This was not, it seems, a sentiment shared by "Good Morning America" host Lara Spencer.
Monday, August 26, 2019
Good Morning America Makes Fun of Prince George for Ballet
This was not, it seems, a sentiment shared by "Good Morning America" host Lara Spencer.
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As we see more and more of news like this, I realize that it isn't completely bad. Yes, Lara Spencer laughed at young Prince George for taking ballet on national television with a live audience that also laughed. The ignorant bullying of a young child in his studies should never be tolerated. However, the good that came out of this was the negative response to her comments and laughter. In another time in US history, there would have been no backlash; instead there would have been agreement, or worse, continued ignorance. Newspapers wouldn't have published an article about this issue if the social climate in the US evolved to what it is today. We are becoming more aware as a society towards social stigmas. AND we are responding to them. We are changing them. We are challenging them. In response to Ms. Spencer's comments, over 300 ballet dancers got up at the crack of dawn and converged in Times Square to hold an impromptu ballet class in front of GMA studios as they were filming their show live. World renown male ballet dancers took to social media to voice their outrage over what they saw as bullying of a young boy who wished to explore his interests. The response made me smile to an issue that would normally have made me sad. Ms. Spencer eventually apologized on the next segment while interviewing male ballet dancers. An issue was raised, and now GMA is looking to rectify the social stigmas surrounding the arts. That's all we could really ask for. I hope Prince George continues to study ballet, if only to break the social stigmas surrounding male masculinity in the arts.
This is completely pathetic. I have to say, this isn't the type of behavior I would expect from Good Morning America, but I would expect this from Lara Spencer. I think that when people are born into families like the First family, the Royal Family, the Kardashians, etc. they are immediately subject to an unreasonable amount of scrutiny in terms of the media coming after their day to day lives, but this is just cruel. Good Morning America is one of the most watched talk shows in television and the stances they take have a lasting affect on their viewers, to talk about boys taking a ballet class in a degrading way is highly destructive to the culture of toxic masculinity that plagues our society. I myself have taken ballet classes and I know many boys that have also taken them and I think that we're better people for it. At the end of the day its an art form and children should be allowed to try out any one they choose, and the last thing they need is some lady on television criticizing a young child for literally dancing their heart out.
After viewing the commentary on national television by Lara Spencer, I don't necessarily point all of the blame directly at her, but rather at society as a larger entity, for fostering a stereotypical viewpoint on men participating in dance. The issue isn't contained to the practice of dance, either—I distinctly remember painting my nails as a child, and my brother jumping at the chance to paint his too. I would tell my friends at school about how wonderful I thought it was that the two of us had matching nails, and people would make rude and offensive remarks at the fact that a boy would paint his nails. It frustrates me greatly that a person who is a face of GMA, one of the most widely viewed television programs, had a moment in which it broadcasted this opinion that backs up toxic masculinity and shames boys for expressing their creativity in a form as expressive and important as dance. Creativity is something that every child should experience starting at a young age, since art is a way to tackle the world's problems and communicate a need for change. My best friend has been a classically trained ballerina for the past 13 years, and through her experience, I know for a fact that ballet training is extremely demanding, challenging, exhausting, and that ballerinas are the epitome of an athlete--for people to belittle the art form because it is "feminine" is sickening, and I hope that as a community people take charge to change this opinion with the recent light brought to the issue.
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