So For Her last Women’s Studies course, Lover Brody decided to create a ZINE about gender and sex. Locate an Online Version of the ZINE HERE. It will be taken down soon. If you would like to pay for a paper copy I think the cost is ummm $3.00. Yeah it is that big. Anyways I would Like to give you a sample by posting my Contribution to the Zine.
Notably, it does contain some past pictures of me that I had never seen! Taken by One Miss Krystle.
———————————————————————————————————
Derailing the Hot Tamale Train to Straightsville
What is it about popular culture that seems to turn people off? I have heard it described as fake, watered down, lacking authenticity, and completely devoid of actual talent. Mass media, which entails marketing to a large range of individuals within a population, technically has to be watered-down so it can engage varied points of interests of these individuals.
I am not saying that pop culture has nothing to offer; at some level, people have all identified or enjoyed something that has surfaced within mainstream media. Moreover, with this acceptance, I do believe that when this occurs we attempt to legitimize that with which we connect. A problem exists, however, when this also translates into inadvertently condoning problematic themes. Such is the case with my experiences with the Fox Television show So You Think You Can Dance (SYTYCD).
I get a lot of criticism when I admit that I religiously watch SYTYCD. From the dancers of the Department of Dance at The Ohio State University, I receive comments such as, “How can you stand to watch that show? The choreography is horrible. There is no understanding of concepts or art. It is all tricks, showiness, and sequins.” My counter argument only exists in the complexity of creating a universal standpoint; you cannot argue that there is no value in something because every individual on the planet has different, subjective opinions.
My legitimization of SYTYCD falls on my own experience with dance. The only reason I started dancing was that I watch Nick Lazzarini and Melody Lacayanga audition in the first season, and I fell in love with their ability to move through space and utilize their bodies in all of their expansiveness and limitations to express something. If this can happen to me, it can happen to numerous individuals throughout America. Something needed to revive dance in the public eye, and I believed that this could be it.
The pedestal has since begun to crack. I do not deny that this show has given me inspiration and allowed me to witness technical, perfect dancers and spectacular performances, but I admit that a network that embraces a gender binary runs this show.
This epiphany surfaced during the event I will title “The Same-sex Ballroom Audition”. This audition occurred during the Denver auditions of season five.
Producer and Judge Nigel Lythgoe made comments about “alienating a lot of our audience,” that he likes “guys to be guys and girls to be girls.” A later interview with one of the dancers, Misha Belfer, leaked, “Nigel said that he’s not sure that the fathers watching this at home would be encouraged to take their sons to allow them to learn to dance. […] these seasons are trying to build up the idea that a male can dance and make it more acceptable, and we didn’t really help the cause.”
In a previous interview before this episode aired, he commented about his attitude towards effeminate dancers: “Because they need to be very strong. Dancing is role-playing most of the time. And you need to be strong and lift girls. You need to look stronger than the girl you’re dancing with. You control the dance, especially in ballroom. So if you mince about the stage, you’re not doing what the choreographer is asking you to do.”
This incident showed me the gendered bodies, male chauvinism and heteronormativity that this show is backing. Lythgoe professed that there are separate roles for males and females. This hinders the types and qualities of movements available for men in an expressive art form. Lythgoe is suggesting that men do not need to be sensitive, emotional, and fluid beings; that is what women are for, and the men are there to support them. Without masculine strength, women are just capriciously frolicking across the stage.
As a producer of a show trying to make a difference through television, he should probably not worry about alienating an audience of men that would not let their sons dance because they think it would turn them gay. Having apologized to his gay friends, who reprimanded him for his flagrant disrespect of homosexual individuals, Lythgoe should understand that homosexuality is not a choice and dancing did not make these individuals gay. Maybe he should help advocate this by suggesting that just because two men are in close proximity to each other does not mean that they are romantically involved.
I implore Lythgoe to think about all of the homosexual choreographers, such as Antony Tudor, who endured the pain of only being able to make a role for their partner in a dance, and being unable to portray their affectional feelings for one another so that heteronormativity would be upheld. Does the alienation of same-sex couples not matter?
Sadly, Lythgoe was not the only one at fault for perpetuating gender inequalities about what an individual of a particular sex can or cannot do.
Sonya Tayeh, judge and choreographer, commented about her confusion with males performing female qualities. By stretching out her hand to fellow judge Mary Murphy, she added, “When I see this approach I usually see it from a female perspective”
Let me add that Sonya Tayeh sports a mohawk-style haircut in which the sides of her hair are shaved but the top and back are long enough to put into a ponytail. I think the fact that she was a woman hid the fact that she, too, was being hypocritical of gender roles. Belfer should have shot back, “I am sorry Sonya, but when I see a shaved head I usually think of a man. What are you doing at the judges’ panel? Get back to the kitchen to prepare lunch for the crew.”
Sadly, I admit that these judges are correct in the sense that dance has been created around a male/female dichotomy with societal values dictating a male as a strong supportive figure and the women as dependent and a trophy. However, two males dancing together is not a new idea for 2009. The Argentine tango started with men practicing together. Recent choreographers such as Arnie Zane and Bill T Jones have had successful careers using two men in each other’s arms.
I do not understand why Lythgoe is attempting to set the dance world back by promoting gender roles and limiting the use of men in dance when he is trying to get more men involved with it. As I attempt to explore the expansiveness of expression within dance as an art form, am I allowing him to bind my potential imagination by supporting this show? There is no absolute answer, but I implore you to look at the backlash that often accompanies the legitimization of pop culture.
-EPF
No comments:
Post a Comment