On the surface, Hope and Chaz may look world's apart. The stunning and physically gifted soccer goalie versus the less than attractive trans-gendered son of celebrities (Sonny and Cher themselves oddities in their day). Pretty popular girl versus oppressed victim, a girl who became a boy. The narrative seems a bit extreme, but standard enough.
But Hope and Chaz have more in common than one would think.
This wasn't simply a case of Hope being a better dancer and losing out to a sympathy vote. Both are paired off against each other because of what they represent in the current cultural moment. Neither fit an identifiable gender role in our standard conversations.
Chaz? Well, his lack of fit is pretty obvious. How to account for a transgendered individual? DWTS producers decided to pair him (rather conspicuously) with Lacey. Lacey is easily the most traditional female looking of the dancers. She is not the super (human?) sleek Karina. She has curves and looks, well, in the language of 11 year old girls these days -- "girly". Similarly, there is a place for Rikki Lake and Grace the lawyer. Most viewers identify quickly with the overweight middle aged professional women. The hope, in short, in pairing Lacey with Chaz was to offset Chaz's rather distinctive lack of traditional masculinity with this distinctive pairing. Chaz just doesn't fit easily. Even the flamboyantly gay Carson has an established role (albeit comedic).
Hope Solo? She doesn't quite fit the bill either. And nobody is quite sure what to make of her. There is no Broadway musical to describe a girl who is quite attractive to men -- but distinctly not "girly" (the latter a favorite expression of my daughter's ).
This is still a new sort of "feminine." Hope is stunning; indeed, she is physically imposing. But certainly not a classical feminine type. Carrie Anne the judge, again, annoyingly "girly" herself, couldn't stop telling Hope to be "sexy" (that Hope isn't, of course, is a matter of opinion). What she meant, I think, was "you don't move or act like Carrie Anne -- or Lacey." Yet, confusingly, for Carrie Anne and probably Lacey, Hope is still very attractive to men and probably to lots of women.
The judges didn't quite know what to do with this. Neither do the clever DWTS producers. They know what to do with Emmitt Smith or Jerry Rice. Kristi Yamaguchi? Easy breezy. What could be more feminine than an elegant figure skater? They know gay, for sure. They even know trans-gendered better than most.
But they don't know Hope.
Is it any surprise that Len called attention to Hope's "boots" (like in soccer cleats) as the partial cause of her unprofessional "heal leads"? Where, he seemed to be saying, are your high heels like the other girls? Where are your real boots -- like the moms in the Birmingham elementary school parking lot wear? (Watch the ice ladies@)
Hope is stunningly attractive -- but distinctly not "girly". Carrie Anne just didn't get it. What fired up Max so much? The culture doesn't quite yet have a sense of what to do with Hope Solos. And the show was struggling to figure out how to respond and how to judge. And so they struggled to judge, not perfectly, but fairly.
As girls who want to be girls -- not boys -- but not girly -- Hope is an interesting person to watch. Hope she stays at least one more week now that Chaz is out of the picture.
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