Author: Cher Scholar (Page 53 of 102)

For admittedly personal reasons, I'm so glad Chaz's stint on Dancing with the Stars is over.

Because happily I've been having guests visit Santa Fe (my mother-in-law and sister-in-law just came for five days and my parents are due to arrive for ten days) and it's been hard to keep up although my mother-in-law is a fan of the show and we watched it after a trip to Camel Rock Casino…but I couldn't blog about it or vote last week.

Because these competition shoes are emotionally fatiguing…listening to the judges gripe, the dancers gripe, Hope and Nancy Grace gripe, watching Chaz dance with injuries due to the extra weight. I'm sure it must be hard for BOTH Nancy Grace and Chaz (even Ricki Lake says it's hard) to dance with extra weight…so therefore as a viewer you know this weight will set them back. The uncomfortable laws of physics. And the world of dance hates body fat (on men and women).  From my point of view as a woman who is sensitive about her wieight (and was anorexic myself at age 13), making jokes about a man's fat and not a woman's fat is a double edged sword. It's all fun and well for men to be heavy (implicitely acceptable and jolly) but it's a "serious issue" for women and one not to be joked about. This is why I think Ricki and Nancy were encouraged to lose pounds and Chaz was not. Is it really better for women? Is that why ballerinas are anorexic half the time? The issue is worhty of further debate.

Because that last show was rough to watch. Bruno Tonioli called Chas in his tux a "fuzzy penguin" and Chaz got pissed off: his face full of sweat and upset during the rest of the judging session (like he couldn't even hear the other judge's comments) and he was practically speechless during the vote tally, finally expressing his anger at the final sit-down, commenting on the double standard in judging weight between men and women. Which was all irrelevant drama sadly, because Chaz had done what he set out to do by making it into the top six, where arguably David, Ricki, JR and Rob are better dancers. Even Jimmy Kimmel got Chaz admit he didn't expect to win. I love Jimmy Kimmel, btw. So it was time to go, give or take a Nancy Grace.

I've also become addicted to Oprah's Lifeclass over the past two weeks and I wasn't going to mention this here (because everyone has their own opinion about Oprah and I'm new to the Oprah-craze) but Chaz himself tweeted that he'd been watching some of the classes too. And the lessons learned there surely pertain to Chaz's final experience on DWTS, which were unfortunately negative. The dance of 80s week was a triumph of fun and relatively good scores but Broadway week faltered when Chaz took on the character of Phantom of the Opera. The mask only obscured his charisma and his footwork wasn't to the level of the other contestants. Dancer Max was mean about it but he did speak the truth when he alluded to Chaz as he complained that Hope had been over-judged on technique and footwork when other contestants had been basically walking around the floor and getting a A for effort. Now I've been asking the voting-Gods to send Hope home for weeks now because of her inability to deal with not being number one, but that doesn't get Chaz off the hook for his sub-par dancing.

Oprah Lifelessons come to play here. Let's consider dancing itself. Chaz, do you really want to be a dancer? Seriously? Is this who you are? I thought the point of coming on this show was not only, as you said in your farewell, to show the world a different kind of man BUT to show the world that America's DWTS-voters would not reject a transexual man in week one…in week two…in week three…in week four…in week five. What a f*#king accomplishment! I so wished it could have been celebrated as such last night. Authentically you did above and beyond what you needed to do to that bum knee. Did the ego take over?

Remember Oprah's ego lesson. What are hurt feelings? You letting the ego take over. Why go on a competition show when you're feeling more confident than you ever have in your life? Why go on a show whose judges will eventually shred you for your looks, your weight or your dancing? Why put yourself out there for that inevitability? What was your true intention? I believed it was that your soul had a purpose that went beyond weight and dancing ability. The judges will say what they will say. It's their show (and Max's). But it's not their life to judge. And their comments are worthless at the feet of it. The first Oprah Lifeclass (and all of them, quite frankly) was transforming to me because I get my feelings hurt all the time. Was it Iyanla Vansant who said people's comments are just observations? Only you give them meaning.

By the way, the judges never said (or implied to my understanding of their comments) that you are a fat troll. Your own ego spoke those words. And that's the important judge.

Do judges comments affect votes? Maybe so. They gave very positive comments to Chaz for many weeks in spite of some okay-to-bad dancing and maybe that too affected voting. But unfortunatley it isn't about America's votes in the end (which is tragic because they kept a trans man in the show for six weeks) but about feelings and ego and weight loss.

John and I talked a lot about this last night. I wondered if the judges where confused about how to treat a trans man. John feels that Chaz getting angry over Bruno's comment did not make Chaz look good on national TV (it made him look like a sore loser) BUT it was a natural healthy male response.  John loved seeing a confident Chaz on the show but felt it was time for him to essentially "man-up" and admit he had gone as far in the competition as he was meant to go.

What's going on here has so much more to do with weight, dancing, gender and charisma. It's all mashed up together. Chaz is going through learning to live as a man and wanting to be treated as a man. And this is harsh but none of that is a dance-judge's problem. I don't care if the judges are assholes. This is Chaz's singular journey not theirs. And "feeling good about yourself" for any reason should never have been the goal of competing on a TV dance show.

John also commented that this show is harder for men because they must look like they are leading the dance. A good male dancer can make any woman look good because he can lead her around. It's harder for a talented woman dancer to make a man look good. John also said we all need to rewatch Oprah's show on the ego.

Bottom line: Chaz outlasted most of the show's hotties and I wish I wasn't so sad about the final week's drama. Carson Kressley left with ego-affirming grace last week. And he was a gawky, bad dancer. There's absolutly no shame in that.

