Chaz on DWTS

[Write14u]

It starts next Monday. (Which still means you'll be switching from MNF) LOL

[Corkey]

I'm so not a star struck kind of guy, lived around the "stars" for most of my life. I can tell you the ones I've met are down to earth and quite pragmatic about the industry. None of them ever once thought of themselves as a role model. They were and are just people. The minute we start placing people in the industry on a pedestal, we loose our own since of being. They are no better, no worse than the rest of us.
Chaz is not my role model, he's a human being just like the rest of us. If he wants to dance, fine let him dance, no problem. Don't put him on some sort of cloud because he's just like the rest of us, looking for acceptance.

[The_Lady_Snow]

Chaz put himself out there as an advocate, so him being in the limelight on TV may it just may let one kid out there they are ok and not sick, or may not feel so suicidal. He's just a guy who's gonna dance like all the other guys on there..

[Write14u]

Corkey, I agree with you about role models to a degree. Having been in the sports world all my life, I can promise you few athletes cast themselves as a role model. However, with our society, that is how they are seen. So whether a celeb or athlete wants to be a role model, they're going to be seen that way, and their conduct is going to be held up in either a positive or negative way.

For example, I always found it ridiculous that college athletes were blasted for displaying the same type of behavior as the general college population (going out, drinking, etc.) However, for athletes, they represent a university, and later possibly a professional organization) and have to keep a higher standard (or keep it way on the DL).

While celebs don't represent anyone in particular, they are going to be viewed as role models, good or bad. When you step into the limelight as an advocate because of your fame or status, then you do bear the responsibility to be a role model, wanted or not. Chaz and many others, such as Ellen, have already accepted that fact. Chaz has long been an advocate for the queer community. Right or wrong, like it or not, for now ... the transgender community is going to be judged by how Chaz presents himself, and I think he's fully aware of this.

Celebs and athletes and other famous figures are just humans. They shouldn't be elevated and put on pedestals for their talents, but sadly they are. While I think many are to be admired, they're not the people I consider role models, but that's not how everyone works.

[Corkey]

Originally Posted by Write14u

Corkey, I agree with you about role models to a degree. Having been in the sports world all my life, I can promise you few athletes cast themselves as a role model. However, with our society, that is how they are seen. So whether a celeb or athlete wants to be a role model, they're going to be seen that way, and their conduct is going to be held up in either a positive or negative way.

For example, I always found it ridiculous that college athletes were blasted for displaying the same type of behavior as the general college population (going out, drinking, etc.) However, for athletes, they represent a university, and later possibly a professional organization) and have to keep a higher standard (or keep it way on the DL).

While celebs don't represent anyone in particular, they are going to be viewed as role models, good or bad. When you step into the limelight as an advocate because of your fame or status, then you do bear the responsibility to be a role model, wanted or not. Chaz and many others, such as Ellen, have already accepted that fact. Chaz has long been an advocate for the queer community. Right or wrong, like it or not, for now ... the transgender community is going to be judged by how Chaz presents himself, and I think he's fully aware of this.

Celebs and athletes and other famous figures are just humans. They shouldn't be elevated and put on pedestals for their talents, but sadly they are. While I think many are to be admired, they're not the people I consider role models, but that's not how everyone works.

Not how I work either, I know Chaz is doing a wonderful thing, but that's a hella lot of pressure on anyone. Advocacy is great, applaud it 100%, I just have to wonder about the backlash. He's had quite a privileged life for the most part and yep he's made his fair share of mistakes. Not all our youth are going to have the wherewith all to even get SRS surgery. Something is just not sitting right with me and it may just be the way society at large is being such a@@'s about him dancing on a friggen show. It really isn't reality and it sure isn't something most people will ever do in their lives. Hollywood is full of fake people, fake lives, fake expectations. I just hope this isn't one of them. Not that Chaz is fake, not saying that at all.

[The_Lady_Snow]

Talking to My 10-Year-Old About Chaz Bono

For this Encino mom, discussing Dancing With the Stars' controversial transgender contestant was far easier than other issues provoked by media.


My 10-year-old daughter, Lily, is a big fan of Dancing With the Stars. She discovered the show last year while channel surfing, which I was thrilled about, simply because it wasn’t another snarky tween sitcom.
Of the 12 stars competing last season, she initially had heard only of Chelsea Kane from the Disney Channel’s Jonas L.A., and Kirsty Alley from the Jenny Craig commercials. By the show’s mid-point, however, Lily had strong opinions about everybody. She said Alley, who wound up in second place, was the most fun. She also liked Pittsburg Steelers wide receiver Hines Ward and agreed he deserved to win.



Kendra Wilkinson, eliminated in week seven, bugged her because she was always flaunting her voluptuous body. But then again, 10-year-old girls weren’t what the audience producers were after in casting Hugh Hefner’s former girlfriend and mansion mate.



The only person Lily truly disliked though was judge Bruno Tonioli. She actually does a pretty good impression of the Italian choreographer flailing his arms and salivating, “that was so SEXY!” Fortunately, neither of us caught the episode where ABC censors bleeped him for the way he described Ralph Macchio’s handling of partner Karina Smirnoff in her cheetah inspired-costume.



