Don't let your kids watch "Dancing With The Stars"

It's a Fox News opinion piece... This is your fair warning.

Quote :

Chaz Bono, the “transsexual” woman who underwent plastic surgery and takes male hormones in an effort to appear to be a man, and who asserts she is a man, will appear on the upcoming season of "Dancing with the Stars", according to ABC, the network which airs the show.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Quote :

He will be partnered with a woman.

I'm amazed the author, one Dr. Keith Ablow, a fox news 'specialist' [see above pic, irony motherfuckers] used the male pronoun there, he didn't in the opening paragraph....

Quote :

I advise parents to not allow their children to watch the episodes in which Chaz appears.

Why, I wonder...

Quote :

Here’s why:

Okay...

Quote :

Many of the children who might be watching will be establishing a sense of self which includes, of course, a sexual/gender identity. Some will be girls becoming comfortable with dramatic changes in their bodies. Some will be boys coming to terms with integrating the dawn of manhood with exquisite feelings of vulnerability.

"Exquisite feelings of vulnerability"? Oh, yeah... I remember that time in my life... Fucking exquisite it was... WTF?

Also I'm sure there's something to be read into girls coping with "changes in their bodies" while boys get "the dawn of manhood".

Anyway...

Quote :

Young viewers will include tomboyish girls and sensitive, less stereotypically “masculine” boys.

DAMMIT SOME OF THEM MIGHT BE BORDERLINE QUEERS ALREADY! DON'T ENCOURAGE THEM!! ALSO BOYS BEING EFFEMINATE AND GIRLS BEING MASCULINE ARE TOTALLY SIGNIFIERS OF TRANSEXUALITY/BEING GAY WHATEVER THEY'RE TOTALLY THE SAME THING!!!

Quote :

They will also include children who have sustained the losses of loved ones and are wrestling with depression, perhaps wondering who they are absent their deceased mothers or fathers.

MISSING A PARENT MAKES YOU QUESTION YOUR GENDER!

Also, it's well known that depression is a 'soft' mental illness that can lead children on to try other mental illnesses, like Gay or Transexualism.

Quote :

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.

GOD DAMMIT STOP LOOKING AT THIS PERSON WHO IS COMFORTABLE IN THEIR OWN IDENTITY!!

Quote :

It is a toxic and unnecessary byproduct of the tragic celebration of transgender surgery that millions of young people who do watch "Dancing with the Stars" will have to ponder this question: Maybe my problems really stem from the fact that I’m a girl inside a boy’s body (or a boy inside a girls body). Maybe I’m not a tomboy; I’m just a boy! Maybe I’m not just being bullied because I’m a sensitive, reflective young man interested in flowers, not football. Maybe I’m not just uncertain about my sexuality. Maybe I’m a girl! Maybe all this angst and suffering I’m feeling as I emerge into puberty and pass through it isn’t just because I’m changing, but because I should change completely—and have my breasts removed or my penis amputated!

It's as easy as that, apparently. If I see someone on telly who has undergone a sex change, and I'm depressed because my mom's dead, I like flower arranging and am bloody impeccable at fashion, I can decide that I'm actually a woman and go to my GP the next day to get him to lop off my nob and give me a few month's worth of estrogen.


If you don't find this guy loathsome already, then this bit will cement your views. If you are damn near foaming at the mouth at this point, and I know some of you will be, you'd best take a step back and have a glass of water/cigarette/whatever you need to relax yourself before proceeding past the next gap to the next quote.

Quote :

By broadcasting, applauding and mainstreaming the journey of a very disordered person who endured, and likely will continue to endure, real suffering based on extraordinarily deep psychological problems, we suggest that that journey is a smart—even heroic—one to take.

The truth is that Chaz Bono should be empathized with and treated with dignity. Any contribution he makes to the world should be applauded as it would be for any other person.

But Chaz Bono should not be applauded for asserting she is a man (and goes about trying to look like one) any more than a woman who believes she will be happier without arms, has them removed and then continues to assert that she was right all along—her self-concept was that of a double amputee. Now, all is well.

