I have to admit I was shocked Chaz Bono went home last night from Dancing With The Stars. Then again, I was not expecting Kim Kardashian to trade Justin Bieber's phone number for votes for her brother on the show. Unless she is going to give out free autograph copies of her sex tape, I don't know if she has anything left. Chaz had a few choice words for judge Len Goodman too. After repeatedly being called an animal on the show this season, Chaz says he felt bullied and that it was unacceptable. You know, I am not sure it was bullying. You are dancing and moving and if you do it in a certain way I can see why someone would be compared to an animal. If the judge had said you move like a gazelle, would that be bullying? No. But, if they say you looked like a penguin trying to be menacing, is that somehow bullying? I think people need to be really careful about throwing out the word bullying because it loses its impact and not everything negative in the world is bullying.
unlike the jonah hill thing which was totally a bullying situation, right? right???
ReplyDeleteit looks like enty read the comments on that article though, so thats good.....
^ i had an eye roll in there about the jonah hill thing. dont know where it went....
ReplyDeleteTough one. I don't watch this show regularly - were his comments harsher than ever before? Were his comments nastier than ever before? Everything needs to be taken in context. If Chaz is the only one he called names, then it's bullying. And, Enty, we all know gazelle is synonymous for graceful, while animal is on par with beastly and is derogatory in the context, so what your saying isn't exactly true. By your logic, a teacher, or the class president - someone in a higher position - at the school talent show - telling one kid, "wow- you remind me of superman!," then turn to another and say, "and you remind me of skeletor!" shouldn't make the latter kid feel a bit bullied or picked on?! Oh - okay. I understand Chaz set his dancing up to be judged, but, there's a responsibility in light of the special circumstances here that should have been better respected. And, if you read my previous posts, you know I'm not usually one to mince words (i.e., I defended Johnny's use of the word rape), or promote oversensitivity. It's just with all the gay teens killing themselves and feeling persecuted / ostrisized, a little compassion and sensitivity would have served everyone better. That said, Chaz just said he felt "a LITTLE bullied," which I can understand. He isn't crying a river or overwhining about it.
ReplyDeleteI don't watch the show but what Kim Kardashian did was pretty sleazy. Typical, I guess.
ReplyDeleteChaz - stay to the high road. That is all.
ReplyDeleteDon't watch ever, but you know when you put yourself out there you need to be prepared for the worst.
ReplyDeleteI don't think it was bullying. Chaz isn't a dancer. Get over it and move on.
ReplyDeleteOh, lord. Judges aren't supposed to be nice. Get the fuck over it. When you study an art and then go on a competitive reality show on which you do the art, you need to be able to take major criticism. The judges are downright rude sometimes to contestants. Same on Top Chef, same on Project Runway, same on American Idol, etc. So, I guess they need to be on eggshells when speaking to the gay or transgender contestants? (eyeroll) Whatever..
ReplyDelete@Nellie - Did you put your "eyeroll" in brackets? If so, Blogger reads that as HTML and won't print it.
ReplyDeleteI haven't been watching, but I agree 100% with Enty's last sentence.
I've never seen the judges "bully" in previous seasons. Does Bruno come up with nonsensical descriptions about dancers? Yes. Can Len be tough and Carrie Ann Inaaaahba be a b****? Yes. I don't know if that qualifies.
The judges are wishy-washy. They're inconsistent with their comments and scores. While I don't think they bullied Chaz or any other contestant, I can see why there would be confusion. They do a terrible job of giving constructive criticism for contestants to use.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't call it bullying. I would call it insulting though. Totally not necessary....but they gotta get those ratings.
ReplyDeleteI watch this show and Len and Bruno ALWAYS compare the stars to animals and other such things in their judging. They have done it to good dancers AND bad dancers. The judges are more grumpy this season, but I thought Chaz was totally outta line.
ReplyDeleteThe Kartrashian's stooped to a low level to keep their no talent bro on the show? LMAO - why are y'all surprised? And Chaz, get some tougher skin there big guy. From what I am reading, the judges are just mean to everyone. Get over it.
ReplyDeleteI believe it was Bruno, not Len, who compared Chaz to a penguin. Doesn't matter.
ReplyDeleteBruno and Len have both done their share of insulting contestants over the years. It's part of the show. Doesn't anyone ever watch shows before they agree to participate?
Dance teachers/judges can be brutal. Stay off the dance floor if you can't take the criticism.
The problem is that DWTS is already scraping to get bigger names on the show. If the judges continue to insult contestants, the talent pool will get even smaller. Having pro dancers fly off the handle won't help, either.
ReplyDeleteOh my God- Talk about a whiney crybaby! Chaz got more unjustified praise for his AWFUL dancing than anyone I've ever seen on the show! It's pretty apparent that he expected to be treated with kid gloves and he was ticked that he got the same treatment as everyone else. Shit- that Carrie chick gushed over Chaz EVERY week, and he was always AWFUL! For being one of the dumbest shows on TV, and yeah I do watch one of the dumbest shows on TV- It is what it is, it's always been that way, and Chaz made an ass of himself for complaining about it. SO glad he's gone.
ReplyDeletemeh. man up, Bono, and deal.
