Friday, December 09, 2005
Tranvestite Travesties; No-Cost Charity. (This is copied from my political blog of the same date.)
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(1) Acceptable Transvestism. Former U.S. Olympian Cathy Rigby, who won a silver medal at the 1970 Summer Olympics for balance beam, has been playing the boy Peter Pan for 31 years. At long last, this 51-year-old woman's showbiz transvestism is coming to an end, as we in the New York Tristate Metropolitan Area are reminded daily by TV commercials for her Madison Square Garden appearance, which is intended to be her last there. However, once she leaves New York, she won't wrap up her scandalous celebration of gender confusion until at least May 2006, elsewhere.
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Also in New York this holiday season, the Radio City Music Hall Rockettes dress up, as they always do for the Christmas Show, as men in their "Parade of the Wooden Soldiers" — three dozen women pretending to be men. Why is that acceptable? If dozens of men dressed as women, would society be so indulgent?
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Why is it okay for women to dress as men?
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On Live with Regis and Kelly recently, Kelly Ripa recounted that after a performance of Peter Pan, she and her kids made a backstage visit to Rigby. One of Kelly's kids observed aloud that Peter Pan is a girl! How confusing is that to kids?
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Tho there might once have been some legal rationale for using an adult woman to represent a prepubescent boy onstage, out of concern for a child actor's mental health or education, that rationale doesn't hold today, and especially not if other child characters are played by actual children.
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Nor does the justification hold that in a long stage run or national tour, a child would age and have to be replaced as his voice changed. The late Charles Schulz, creator of the Peanuts cartoon gang, saw to it that all the children's voices in his TV specials were actual children's voices. As one group aged, another replaced it. Easy. There are a great many kids eager to act. Children's roles should not be stolen by adults.
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The human race is feeble-minded, in the sense that people need constant reinforcement of even the most obvious things, like gender. Any time you confuse a base issue of identity, like gender, you disserve society and cause very personal pain to confused people. Gender confusion is an extremely serious matter that causes huge personal agony, even to the point of inducing people into having surgery that severely mulilates their bodies, irreversibly, or produces suicide.
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The custom of having a woman portray Peter Pan is not quaint and harmless. It is contemptible and destructive. If Peter Pan is not to be portrayed by boy actors, the play should never again be produced, anywhere, in any medium.
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(2) Care — Free. Just a reminder at the holidays that there are 6 click-to-donate (CTD) sites you might want to visit regularly. Advertisers pay a tiny amount per click (one per visit per day, controlled by cookies) on a button on each site, so anyone can make a small donation to alleviate hunger, provide medical care to children, save the rainforest, distribute books to kids, fite breast cancer, and feed animals in shelters, without spending anything but a moment's time. You can get to all these CTD sites via The Hunger Site. They are displayed as tabs across the top of the screen, and, if you click on the button for one, the screen you are taken to has, you will see if you scroll down, all the others below.
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(1) Acceptable Transvestism. Former U.S. Olympian Cathy Rigby, who won a silver medal at the 1970 Summer Olympics for balance beam, has been playing the boy Peter Pan for 31 years. At long last, this 51-year-old woman's showbiz transvestism is coming to an end, as we in the New York Tristate Metropolitan Area are reminded daily by TV commercials for her Madison Square Garden appearance, which is intended to be her last there. However, once she leaves New York, she won't wrap up her scandalous celebration of gender confusion until at least May 2006, elsewhere.
+
Also in New York this holiday season, the Radio City Music Hall Rockettes dress up, as they always do for the Christmas Show, as men in their "Parade of the Wooden Soldiers" — three dozen women pretending to be men. Why is that acceptable? If dozens of men dressed as women, would society be so indulgent?
+
Why is it okay for women to dress as men?
+
On Live with Regis and Kelly recently, Kelly Ripa recounted that after a performance of Peter Pan, she and her kids made a backstage visit to Rigby. One of Kelly's kids observed aloud that Peter Pan is a girl! How confusing is that to kids?
+
Tho there might once have been some legal rationale for using an adult woman to represent a prepubescent boy onstage, out of concern for a child actor's mental health or education, that rationale doesn't hold today, and especially not if other child characters are played by actual children.
+
Nor does the justification hold that in a long stage run or national tour, a child would age and have to be replaced as his voice changed. The late Charles Schulz, creator of the Peanuts cartoon gang, saw to it that all the children's voices in his TV specials were actual children's voices. As one group aged, another replaced it. Easy. There are a great many kids eager to act. Children's roles should not be stolen by adults.
+
The human race is feeble-minded, in the sense that people need constant reinforcement of even the most obvious things, like gender. Any time you confuse a base issue of identity, like gender, you disserve society and cause very personal pain to confused people. Gender confusion is an extremely serious matter that causes huge personal agony, even to the point of inducing people into having surgery that severely mulilates their bodies, irreversibly, or produces suicide.
+
The custom of having a woman portray Peter Pan is not quaint and harmless. It is contemptible and destructive. If Peter Pan is not to be portrayed by boy actors, the play should never again be produced, anywhere, in any medium.
+
(2) Care — Free. Just a reminder at the holidays that there are 6 click-to-donate (CTD) sites you might want to visit regularly. Advertisers pay a tiny amount per click (one per visit per day, controlled by cookies) on a button on each site, so anyone can make a small donation to alleviate hunger, provide medical care to children, save the rainforest, distribute books to kids, fite breast cancer, and feed animals in shelters, without spending anything but a moment's time. You can get to all these CTD sites via The Hunger Site. They are displayed as tabs across the top of the screen, and, if you click on the button for one, the screen you are taken to has, you will see if you scroll down, all the others below.
