Lesbians and Other Sexual Freaks on Prime Time TV:Jane Lynch and Chaz Bono

From Chas to Chaz: Bono's Journey:
Chastity Bono turns to Chaz Bono.
That means she no longer has to be a lesbian
with her girlfriend (pictured above right)
she met before turning trans.

Right: Family photo with Jane on the right
Left: Jane with her "wife"
Jane Lynch, the ebullient lesbian, doesn't need (want?) a sex
change, and wears pants or dresses, depending on
the occasion. She still calls her "partner" her "wife" though,
seeing as they recently got "married"
[Photos from Jane Lynch's new book "Happy Accidents"]
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I wonder what set off the triggers that eventually changed these young girls? They weren't particularly attractive as young girls. Could it be that they're rebelling against, angry at, the taunts and rejections they got in the school yard? Young friends teasing them that they looked different? That they were too tall, too fat? Bullies who took advantage of their shyness? Mothers who didn't come to the rescue, but told them to "go out and fight back?"

I always wonder what turns people into lesbians or homosexuals. Camille Paglia, the famous anti-lesbian lesbian thinks that it is the relationship with a cold and distant mother which triggers off lesbians, and a close and cloying one which sets off homosexuals.

Here's what Paglia writes in her book "Vamps and Tramps" about lesbians:

A once lesbian-friend, now married, declared to me that lesbians suffer from "buried rage, with a desperate need for consolation. I see a persistent pattern among white middle-class lesbians: they often have a decorous, passive-aggressive mother, who uses her daughter as a proxy to act out her secret ambivalence towards men, in the person of the never directly confronted husband. Caretakers on the surface, lesbians are seething with unacknowledged hostility...

Well, these photos seem to show that. Although the Cher photo somewhat belies that. But Chastity was part of a show business family, and I would think that Cher really had no time for her except when she was on stage and performing with her. But Cher was genuinely shocked, upset and hurt at her daughter's change of, well, person. I think in a normal family, she would have been more the pestering, ever-present mother (would Chas have turned Chaz too, then?). Chaz, as an adult, could have figured that out, and forgiven her mother. But revenge is sweeter than forgiveness, I would think. Revenge to pay back that absent mother, irrelevant of the reasonable reasons. So, Chastity went the self-destructive route. Some revenge. If life was so unbearable, she could have just left. But true to her narcissism, she preferred to stay in the limelight, and shock her mother with her public, exhibitionist act.

Here's Cher's account of her reaction to the sex change:

"I was hysterical one day because I was calling Chaz's answering machine and I realized it was her old voice, and then I said, 'Chaz is there a way I can save it because I will never hear that voice again?' And there wasn't, it was gone.

"That's the most traumatic thing that has happened to me in this whole thing - hearing her voice and knowing I'll never hear it again."

[S]he avoided seeing Chaz - whose father is the singer's late husband Sonny Bono - for a long time after he began treatment because she was so nervous.

..."I was so nervous...I hadn't seen her and I was putting it off...If I don't recognize her, what will happen?"

Cher also admitted she still doesn't feel "comfortable" referring to her offspring as "him" rather than "her".

..."At some point, I'm gonna have to start calling her 'him'. It doesn't seem comfortable to me yet. Actually I just can't remember and I guess I'll start forcing myself but I'm not sure she cares."

The "transgendered" "Chaz" Bono, "daughter" of Cher (who herself has transformed her face and looks very different from her original looks) is a contestant on Dancing with the Stars. I think DWTS is one of the few good shows out there where contestants have to fight for their position as the best Celebrity Ballroom Dancer through about twelve weeks of hard competitions (some actually have to withdraw because of injuries). The professional dancers have dedicated most of their lives to ballroom dancing, and are graceful dancers, humble individuals, and good teachers. They know showmanship isn't all, and talent and hard work are also part of their success.

So, how did "Chaz" Bono, the "transgendered" freak (Bono is a guy on top, but female at the bottom) make it so high up in popular culture to get invited to do a show like DWTS, and to stay on for another week of competition (the contestant with lowest number of audience votes is sent home, and Bono made it through the first week)?

I think that people are just interested in the freak factor, and the spectacle another week with Bono will bring.

Still, I'm not sure if "transgendered" freaks are more acceptable in our current society, as much as they attract attention and curiosity. I think society has always been like this (think of circus freaks) where such creatures are inspected and viewed within confined areas apart from society, but don't participate in normal society. Today's freaks appear to be more accepted (they walk our streets like ordinary members), but they're not quite there yet. Anyone who sees Bono, and knows about its transformations, will not help gawking. And Bono received death threats when its participation in DWTS became known, and the DWTS set has had to hire bodyguards.

Lesbians are another story these days. I suppose it could be that they haven't altered any anatomical parts that society is more lenient towards them. Or because there have been some in the spotlight (Ellen DeGeneres, Rosie O'Donnell) who have been aggressively using their platform to tell their audience that they are just like them (they want love and family, only that they have a slightly different version of what family is).

Actress Jane Lynch, a lesbian who recently "married" her "partner," got the hosting job for this year's Emmys. She made a joke about her "marriage" at the Emmys with co-presenter Elizabeth Moss, another actress:

[Lynch quips]: "A lot has changed since 1955, women can marry other women. Hi Peggy [a character in the 1960s TV show Mad Men]"... Moss replied: "Does that mean that women don’t have to sleep with men anymore to make it to the top?" To which Lynch dryly replied: “They still have to do that."

But that is obviously changing, or has even probably changed, if we look at high-placed public figures like DeGeneres and O'Donnell. And lesbians (and homosexuals) have managed to convince contemporary society that their way of life belongs in the mainstream, marriage and all. If we've come so far with lesbians, I don't see why the transgendered cannot come out of their viewing cages, and live unaffected lives in normal society. It is just a matter of time.