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For Your Oral-tainment or Not?: The Politics of Adam Lambert’s AMA Performance
Submitted by Rachel Schneider on Mon, 2009-11-23 19:39
Image Credit: Towleroad H/T: Noel Radley While usually I’m good at keeping up on my pop culture news, I’m grateful to Noel for giving me a tip about American Idol star Adam Lambert’s performance at the American Music Awards of his new song “For Your Entertainment.” As can be seen in the above image, Lambert aggressively performed his homosexuality in the number, including simulated oral sex, men on leashes, and an unplanned make-out session with one of the members of his band. (I’m including a link to the video, with apologies if it’s pulled from YouTube before you can view it.)
While Lambert denied any explicit political intent in an interview with CNN after the performance, he did describe “a double standard in the entertainment community … I feel like women performers have been pushing the envelope sexually for the past 20 years. And all of the sudden a male does it and everybody goes, ‘Oh, we can't show that on TV.’ For me, that's a form of discrimination and a double standard.” Certainly a brief search on Google provides evidence for this argument: artists like Janet Jackson and Madonna have engaged in sexy performances of the same kind as Lambert’s. While I’m not trying to suggest that the Madonna-Britney kiss wasn’t controversial—far from it—part of the negative reaction surrounding Lambert’s performance is in all likelihood related to the fact that he is a gay man simulating homosexual acts on broadcast television, where Glee’s Kurt hasn’t even managed to get a boyfriend.
Image Credit: Towleroad What I find particularly interesting about the performance in terms of defining Lambert as sexual is that it occurs within a larger controversy about how Lambert has not represented his homosexuality. The controversy surrounding his recent photo shoot in Details and his inclusion in the OUT100 have both centered around what has been seen as Lambert’s refusal to be “too gay” in the media. Lambert is involved in constructing a sexualized image for himself, but one whose orientation is unclear. However, as a popular media figure and as a gay man, what is Lambert’s responsibility to perform his sexuality in the public sphere? Does he have the right to claim privacy for his sexuality at the same time as he flaunts sex? Perhaps the AMA performance can be read as a rhetorical reaction to OUT Magazine editor Aaron Hicklin who asked Lambert to follow “a path that’s honest and true” as a gay pioneer—or maybe it’s just only for our entertainment. |
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Comments
from Stephanie O
I know very little about Adam Lambert but I did watch the clip even before I read your post, and I also wondered if he were pursuing this hypersexualized image as an aggressive response to critiques that he hadn't foregrounded his sexuality in the past. Nothing he did struck me as any more provocative or sexual than what Britney, Madonna, or Janet Jackson have done, but I assumed that the audience's groans after the face-to-crotch move were because it was a man's face and a man's crotch. What up, AMA Audience Members? Wasn't this taped in California (I'm guessing)? Aren't y'all so much more progressive and gay-friendly than us rednecks in Texas? And what up, TV Viewing Audience? I thought that gay kisses and such on TV were passe now.
My personal reaction (as you can see from my FB post last night) is that his singing was the grossest part of the performance. For God's sake, his tongue was hanging out of his mouth on some of those long notes!
His voice
Yes, I've since watched the music video of "For Your Entertainment," and am now more impressed by his vocal abilities. I've never really watched American Idol consistently, so I missed out on his performances there. If the AMAs was about drawing attention to his vocal abilities, their sound mixing failed Adam Lambert greatly.
Performing Sex
If Lambert hadn't come out yet, and was just playing around, I'd see more of a controversy here. He's not claiming any privacy or being unclear in his orientation. He did come out, immediately after Idol was finished, and that's that. We all knew he was gay, he confirmed it, and moved on. All this other stuff he's doing isn't about him being out, it's about playing with sexuality--not his sexuality, but being sexual. The photo of him in Details licking the woman's thumb? Very sexy. Who wouldn't want that shot? Who cares if it's a man or a woman? This stuff was done back in the 70s with Jagger and Bowie, who may or may not have slept together, who both wore makeup, etc. Lambert's following that glam/camp model of having FUN. To say that the only way to be "truly" gay is to only ever express sexuality toward other men (artistically or in reality) is untrue itself. My only worry is that this is going to be his downfall--I'll be very interested to see if his fans are ready for hardcore, 21st century glam. I hope so!
Good point
I totally agree with your point about Bowie and Jagger (although Adam isn't nearly as sparkly as Bowie was back in the Ziggy days, actually); what I find interesting is how the media doesn't want to admit this point. I've also noticed that ABC has since commented that the number of complaints wasn't unusual, but it is interesting to note that the broadcast was edited for the West Coast and Lambert was cancelled from appearing on Good Morning America--whether or not it should be controversial, it seems like some people received it as such. The controversy surrounding the Details photoshoot is limited to a particular subset of gay media that might not be representative of actual gay opinion--and I wouldn't feel able to comment on how one should be "gay"--but it's interesting how all identites, even ones heavily related to play and camp, still seem to require stable signifiers from some people.