otherwise 1) In another way, differently; 2) Under other circumstances; 3) In other respects.

So You Think You Can Dance… “like a Man”

There's not much to watch on TV these days with Battlestar gone and no more Lost, and I'm still waiting for True Blood and Mad Men to return. In the meantime, So You Think You Can Dance comes to the rescue during this off-season with the audition episodes. I mostly skip the bad ones that are supposed to be funny -- I don't enjoy laughing at people -- and once in a while, I'm actually moved by beautiful, heartfelt performances.

This clip falls under another category -- reasons I wish I didn't watch SYTYCD. It gets even worse when the actual season begins because the boys and girls pair up as partners, and the whole thing frequently devolves into heterosexist crap. Sure, there are the occasional gender-neutral performances, but the heteronormative format of the show makes it exceedingly difficult for dancers who transgress the masculine/feminine boundaries.

Here's a clip from the other day that made me grunt out loud.

It's clear from the editing that the show didn't take these guys seriously. I thought it was a thoughtful disruption of the foundational male/masculine/lead vs. female/feminine/follow assumptions in partner dancing, but the whole thing was cast as a freak show. The disastrous fall didn't help, of course.

All the judges' comments are terrible, including Nigel's blatant homophobia ("I think you'd probably alienate a lot of our audience") and idiotic comments like "I like guys be guys and girls be girls" and "I want to see you dance with girls -- you never know, maybe you'll enjoy that, too, wink wink.")

Apparently, I'm not alone in being incensed by this. See here and here.

And Mary. She was clearly uncomfortable ("I'm just... so... confused!"), but I especially hate Mary. Thank god for TiVo so I don't have to listen to her fawning over pretty (but masculine, of course!) boys and shed tears for Black dancers in ways that grossly overcompensate for white guilt. Nigel, of course, does his share of lecherously drooling at the girls.

I can totally see why people tune in to America's Best Dance Crew instead. It's not as diverse genre-wise, but it doesn't have half the sexist, racist and homophobic baggage of SYTYCD.

Update: Nigel has issued an apology in response to GLAAD's call to action. It's a half-ass apology, if you ask me, the kind that doesn't really say "I'm sorry" but "I'm sorry if I offended you" -- as if the problem is about the reception of the offense on the part the offendee, without any genuine reflection on the part of the offender. To add insult to injury, to say that "sexual orientation is irrelevant" as part of the apology? Tell that to people who are routinely insulted, assaulted, and even murdered because of sexual orientation. To deny its relevance is a major part of the problem, and homophobia today is as irrelevant as racism.

Popularity: 1% [?]