LAST NIGHT, RTÉ’S Dancing With The Stars kicked off and while some of the dancing impressed viewers watching it at home, it seems that many were left unimpressed by Loraine Barry’s banter.
There were plenty of jokes between judges Brian Redmond, Loraine Barry, Julian Benson and hosts Nicky Byrne and Jennifer Zamparelli throughout the show, and both the hosts and judges poked a bit of fun at some of the contestants throughout the show.
After rugby player Peter Stringer’s introductory clip, which featured plenty of footage of him and his dance partner Ksenia Zsikhotska demonstrating their physical strength and ability, we saw him and Ksenia do a rugby themed performance on a dancefloor with goal posts.
Once this performance was over, the judges had their say. Julian was very impressed, and commended Peter’s ability to lift Ksenia, “Great presence, great lifts, great control.” During his criticism, Julian said that next week he wanted Peter to make things a bit more “sexy”, and described his performance as “hot, hot, hot”.
This didn’t bother viewers at home too much. Neither did the comment made by Brian Redmond afterwards, where he said that “All those years of standing behind Paul O’Connell helped with the lifts, but thankfully the view was a bit better with Ksenia.”
The comment that left viewers furious was when Loraine Barry said:
Well Jen! I think we need to ask the ladies, what do we think of Peter’s body?
The audience cheered and Peter opened his arms as a gesture of thanks, before Julian jumped in and added, “Men also!”
Peter laughed along, but viewers at home were concerned that he might have felt embarrassed by the comments. One Twitter user wrote, “Did she really just ask that? If a man asked that question about a woman there would be uproar, and rightly so. I can’t believe she asked it, very, very insulting. I’d say Peter was mortified.”
One man on Twitter wrote, “Stringer just being casually objectified by a female judge. Wouldn’t be tolerated the other way round #DWTSIrl. Double standards much?” Then, another fan contributing to the outrage on Twitter added “Imagine the uproar if Brian had asked the men what they thought of a female contestant’s body like Loraine just did with Peter Stringer and the ladies.”
Obviously Loraine’s comment was pretty unnecessary as there’s really no need to comment on another individual’s body, but it looks as though every person on Twitter who complained about it was willfully ignoring the fact that Brian Redmond had made a comment about “the view” that was Ksenia’s body, and also the fact that Julian chimed in to ask the men what they thought of Peter’s body, too.
However, not everyone who watched the show was upset by the comments. One viewer wrote, “I’d say Peter couldn’t care less – I’m sure there’s better things to get upset about.” While another Twitter user wrote, “Holy Mary, what is the world coming to? I’d say Stringer was only delighted with that comment.”