It's that bit in the middle that gets me... It's the same as saying: "I'm not racist but" or "some of my best friends are gay"

Quote :

"Dancing with the Stars", starring Chaz Bono, takes the opposite view. It’s position is that Chaz Bono’s chemically and surgically altered appearance is a blessing to us all, a triumph of autonomy and self-possession on par with the triumphs achieved by the heroes of the Civil Rights movement.

That’s very nearly insane. It’s a psychologically destructive myth and can erode our children’s evolving senses of self.

WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK?

Quote :

I’m going to take heat for saying all this, by the way.

At least he's right about something...

Quote :

Make no mistake: I would have gone to the ends of the earth to help Chaz Bono if she had come to me for help.

Thank Christ he didn't.

Quote :

I would have treated her with dignity and summoned every ounce of my intellect and empathy to explore her psyche with her. I would have pried loose every family secret hidden by the Bonos.

Because there must be skeletons in the closet for Chaz to have turned out like that.

Fuck me...

Quote :

And if all that failed, and if Chaz Bono wanted either to kill herself or to undergo gender reassignment surgery, I would have taken that journey with her, too. I would have talked her parents through the hell of it. We would make the best of it.

Somehow, with enormous compassion and love and God’s help, we would get through it.

But I would feel no triumph in it, no sense of any heroic overcoming obstacles and righting the flesh in accordance with the soul. I would feel pathos. I would feel the limits of my attempts to truly heal Chaz Bono, and I would wish her well with a life that had veered, seemingly unavoidably, into a very dark place.

...

Quote :

Chaz Bono didn’t come to me for help, though. She didn’t ask me for my opinion.

No, he didn't. And by the looks of things, we're all the better for it...

Quote :

So, here it is. One psychiatrist’s prescription, sure to cost me a lot of hate mail, but reward me with the certainty that I am stating what I believe to be true and that I am doing my job: If you care about your kids, don’t let them watch "Dancing with the Stars" starring Chaz Bono.

FUUUUUUUUCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKK


YOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUU

Wait what's the point of this show again?

Penguin wrote:

Wait what's the point of this show again?

I've never watched it. I know something about it though. It involves stars. And they dance. I think with a professional dancer? So I'm assuming the dude in question is a professional dancer.

...I gotta go with Penguin here, what's the point of this show?

Hardly the first time a relative of a celebrity became famous based on the amount of butthurt and wank they were the center of and ended up on Dancing with the Stars.

I'd imagine the point is stars*, that are dancing.

*As in famous people. Not heavenly bodies.

Quote :

the fashioning of a make-shift phallus to replace her vagina

Great, now I'm imaging something from Alien. And it's detachable, too.

I'd say that somebody should ask this guy what he'd do if he woke up tomorrow with his plumbing and other biology rearranged, but I'd bet he'd be all 'lol, I would be the BEST WOMAN EVER'.

I could only read to the half way point before I wanted to hit my head against a wall.

Lapin wrote:

Penguin wrote:

Wait what's the point of this show again?

I've never watched it. I know something about it though. It involves stars. And they dance. I think with a professional dancer? So I'm assuming the dude in question is a professional dancer.

...I gotta go with Penguin here, what's the point of this show?

That's the gist of it I think. And they get points.

I prefer So You Think You Can Dance

Penguin wrote:

Wait what's the point of this show again?

This season? To watch Nancy Grace get dropped on her ass, I think.

lemmingwriter wrote:

Penguin wrote:

Wait what's the point of this show again?

This season? To watch Nancy Grace get dropped on her ass, I think.

A human being with "a make-shift phallus" is far preferable than a lizard-person wearing a disguise made of the skin of executed convicts.

Lapin wrote:

Penguin wrote:

Wait what's the point of this show again?

I've never watched it. I know something about it though. It involves stars. And they dance. I think with a professional dancer? So I'm assuming the dude in question is a professional dancer.

No, he's Sonny and Cher's kid. Chastity Bono -> Chaz Bono.

The show's definition of "star" is a bit weak, you may have noticed.

I'm trying to remember the last time Fox News said anything in the least bit rational.

I'm beginning to think never.

Lapin wrote:

Penguin wrote:

Wait what's the point of this show again?

I've never watched it. I know something about it though. It involves stars. And they dance. I think with a professional dancer? So I'm assuming the dude in question is a professional dancer.

...I gotta go with Penguin here, what's the point of this show?