“You were too rough with your p---y,” I later heard he’d said, leaving the audience visibly aghast. I was glad to have escaped being forced to explain that one.


When the cast of Season 13, which kicks off Monday, Sept. 19, was announced last week, the only name my daughter recognized this time was soccer sensation Hope Solo. But when controversy erupted over Chaz Bono, the show’s first transgender contestant, Lily began to ask questions.


A conservative group called onemillionmoms.com is urging a boycott of the show, calling Bono’s casting “completely unacceptable.” Some critics even claim that watching him on the dance floor would be harmful for children.


One psychiatrist, Dr. Keith Ablow, an analyst for Fox News, went so far as to assert that celebrating Bono on DWTS "is the last thing vulnerable children and adolescents need as they wrestle with the normal process of establishing their identities...”


Others say Bono looks like a man, so there’s no reason to tell children anything.
Ironically, my daughter already knows that Bono is transgender because she caught some of the protest story on Access Hollywood. I could have avoided the subject and simply said I didn’t know when she asked me to explain what the fracas was about. That’s how I responded last summer whenever we passed billboards for the movie Friends With Benefits. Several times Lily asked what that title meant, but I just didn’t see any age appropriate way to discuss casual sex with a 10-year-old. The same goes for the “Fully Exposed” slogan on the billboard for a strip club in Canoga Park that we past last week on the way to soccer practice at the Van Nuys-Sherman Oaks Park.


Explaining that Bono was born female but changed her appearance to become a man, however, was pretty straightforward. She did have a few follow-up questions about how the transformation was accomplished. Through plastic surgery and hormone injections, I told her. We live in Encino, it’s not like she hasn’t seen people who’ve gone under the knife or used injectables to alter the way they look.


When her questions were answered, she said, “You know what the really weird part is?”
“What?” I asked.
“That someone would rather be a boy.”

[Rockinonahigh]

Ive been reading the pros an cons about Chaz danceing on the show,I think the general uninformed public is really out of controle in belaevaing a lot of things that have been said about Chaz.I dont care if they understandabout why or how he became a man,what really irks me is the double standard that I see in the people who are throwing such a fit..I mean I know lot of then have diffrent surgerys to change there bodies to look better so they can be more pleased in how they look or use botox injections,wear makeup to the 9's.I realise its not full on srs but they are doing the same thing only in smaller ways,why? Well for the same reason Chaz has done, to be the people they want to be...only they dont see it that way..but it is.Then there is the right wing nut cases who are shouting from every soap box they can get on...ok folks when you can really say thet you actualy DO live your life in the exact way that you say you do then explane to me how in the world cau you have a soap box to shout from if I know you are going to bars,casinos,car races,gettin drunker than tooter brown,people going after each outher for all they can get weather its sex or money or just cause they can or abuseing others cause they are only vaguely covering up the meanness with being anywhere near human.....I could go on and on but wont.If they can really 100% say they are as liveing life the way they expect someone else to only then they wouldnt have anything to say cause they would be the kind of folks that would mind there own buisness unless it directly involves them to give any opinion on how another person wishes to live there life.Takeing a deep breath and geting off my own soap box.If I offended anyone hear I will appoligize now it wasnt my intention...just needed to blow some steam off about the general public who judges far to much.

[ruffryder]

Originally Posted by The_Lady_Snow

Yeahhhh Chaz.. He has a hot partner!! Go buddy! LOL I still don't see him as a role model or an advocate on this show. Just don't understand all the hype, probably never will. I see Chaz as a man wanting to go on DWTS .. that's all.

[Just_G]

Originally Posted by Corkey

Something is just not sitting right with me and it may just be the way society at large is being such a@@'s about him dancing on a friggen show.

People made a HUGE stink about Bristol being on the show, since she is technically not a celebrity...she is the daughter of the VP nominee that got pregnant as a teenager and now promotes abstinance...people griped about her all season and threatened to boycott the show if she won. Why do you think the tea baggers kept voting for her in droves? There is always that ONE person on the show that people say they will boycott the show for...this time it happens to be someone that is transgender. *GASP* I would bet money that most people in this country do not even know what that word means, let alone accept someone that IS transgender. People are going to judge Chaz, and believe me, he knows exactly what he is getting in to and I applaud him for taking on the challenge.

It really isn't reality and it sure isn't something most people will ever do in their lives. Hollywood is full of fake people, fake lives, fake expectations. I just hope this isn't one of them. Not that Chaz is fake, not saying that at all.

I am not sure what you mean about it isn't reality, would you mind expanding on that please? I also don't know what it is that you are saying is fake. (Thanks!)

[Corkey]

Originally Posted by Just_G

I am not sure what you mean about it isn't reality, would you mind expanding on that please? I also don't know what it is that you are saying is fake. (Thanks!)

The whole premise of the show is fake to begin with, it's nothing more that a popularity game. The best dancers don't always win, the ones with the most votes does. Stacked, rigged, fake. I'm not judging Chaz, I think he has every right to dance, where ever he damn well pleases with whom ever he damn well pleases. This is what bugs me, he is never going to change any bigots mind, but the show using him as a prop is what I have an issue with.