Carol
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 |  Subject: Indecent certainly, but Lambert’s logic is impeccable  12.12.09 3:54 | |
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The first indication that Adam Lambert might be more than a flavour-of-the-month corporate pop tart — the kind people like me wouldn’t waste time writing about — occurred after his sexually charged performance on the American Music Awards last month.
That’s where the openly gay performer cagily simulated oral sex on a male back-up dancer, kissed another on the lips and did a bunch of other stuff that would have made my elderly Jewish grandmother crinkle her nose dismissively and issue a concerted “Feh!”
“Obscene!” crowed the Liberty Counsel, one of slew of apoplectic Christian groups who, I’m pretty sure, said the same thing about Elvis’s swivel-hipped performances in the \’50s and, probably, the advent of the two-piece bathing suit for women. “Indecent!’’
Seriously, has anyone seen a Britney Spears video lately, or anything by Madonna in the last 20 years? Or Beyonce? Or any of the slew of hyper-sexualized female performers who have blurred the line between music video and soft porn in this post-feminist, sex-as-marketing-commodity era?
Did anyone see Madonna kiss Britney on the lips at the 2003 MTV Music Video Awards, or for that matter, Janet Jackson grope a back-up dancer on the same awards show as Lambert? Where was the outrage then?
What makes Lambert interesting is that in the face of this hypocritical (yet totally predictable) backlash — including a slew of obligatory talk show cancellations by jittery network weasels — is that instead of pulling a Britney and coyly feigning ignorance, the 27-year-old American Idol runner-up did the unthinkable: he kept a cool head, put his “outrageous” actions into knowing context, and refused to back down.
By so doing, he’s sparked an unprecedented culture debate that, for most enlightened people, is long overdue.
“I believe there’s a double standard,’’ he told the media jackals who descended on him expecting — no, demanding — a contrite apology (“You have offended the fabric of our nation, you crotch-grabbing maniac — apologize, dammit!”).
“If it had been a female pop performer doing the moves, there wouldn’t have been nearly as much outrage. I mean, Janet Jackson, crotch grab — I haven’t heard one peep about that!’’
This, of course, is not the way high-rolling pop stars are supposed to behave, especially when it comes to the culturally loaded issue of gay male sexuality and its acceptance, or lack thereof, in American popular culture (it’s the “global warming” of sexual orientation).
Sure, there have been gay male rock and pop stars in the past — George Michael, Elton John and Freddie Mercury of Queen — but most have been dutifully closeted during their prime hitmaking years, revealing their sexual preferences (a) on their deathbed (b) after being arrested for having anonymous gay sex in public washrooms and/or (c) decades after their last hit record, when a commercial backlash is highly unlikely.
Glam eyeliner and flamboyant fashion choices are one thing. Rubbing middle-America’s face in the fact some of their favourite male performers have sex with other men, well, that’s another thing, son.
The intriguing thing about Lambert — the thing that landed him on Barbara Walters’ 10 Most Fascinating People of 2009 list and is keeping him on the cultural radar long after his 15 minutes of fame should have expired — is that he doesn’t fit the mould.
Young, confident and embarking on what, by most accounts, is a promising career as a cabaret-styled glam-pop star (the “anti-Lady Gaga,” he’s been called), he understands that — whether people like it or not — he’s become the symbolic mouthpiece for a new generation.
It’s a position, thankfully, for which he’s uniquely qualified.
“Female performers have been doing this for years — pushing the envelope about sexuality,’’ he told Rolling Stone Magazine. “And the minute a man does it, everybody freaks out. We’re in 2009 — it’s time to take risks.”
Faced with such irrefutable logic, it’s getting harder and harder to bury our heads in the sand. http://news.therecord.com/arts/article/643041 | |
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