{"id":332722,"date":"2021-08-30T23:30:10","date_gmt":"2021-08-30T20:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/why-did-it-take-30-seasons-for-dwts-to-feature-a-same-sex-pairing\/"},"modified":"2021-08-30T23:30:10","modified_gmt":"2021-08-30T20:30:10","slug":"why-did-it-take-30-seasons-for-dwts-to-feature-a-same-sex-pairing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/why-did-it-take-30-seasons-for-dwts-to-feature-a-same-sex-pairing\/","title":{"rendered":"#Why Did It Take 30 Seasons for \u2018DWTS\u2019 to Feature a Same-Sex Pairing?"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Why Did It Take 30 Seasons for \u2018DWTS\u2019 to Feature a Same-Sex Pairing?<\/strong>”
\n<\/p>\n

Hit reality competition Dancing With the Stars<\/em> will break new ground when it returns for its 30th season. New ground for Dancing With the Stars<\/em>, that is. After 29 seasons and 336 contestants<\/a>, the show is finally featuring a same-sex pairing\u2014as similar shows have done for years\u2014now that Dance Moms<\/em> alum JoJo Siwa is set to dance with a female partner this fall.<\/p>\n

Yes, that makes one same-sex duo after 336 heterosexual pairings. That\u2019s representation of just under 0.3 percent\u2014not even a third of one percent.<\/p>\n

Compare that to recent Gallup data<\/a> that shows that more than 5 percent of U.S. adults\u2014and more than 15 percent of Gen Z adults in the United States\u2014identify as bisexual, gay, or lesbian.<\/p>\n

So, no, I\u2019m not waving my \u201c10\u201d paddle at Dancing With the Stars<\/em>\u2019 overdue queer inclusion.<\/p>\n

Perhaps I\u2019d celebrate the ABC show if it featured a same-sex pairing 10 years ago, or even five<\/em> years ago. After all, other dancing competitions on television\u2014and even Dancing With the Stars<\/em>\u2019 overseas counterparts\u2014have had men coupled with men and women coupled with women for years now.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s past time for same-sex couples to compete on Dancing With the Stars<\/em> in the U.S. as they have in versions of the show airing in countries like Australia, Denmark, Ireland, Israel, and Italy,\u201d Sarah Kate Ellis, president and CEO of GLAAD, told Newsweek<\/a><\/em> in 2020.<\/p>\n

Sure enough, the American version of Dancing With the Stars<\/em> has been airing since 2005, and aside for a brief moment during Season 22<\/a>\u2014when Nyle DiMarco and Jodie Sweetin switched partners for 20 seconds during an Argentine tango\u2014it has shied away from dance routines that might be read as queer.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=MMc7JiNpshQ<\/a><\/iframe><\/p>\n

In fact, a Dancing With the Stars<\/em> producer reportedly put the kibosh on a dance routine with \u201ctwo males dancing with each other\u201d in 2015. In an email, a DWTS<\/em> producer cited a \u201cdefinitive no from the network,\u201d according to TMZ<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

In past interviews, DWTS<\/em> producers have used ballroom norms as their excuse\u2014a convenient \u201cout,\u201d if you will\u2014for not featuring same-sex pairings.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve discussed [such] pairings in the past,\u201d one producer, Conrad Green, told NBC News<\/a><\/em> in 2011. \u201cBut the traditional role in ballroom [dancing] is for men to have a female partner, so that\u2019s what we\u2019ll do.\u201d<\/p>\n

And indeed, the show has a long history of putting queer celebrities with professional dancers in hetero pairings. DWTS<\/em> producers paired Lance Bass with Lacey Schwimmer in Season 7, Margaret Cho with Louis van Amstel in Season 11, Carson Kressley with Anna Trebunskaya in Season 13, Diana Nyad with Henry Byalikov in Season 18, Jonathan Bennett with Allison Holker in Season 19, Michael Sam with Peta Murgatroyd in Season 20, and Adam Rippon with Jenna Johnson in Season 26.<\/p>\n

In the same 2011 NBC News<\/a><\/em> article, DWTS<\/em> producer Deena Katz said that she was \u201csurprised\u201d by the calls for same-sex partnering. \u201cThis is not a social<\/a> dancing show, it\u2019s a dancing competition,\u201d she added. \u201cA man should dance with a woman, no matter what your sexual orientation, in ballroom. \u2026 We\u2019re not setting people up on dates.\u201d<\/p>\n

That response seems glib\u2014condescending, even. Queer viewers and their allies know the difference between Dancing With the Stars<\/em> and The Bachelor<\/em>. They weren\u2019t asking for DWTS<\/em> to be \u201csetting people up on dates\u201d; they were asking the show to reflect modern-day society instead of clinging to heteronormative ballroom standards. (Coincidentally or not, Green and Katz are no longer DWTS<\/em> producers, according to their IMDb profiles.)<\/p>\n

From a more cynical standpoint, perhaps producers kept the dance routines straight to app<\/a>ease the show\u2019s conservative fanbase. DWTS<\/em> has proven red-state appeal<\/a>, and conservatives have historically been less accepting of homosexuality<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And despite Katz\u2019s problematic claim that a man \u201cshould\u201d dance with a woman in ballroom, same-sex ballroom competitions have proved popular at the Gay Game<\/a>s and Outgames, as Cornell University performing arts and media arts professor J. Ellen Gainor noted in a 2006 article in The Gay & Lesbian Review<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Gainor also described ballroom dancing as \u201cone of pop culture\u2019s favorite symbols of heterosexual desire and romance (as well, less frequently, as a signifier of homosexual panic)\u201d but observed that \u201cthere is nothing biologically essentialist about the dance itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

She went on: \u201cMany of the steps that comprise the individual dances are executed similarly by both partners, and there is nothing inherent to the figures\u2014other than convention\u2014that precludes their being danced by either sex.\u201d<\/p>\n

So yes, I\u2019m happy that Siwa gets to express her sexuality on the dance floor\u2014and even happier that she\u2019ll boost pansexual visibility in the process\u2014but I\u2019m underwhelmed by Dancing With the Stars<\/em>\u2019 too-little, too-late inclusion effort. And frankly, I\u2019m not convinced that ballroom traditions were the reason DWTS<\/em> didn\u2019t feature a same-sex pairing until its 30th season.<\/p>\n

But I have hope for change\u2014both on the dance floor and in America at large. If Dancing With the Stars<\/em> can make LGBTQ+ visibility a rule instead of an exception, and if it can let its stars dance with whichever pro they want to dance with, then perhaps the show\u2019s viewers will understand and embrace<\/em> the vast spectrum of sexual and gender identities. And perhaps we can all cha-cha-cha into a happier, safer future for LGBTQ+ individuals.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#Why Did It Take 30 Seasons for \u2018DWTS\u2019 to Feature a Same-Sex Pairing?” Hit reality competition Dancing With the Stars will break new ground when it returns for its 30th season. New ground for Dancing With the Stars, that is. After 29 seasons and 336 contestants, the show is finally featuring a same-sex pairing\u2014as similar…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":332723,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.tvinsider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/dancing-with-the-stars-mirrorball-trophy-1014x570.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-332722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-mediaa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=332722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332722\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/332723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=332722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=332722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=332722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}