ReplyDeleteI wish Khloe K would shut up when she's in the audience and stop heckling the judges.
ReplyDelete"Clean out your ears!" "Give him a nine!" Shut the hell up!
I heard that Kim K tweeted the phone number people call to vote for her brother and claimed it was Justin Beiber's home phone number. Any truth to this?
And I have to agree with kcqueen, et. al.: Chaz is many things, but a dancer ain't one of 'em.
Wow, tough crowd. :-(
ReplyDeleteSounds like sour grapes to me, Chaz. Fuck it, it's only Dancing with the Stars.
ReplyDeleteAnd that is some BULLSHIT that Kim pulled the other day getting people to vote for her brother. Seriously. I fucking hate that family with a passion.
Chaz also made the point that overweight women on the show are praised for their efforts, but men are not given the same treatment. Chaz was compared to both penquin and Ewok, which last time I checked are short and round animals. Wait, is an Ewok an animal? How would Rikki like being called a penquin or Nancy being compared to an Ewok? There'd be blood on the dance floor.
ReplyDeleteBUT, Chaz did receive warm and fuzzy comments, especially from Carrie Ann, every week when in fact Chaz was a horrible dancer.
Sorry Cher, please don't cut this bitch.
Proposed new rule: No one over the age of 12 gets to cry about "bullying."
ReplyDeleteIf you're an adult, you stand up for yourself. The best way to deal with unfair negativity is to point and laugh. Also, if you're on a reality/game show, you can't be all stunned and amazed, surprised and outraged, if someone judges you harshly. That's the gig. Deal with it.
I thought Chaz actually was treated with kid gloves by the judges. They always praised his "effort". Who do you think Maks was talking about when he complained that his gal Hope was being cut down while others were being praised for giving it the college try.
ReplyDeleteChaz was terrible and had absolutely no grace to any of his performances. Should have gone home week's ago. He was wearing a tuxedo and that stupid half mask and he was lumbering around the floor (he actually reminded me of Kate Gosselin). Yes, he looked like a penguin and I think Bruno had an apt analogy when he said you can't make a penguin look like a bird of prey in the tango.
Chaz, you were awful and if it wasn't for the controversy surrounding your appearance, you probably would have gotten much harsher criticism. Hope got told she was absolutely not sexy and kind of masculine on the dance floor. You weren't bullied.
In fact, the tell tale sign that they were coddling Chaz was shown yesterday when, in the backstage footage, the judges, after they heard Maks comments said, her {Hope's} dance was as bad as Chaz. True, but their comments were MUCH harsher to Hope.
@Amartel, bullying can still occur even if you stand up for yourself. Bullying shouldn't happen in the first place. I don't know if Chaz was bullied, I haven't watched the show, but I am sick of victims being blamed. Part of the reason I don't watch shows like this is the nastiness of the judges and hosts. I don't like it in real life, I don't like it on my TV, radio etc. I won't listen to gotcha calls on radio for example. Constructive criticism does not revert to name calling of anybody.
ReplyDelete@Leiana, yes! thanks for the tip :)
ReplyDeleteI don't know about bullying, but reading the things that were said to Chaz, I definitely think they were rude and inappropriate. I guess you can't expect any better from reality tv.
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ReplyDeleteI used to enjoy DWTS but the judges are ridiculous. You can just hear the director encouraging Bruno to be ever more outrageous, gyrating and dropping stupid innudendos, Carrie Ann is supposed to cry and be rendered incapable of rational speech at the smallest drop of sentiment and Len is supposed to spout his funny little "British-isms" that make no sense but are supposedly charming. I don't blame the stars or their partners for complaining that the judges aren't giving them any useful feedback - they're just part of the circus. With all their nonsense going on it's becoming more common to hear rude, mean, off-color, or just bizarre comments from the judges.
ReplyDeleteferaltart, people are frequently rude and mean. That's an unfortunate fact of life but it isn't bullying. Bullying is something that happens in a schoolyard between children. We intervene because children are emotionally vulnerable and don't know how to stand up for themselves. The same cannot reasonably be said of adults (unless they are developmentally challenged mentally). By the time we are adults, we are expected to have developed coping mechanisms for dealing with the rude and the mean. Going around proclaiming onself a "victim" because someone was rude or mean gives the win to the "bully." You can't outlaw rudeness and/or meanness; there's this thing called the First Amendment that would prevent that. Also, the "bully" might preemptively accuse you of bullying. It's the sort of thing rude, mean people would think to do. Inevitably, the issue becomes who bullied who first, who's more "vulnerable," who's higher up the food scale of protected categories of people, and it devolves into a bunch of crybaby whining from people who really ought to know better. So much easier, and effective, and honest, to point and laugh.
ReplyDeleteWow, Amartel, I guess you've never met an emotionally vulnerable adult? I guess if all of us can't toughen up by the time we turn 18, we should lock ourselves away in a convent or something.
ReplyDeleteAnd while we can't outlaw rudeness and meanness, we sure as hell can decide that they are socially unacceptable.
ReplyDeleteBullying is when a person habitually intimidates smaller or weaker people, and therefore can happen at any age.
ReplyDeleteI don't watch the show so can't say if bullying occurred, but if we're going to argue, let's get our facts straight eh?