Editor’s note: This column, as always, reflects the opinion of the author and not of Reverb or The Denver Post
A week and a half ago, Fox News published a blog article entitled Since September 2, the article has amassed 28,000 Facebook shares, over 2,000 Tweets and 14 (LOL) +1s on Google Plus. “Controversial” is an understatement.
ABC’s “Dancing With The Stars” has become a runaway hit since its original run in 2005, winning People’s Choice awards, Teen Choice awards and more. In case you don’t have a television, here’s the premise: Generally washed-up “celebs” (we’re talking ex-teen-heartthrobs, pop stars who haven’t had a single in years, Bristol Palin) are paired with professional dancers to compete with one another. Past winners have included Drew Lachey, Kristi Yamaguchi (this one seems a tad unfair, no?), Donny Osmond and Jennifer Grey. The requirements to be eligible for the show seem a little fuzzy.
Why was Chaz Bono, the transgendered son of music duo Sonny and Cher, selected to be on the show? And why is it such a big deal? Chaz is not a “washed-up” star. Though he did put out a record with band Ceremony in 1993, that’s not why he has become a household name over the past couple years. As an advocate for LGBT rights, Chaz has written books, produced documentaries and served as a spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign in order to educate the American people about what it’s like living as a transgendered male. He’s very open, and very out.
Now, you could look at Chaz dancing as a promotional stunt for “DWTS” in a lot of ways, which would be pretty despicable if any of them were true. The worst of it, I would imagine, would have the producers over at ABC thinking stuff like, “Everyone tune in to watch this “freak” try to dance! Our ratings are going to freakin’ soar!” I would venture to say that most of America has never seen anyone who has undergone a female-to-male gender reassignment surgery, and now here’s their chance. On the flip side, you could take Chaz’s participation in a hugely popular network television show as an effort to normalize transgendered individuals. Maybe he wants to dance to spread tolerance to a country that only recently began to fully accept homosexuals in the media.
Dr. Keith Ablow of Fox News says: “The last thing vulnerable children and adolescents need, as they wrestle with the normal process of establishing their identities, is to watch a captive crowd in a studio audience applaud on cue for someone whose search for an identity culminated with the removal of her breasts, the injection of steroids and, perhaps one day soon, the fashioning of a make-shift phallus to replace her vagina.”
Dr. Ablow, if I may: The first thing that vulnerable children and adolescents need is someone to teach them how to be tolerant and acceptable individuals. They need to know that not everyone is the same, but that doesn’t mean that those unlike them are wrong or weird. Please take Chaz’s participation in “Dancing with the Stars” as a push towards LGBT acceptance and education in America. Whether you like it or not, with or without your ignorant commentary.
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Allison Berger is a Philadelphia-based writer and a pop music columnist for Reverb. Check out more of her writing