Before there was this blog, I used to post Reality TV commentary on Ape Culture. We called it Celebrity Zoo. This is where we did the week-by-week commentary of Chaz when he was Chastity on Celebrity Fit Club season 3:

http://www.apeculture.com/television/celebfit3ep1.htm
 
Check it out if you want a ride down memory lane. That was almost nine years ago!!
 
Look at those sconces. Did they film this show in Cher's house?

The introduction of the cast shows there are an inordinate amount of blondes on this show. And the music, is that a recycled Oscar theme from the 80s?

This week Chaz's performance was too slow for the quick step; but I loved the ripped-off version of Joan Jett's version of the Mary Tyler Moore Show theme. This is a version I wanted to play at my wedding but I nixed it because I felt it was too self-referential. It was my wedding and all but I didn’t want it be all about me, you know.

The judges remarked on Chaz's likeability, calling him a little ewok even. They also remarked on Chaz's "circumstances," those being the bad knee and ankle but also noted that this is the "territory of this show" and that "charm takes you so far." Chaz needs to stop complaining about his age, weight and blown-out-knees (probably due to carrying around too much weight all these years) UNLESS the strategy is to get votes out of sympathy pleas. Chaz already looks thinner by the way.

His scores were 6,5,6 but since all scores skewed higher this week, he ended up at the absolute bottom. In audience votes, Chaz ended up in the bottom three with David Arquette and Elisabetta Canalis (who was too stiff and lost votes probably from her scenes of bitchiness). George Clooney arm-candy ended up going. I'm glad because I'm starting to feel like Arquette has deep-down self-confidence issues.

As for the others, Chynna Phillips is very good and graceful and is helping me get that short-haired pixie from the 90s out of my head. I keep seeing her former bandmate Carnie Wilson on Celebrity Ghost Stories and Celebrity Dreams Decoded. She's looking tired out. Ricki Lake is beautiful and showed great legs this week. I think I have a girl crush on her. Carson Kressley continues to be fun. Nancy Grace. Now I noticed lots of people not clapping for her so I read up on all her scandals. Ick. J.R. Martinez is so so good. Rob Kardashian was last week's lowest score and I'm agnostic about him this week. Hope Solo is still doing soccer events so it's amazing she's hanging in there. Kristin Cavallari—I still don’t dislike this gal yet.

Another transgendered individual called into Stephanie Miller's radio show this week and said Chaz was great, down to earth, and they couldn’t have asked for a better advocate.

There's a rumor circulating that Chaz is being courted to host Saturday Night Live with Cher as a musical guest (good time to push that new single). Oh wouldn't that be sweet. It's the closest we'd ever get to a Sonny & Cher variety show reunion, kids. Absolutely dreamy.

Dancing with the Stars played for 4 hours this week! Are you kidding me? I couldn't stand the chatty stuff in the last 2 horus so I had to fast forward to the Chaz parts.

People on the show who I know

• Chaz
• Chynna Phillips – thank you for being another celebrity I know. Although I did not like you in Wilson Phillips, I’m suspending my dislike of your snappy hair tosses and your crossed-legged poses on grassy fields while singing insipid tunes just because I’m feeling old and know barely half of this cast. Incidentally, Chynna is a good dancer.
• David Arquette—I'm rooting for this recovering alkie.
• Ricki Lake—I love her and always think she’ll go far in her endeavors.
• Carson Kressley—From Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, he's one of my fantasy gay brothers. But my least favorite for some unknown reason. There's something kind of off about him. Is it his lips? His snarky quips that sound artificially flaming? I can’t place it. John read his book on style and not showing chest hair over tshirts. John is rooting for Carson.

People on this show I don’t know

• Nancy Grace—She's a TV legal analyst (is she like Greta van Susteren during the OJ trial?)
• J.R. Martinez—an Iraq vet and motivational celebrity—this dude is a happy inspiration—we’re both rooting for him.
• Rob Kardashian—don’t know him but I feel for him.
• Ron Artest—The NBA star and the first to get booted this week. I can only think this was because he danced first or maybe because he changed his name to something silly. He was certainly cute and charismatic enough to stay.
• Hope Solo—She's the professional soccer gal. I don’t know her but I LOVE HER for being the tough sports chick on the show. She’s my favorite female competitor.
• Elisabetta Canalis—model and former beard to George Clooney. Just kidding. Her days are numbered though.
• Kristin Cavallari—I barely know her from a cameo she did on The Family Guy. She doesn’t suck.

Chaz made a great showing. The host called him Razmataz Chaz. I was honestly worried for him in the beginning behind-the-scenes when he started making grimaces and excuses (being too old). But by showtime, he came through. He was cuddly and cute just as described. I was expecting clumsy but we got some flare.

I'm not sure yet about the facial hair thing. He must be experiencing facial hair euphoria and I hope Carson Kressley can step in and put and end to that.

John remarked that he seems so much happier. Others remarked that he exuded joy and cuteness. The shows hosts went to great lengths to be positive about his appearance and they kept asking him how he was dealing with the controversy. Chaz continually avoided the negative and thanked his supporters. Judges were positive but he ended up with a score of 6, 5 and 6 which put him at 17, squarely in the middle ranks of all the contestants.

Since episode one, social conservatives have been slamming his appearance during the family viewing hour. Some good articles on the drama:

• LGBT Weekly talks about the boycotts and calls for Pro Bono Viewing Parties
• Boston.com does a good in-depth piece on the issue of transgendering and letting your kids watch the show
• Time.com says Bono shines in their headline and voted Chaz the most entertaining dancer:
  The only child of Sonny and Cher had some big shoes to fill. As the show's first transgender contestant (and probably only, unless Isis from America's Next Top Model steps up) he had a lot more pressure on his shoulders than, say, Chynna Phillips. Despite being forty-something and out of shape, Chaz and partner Lacey Schwimmer cha cha cha'd their way into the judges' (and possibly) America's hearts.