Chaz Bono Changes the Nature of Dancing On TV

I went to school with Chaz Bono. That was in Manhattan, at LaGuardia High School of Music and the Arts across from Lincoln Center. Back then she was Chastity. She she was chubby and schlubby, and not too far from my own chubby and shlubby appearance. She was also very unhappy looking. My fellow students whispered about her those first few days in the class we shared, commenting on the contrast between Chastity and her mom. They seemed disappointed. People would point in her general direction saying, "There, there she is" and the other person would be confused, saying, "Where? Where?", expecting a younger version of Cher. When someone has a flamboyant mom like Cher, you imagine the offspring to be well on their way to matching that spark in their own way. She was quiet, and looked miserable, friendless even. (But I never talked to her, so who knows what was really going on. In high school I liked to imagine that everyone was as socially inept as I was).

Now Chastity has retrofitted herself to a male personae in the form of Chaz. She will appear on "Dancing with the Stars," dancing with a female, and people have taken sides. If you are not in favor, and highly supportive, then you are invariably some variation of bigot. That's the going line. Even if you have religious reasons, and you are religious by virtue of really believing that God is alive and watches these things we do, you are still expected to chuck all aside and come to the conclusion that she is a he, and a brave he at that.

Kiri Blackeley in Forbes casually scolds the critics, asking them why they are critiquing Chaz's alterations of a supposed God's inspired natural order, when so many others have made basic changes to themselves without an outcry. She writes:

The typical argument is framed like this one, which was posted on the show’s board: “I choose not to endorse ABC’s decision to have Chaz Bono dancing on the show. We will no longer be watching ABC. For Chaz Bono to change her sex is her saying that God made a mistake by creating her female and God does NOT make mistakes.” Fair enough. 

But this reasoning leaves me wondering where the furor was when Pamela Anderson was on the show last year. Anderson, for instance, was not born blonde, nor was she born with size 38 double D breasts. The same could be said for former cast members and Playboy mansion habitués Holly Madison and Kendra Wilkinson.  

Jennifer Grey, who won the 2010 season, was by her own admission not born with the nose you see on her face. I do not recall any ruckus about her. In fact, she was an audience favorite.

(Forbes)

This is probably not the most convincing critique of the critics. Changing your body even in small ways is often frowned upon in Christian circles, the mass sheepish herd of people--religious or otherwise-getting tattoos notwithstanding. When Jesus talks of the body as a temple or house of God, we hardly imagine that it begins with knocking down the house, ripping up the moorings, and installing some marble counter tops and stainless steel appliances. The premise of Jesus, and Christianity, is not necessarily changing the physical, or governments, but changing hearts.

Then too, transgendering yourself goes way beyond merely getting some casual physical surgery, which is why doctors and psychologists prep you for your many transitions. Even after it's done, and you have your new better self, there is no assurance that you will function or feel better. It's an assumption backed by not a shred of deep, long term scientific study.

Kiri manages to frame the entire issue in the most idiotic manner, ignoring any number of important issues in an effort to be supportive. And while some liberals actively applaud these social changes, supporting them in film and the media, the other side actively dumps their energy and effort into the political process. The mechanics of how this works is that you end up with everything your liberal heart desires on the telly, while ruled from Washington by people much farther to the right of that little heart.

That's how you end up with the Palins and the Bachmanns garnering more support than reasonable people like Jon Huntsman.

The higher that the monkey can climb

The more he shows his tail

Call no man happy 'til he dies

There's no milk at the bottom of the pail

God builds a church

The devil builds a chapel

Like the thistles that are growing

'round the thrunk of a tree

All the good in the world

You can put inside a thimble

And still have room for you and me

If there's one thing you can say

About Mankind

There's nothing kind about man

You can drive out nature with a pitch fork

But it always comes roaring back again

(Tom Waits)