For desperate C-List celebrities to try and give a jump start to their drowning careers.

Or for then semi-retired pugilists to milk a few lolz out of the Internet

The uproar over Chaz Bono is absolutely ridiculous. You'd think he had committed a crime or something the way some people are throwing a hissy-fit over it. ZOMG CHAZ BONO TURNED FROM A WOMAN TO A MAN AND HE HAS THE ABSOLUTE GALL TO APPEAR ON TELEVISION WON'T SOMEONE THINK OF THE CHILDREN??!!!ELEVENTY!!!123456!!!


Funny how an openly gay man, Carson Kressley of Queer Eye For the Straight Guy, is appearing on the show with Chaz Bono and nobody has said boo about him.

Yes, a gay man and a female-to-male transsexual appearing on the same show. *cue heads exploding*

lemmingwriter wrote:

Penguin wrote:

Wait what's the point of this show again?

This season? To watch Nancy Grace get dropped on her ass, I think.

I'd pay real money for that one.

Silly me, I thought Chaz was just there to dance, not give a blow by blow recount of the transgender process complete with pictures.
Whatever you think of him, did you ever expect the child of Sonny Bono and Cher to turn out 'normal'?
I do remember Cher saying she had a bit of trouble refering to Chaz as he at first, but that's understandable. She gave birth to and raised a girl. But she's supportive. I think any parent, no matter how supportive, how open minded, would have moments where they refer to their child by the old gender.

Miss Misery wrote:

Funny how an openly gay man, Carson Kressley of Queer Eye For the Straight Guy, is appearing on the show with Chaz Bono and nobody has said boo about him.

There probably wouldn't have been much protest anyway. Part of it, of course, is that his dancing partner is a woman; as much as grandma might accept that he's gay in the abstract -- even if she's never heard of him or his old show before this, she's not going to mistake him for straight -- she'd never be able to handle two men dancing together.*




*Earlier this year, some version of the show (Australia, maybe?) had two women as dance partners.

TheIan wrote:

I'm trying to remember the last time Fox News said anything in the least bit rational.

I'm beginning to think never.

I wouldn't say never...

Lance Bass danced with a woman when he was on the show.
The way the show is set up it's male/female couples dancing. Just the way it is.

karmyn31 wrote:

Lance Bass danced with a woman when he was on the show.
The way the show is set up it's male/female couples dancing. Just the way it is.

And were there protests? [Was Bass even out at the time? I don't watch the show.] If not, my point stands. As long as they don't mess too much with the heteronormative format, gay stars probably aren't going to upset the show's fans.

Drabbler wrote:

Miss Misery wrote:

Funny how an openly gay man, Carson Kressley of Queer Eye For the Straight Guy, is appearing on the show with Chaz Bono and nobody has said boo about him.

There probably wouldn't have been much protest anyway. Part of it, of course, is that his dancing partner is a woman; as much as grandma might accept that he's gay in the abstract -- even if she's never heard of him or his old show before this, she's not going to mistake him for straight -- she'd never be able to handle two men dancing together.*

In other words, keep Grandma out of gay bars. Probably a good idea.

Though my son and his boyfriend took me to a gay bar in Des Moines that they like to visit. Honestly, watching two men dance together isn't THAT traumatizing.

Rabid Badger wrote:

Drabbler wrote:

Miss Misery wrote:

Funny how an openly gay man, Carson Kressley of Queer Eye For the Straight Guy, is appearing on the show with Chaz Bono and nobody has said boo about him.

There probably wouldn't have been much protest anyway. Part of it, of course, is that his dancing partner is a woman; as much as grandma might accept that he's gay in the abstract -- even if she's never heard of him or his old show before this, she's not going to mistake him for straight -- she'd never be able to handle two men dancing together.*

In other words, keep Grandma out of gay bars. Probably a good idea.

Though my son and his boyfriend took me to a gay bar in Des Moines that they like to visit. Honestly, watching two men dance together isn't THAT traumatizing.

My sister once told me that the best place for a woman to go if she wants to dance but not be hit on is a gay bar.

Yes, Lance Bass was out when he was on the show. I don't remember if there were protests. I think there were probably jokes about would he dance with a man or a woman.

It's so easy to speak out of one's ass about things that don't concern them.