The two shows I had on my list turned out to be kinda dull. And after things got… ahem… steamy last night on Dancing With the Stars, I got thinking. And while I still haven’t come to any conclusions, I thought I’d share a couple musings, anyway. Maybe in the musings and in your comments we can make some sense of all this.
Dancing With the Stars has always danced on the razor’s edge in terms of appropriateness for younger viewers. Some of the dances get pretty sexy and certainly judge Bruno Toniolli’s comments go in that direction. But very seldom does it go over the edge.
Although two of last night’s lambadas definitely came close. Watching pro dancer Dereck Hough take off his shirt did me a lot of good, I’ll say that much. I met Hough once at an ABC event, at which I got to dance with him and Alec Mazo – both very gracious and charming men – and let me tell you, it’s not easy trying to do an interview while drooling over your subject. Hough is gorgeous. Mazo is cute, but Hough is a Thing of Beauty.
Now, I do not support turning human beings into sexual objects. And if Hough hadn’t been thoughtful, kind and gentlemanly, I could probably see him as being the pretty thing he is and leave it at that. But he was thoughtful, kind and gentlemanly – even said I could dance, which I can’t.
So why is it that I so thoroughly enjoyed seeing a gorgeous man dance without his shirt on? With my husband right next to me, enjoying Hough’s partner Joanne Krupa at the same time? I suspect that part of it was that it was so very freeing and there was part of me that immediately grabbed for my husband, who, alas, is no dancer but is otherwise pretty steam-inducing.
Ultimately, however, I think that there is a time and place to celebrate who we are as sexual beings. There’s nothing wrong with human sexuality. In fact, it’s a very good thing. Which is why I get so very annoyed when it’s made into something cheap and tawdry but love it so much when it is celebrated as the joyful, beautiful thing it is.
And I don’t think that’s such a bad thing for our kids to see – as long as it’s celebrated in a way that assures them that there is an appropriate context for our sexual behavior. The parameters might vary from family to family. I personally think it works best in a committed relationship – one that’s stable enough to lovingly raise any children that might result. And I think very few of us see indiscriminate sex, including one-night stands, as being particularly healthy, especially when our kids are navigating the rocky shoals of adolescence.
These things are never very easy and when it comes to Dancing With the Stars and your kids, it might be a tough decision, because most nights the steam factor isn’t that serious. But the beauty of it is that most older kids can watch with you and still get that some of this stuff is for grown ups to do. And I do love the results show because they have all kinds of modern dance groups on that expose us to forms of dance that we wouldn’t see except in big cities and universities.
And if your little ones start imitating the lambada, you can gently suggest that it’s a dance for grown ups and that they’ll get their chance to do it when they’re older. Then ask if they can do the knee switch step from the Charleston.
So, please feel free to comment on whether you think the show is appropriate for your family. And if you think it’s time for Michael Irvin. I really like him and loved that clip of him bucking up Aaron Carter. But this is a dance contest and he’s the worst dancer right now. Sigh.
Anne Louise Bannon
Your Family Viewer
Nicely articulated. I can feel the love you have for your husband.