Last night's season premiere of So You Think You Can Dance? wasn't all sashays and pop-locking. Quite awesomely, the episode featured a same-sex ballroom dancing duo in which one guy was straight and the other was gay. Not so awesomely, the judges made some pretty ridiculous comments on their performance.
Judge Nigel Lythgoe had this to say: "I think you'd probably alienate a lot of our audience. We've always had the guys dance together on the show but they've never really done it in each other's arms before. I'm really one of those people that like to see guys be guys and girls be girls on stage. I don't think I liked it, to be frank."
Well, to be frank, I don't like this assessment. What do gender roles have to do with dancing? That's like saying I like to see tops be tops and bottoms be bottoms. Versatility is fucking hot!
But I digress. This reminds me of when I was in a high school production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella. With my two left feet, I was paired with the girl playing the wicked stepmother. She did all the leading.
One could say that she was the "man", but she was really just the leader. I didn't feel like any less of a man with her pulling me about. I checked afterwards, and my penis was still there.
I understand that the judges may have been put off by the ambiguity of the traditional roles of leader and follower, but did they really have to take it to such an ugly, homophobic place? And if you wouldn't call this homophobic, you have to admit the gender role designation is disturbing. Basically Lythgoe is saying, "I like guys to play baseball and girls to stay in the kitchen."
– Dewitt
To watch the clip from the episode (starts at 5:10), follow the JUMP:
You know, I wish they’d chosen more tasteful outfits, because they were right, switching leads was confusing. Maybe without sequins (or at least fewer sequins) I would have been less confused…
Lythgoe is right, no matter how much we (the gay community) try to influence what we currently see as the cultural norms, there are just some things that really should not be tampered with. Case in point, I had no idea gay men took a high interest in beauty pageants, yet there they are, in droves watching beautifully made-up women. OK, I’ll give these guys the play dress-up-as-a-kid card.
Gender roles does have its place; especially with partnered dancing. I could never be as engaged with watching two men ballroom dance vice the stark contrast of a male dancer framing his beautiful female partner.
As for DeTwitt’s high school musical experience…one word: bottom.
I think…They are both very talented, but the lead switching is a little much. Perhaps if the switch occured at a drop in the music, and a new leader takes over on the pick-up…perhaps that would work. But the grace of Ballroom comes from the surrender of the partner to move in conjunction with whatever the lead is doing. The prat-fall seemed to be the result of not knowing who was leading at that point.
P.S. Though it was hotter when the Gay guy was leading…slinging the straight boy around…hehehe
Navy…you realize gender roles are made up right? That they aren’t in any way biological or real? So what exactly is their ‘place’? Leader and follower are one thing. Top and bottom, sure. But to say that sex A should be one, and sex B should always be the other just doesn’t make sense.
i didn’t think they were very good… switching is one thing, but what they demonstrated was just chaos. and, diorgasm, the outfits were the best part. but yea, not impressed… especially when they started talking about masculinity, and then brought out the electric hips.
Thank you Dewitt. 🙂
Dancing should be limited to the union of one man and one woman.
Sound familiar?
That “straight” dude is about as straight as DeWitt.
Shame on you navymscle, you of all people should be open-minded to different kinds of people. Seeing two men dance together is beautiful, artistic, and passionate, especially when there is pure chemistry between the two. Just because you can’t get that silly 17th century fixation of what dancing should be doesn’t mean two men dancing together is wrong.
No A.J. Two men dancing togethor is not wrong, I agree. There are numerous dancing styles where both men and women can dance in same sex couples, or even groups. Hip hop, contemporary, jazz or even ethnicly diverse styles such as bollywood.
However, when it comes to ballroom dancing the style calls upon the need for a man and a woman. Forget for just one moment the overly hyped pretences of “political correctness” and think about the dancing it self.
I agree with both Nigel and navymscle. When critiquing this dance stlye, one of the key points is that the men are masculine and the women are feminine, as it is just simply better to watch and more enjoyable. Maybe the homosexual community should stick to being focused on the important issues such as gay marriage and abortion, rather then trying to “fix” what is not broken…nor relevant.
Hahaha, where I said “abortion” I meant to say “Adoption”. Sorry guys!
That’s a whole other debate…