Becoming Chaz (6/10)

January 16th, 2012

Interesting indeed. As the world knows (apart from me, it has to be said, as I was completely unaware of it) little Chastity Sun Bono, star and cute little girl of her parents’ Sonny & Cher Show, grew up to be first lesbian and then transitioned herself – the technical term for a sex change – into Chaz Salvatore Bono. The operation went well, some might say perfectly. From being kind and gentle, the testosterone turned him into a bit of a grouch. I have an excuse now. It ain’t me, darling wife, it’s my hormones.

Chaz approached filmmakers Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato, not the other way round, which gives an indication to this film’s sensibilities. I was worried. Chaz, the offspring of a publicity seeking mother, might be doing this purely as a vanity project – in which case, it would be unbearable. Having now watched the film, and being entertained and informed royally, I’m convinced that Chaz is on the up and up when he tells us that this is more for general awareness and to help others who are either going through the same life-changing issue or are around those who are.

Becoming Chaz centres itself on the removal of breasts which, to all involved, seems to be the bottom line in undergoing the transition, if you discount the actual bottom line itself. It’s a big deal – six and a half pounds, girls! – and Chaz is worried. So too is Chaz’s girlfriend Jennifer Elia, who entered into what was then a lesbian partnership with Chastity five years earlier. At this point I thought of an interesting anthropological question: does a sex-change make a gay person straight? And what about the partner, who has had no alterations at all? Are they straight by proxy? And if that's true, doesn't it beg to ask the question: what exactly is the definition of gay and straight?

The movie tells us, sorta, without going into it in enough detail. Chaz the guy is nowhere near as sweet as Chastity the gal. He displays the same traits all us guys exhibit each day, and you gals love us for. That’s right, he snaps when he used to sympathise, he swears, he pads around the house with his shirt off; in general, he’s a bloke, good and proper. Jennifer, who had been nothing but supportive to him when he was a her, now has some doubts. (Doubts that, sadly, came to a boil some time after this doc finished shooting, with recent news that they’ve split up coming as no great surprise. There’s something to think about in that.)

Cher is interviewed, and is both old-fashioned in her ways – as Chaz says, she was born in 1946, it’s asking a lot of her – but outwardly supportive of her child, whom she still refers to as ‘she’. The money for the breast removal operation was not paid for by Cher but by a sponsor, and I wanted to know why that was. I was thwarted. Most of the interviews, though, are with Chaz and Jennifer. I liked them both greatly. Chaz does indeed, as Jennifer says of him, have a smile that lights up the room, and is open and honest about the decisions he had to face. I had more questions, lots more, but you can only get so much into 85 minutes. Jennifer is equally as interesting, equally as charming, and is clearly regarded by friends and family alike as the rock, the queen behind the queen.

Another thought ran through my head. I realised my initial reaction was that I regarded Chaz as being brave for his decision. I later realised (and this is, to my mind, the point of the film) that he had no choice. He is what he is, and if he isn’t that then he’ll continue his life in terrible misery. Surely that’s not the way to go, is it? The bravest thing he did, though, was to confront the horrendous tabloid journalists head on. They were going to write grubby stories about him anyway, so why not get there first and gazump the bastards. Becoming Chaz is just (just, I say, like it’s no big deal; who am I kidding?) an extension of that. Technically perhaps not the most ground-breaking documentary you’ll ever see, and a film that fits in perfectly on Oprah Winfrey’s personal television channel, Becoming Chaz carries with it a message of hope for those that need it.