess/strength/etc and the curve from 0-60 is daunting when you are skating in a fishbowl surrounded by females watching your every trip and fall.
So unless you can find an all male skating academy...or private lessons at a private rink...there won;t be a flood of guys taking up the sport any time soon. In weight lifting a guy can go to the gym, and feel safe among other guys, they will give him tips, recommend stuff, treat him as equal, etc etc and regardless of his beginner status the fear factor is not there... When I was a young teen I went to the Y to lift weights, and the older guys there were respectful of a pretty skinny kid. The mental perception men carry around...
Figure skating is far more taxing to learn and far more physically demanding than many other sports which men typically take up. Perhaps a lack of patience on the one hand, and time on the other, deters some men? For me, however, the satisfaction of slowly conquering obstacles, tackling each new skill, is worth any initial discomfort I might feel in terms of being the only guy in figure skates at the rink. I do it for me. If people laugh at me for falling while learning a new turn, or botching a turn, then let them laugh... I respect everyone who does their best and displays a sportsmanlike attitude.
Any organised sport, whatever it is, will flourish or falter depending on who does the organising. In Canada, where I live, there is no encouragement whatsoever for adults of either sex to take up figure skating from the organising body, Skate Canada. It is run as children's after-school and weekend activity. The language used on Skate Canada club websites always refers to "parents of skaters", without exception. The intention is plain...bring your kid, pay your money. So unless you start as a kid with parents who have the money to fund you there is nothing they have to offer you. Club executives look at you like you're nuts, coaches won;t touch you, and so very few men take up figure skating because they can;t get lessons. Frankly without lessons from a coach figure skating is almost impossible to learn. Everything Skate Canada does is designed, inadvertently I presume, to discourage the sport of figure skating among the general population. Its a good thing for them they have a gov't sanctioned monopoly on the sport...
That way they can maintain it as an elitist, female dominated sport, run by women for women.