American Idol: Gay vs. Christian?
Friday May 22, 2009
Adam vs Kris = Gay vs Fundie ?
I didn't watch the American Idol finale, but I'm interested -- surprise! -- in how it's being read by some as another red state/blue state fight, and specifically, a fight between liberal gays and conservative Christians. After all, the judges gave gay glam rocker Adam Lambert far higher marks that Christian competitor Kris Allen, but Allen ran away with the over 100 million votes cast by the national television audience.
Get Religion suggests that the MSM is missing the God angle in this story.
Mark Joseph, writing on his Fox News blog, frames Allen's victory over Lambert as a popular triumph of conservative, middle-American values. One overexcited commentator cited on a gay California-based blog likened the Idol result to the Proposition 8 victory.
Sorry, but I'm not buying any of it. I agree with Get Religion that the religion angle ought to be reported in these stories, but I believe Sarah Hepola at Salon has the best explanation:
Of all the reasons Adam Lambert might have lost the eighth season of "American Idol" --
homophobia, media overexposure, judges swooning with hyperbole, the cultural triumph of banality -- let me add this to the pile: the power of tween girls.Tween girls are the fuel of the "American Idol" mothership; they are the ones who jam up the voting lines, texting until their fingers bleed, and they are no small part of the reason 23-year-old Kris Allen -- supremely crushable, pocket-size, deeply religious, utterly unthreatening Kris Allen -- became the "American Idol" winner in the biggest upset in the show's history.
This may also suggest why it's so important for leading male movie stars to keep their homosexuality hidden, for career reasons. Is it so hard to imagine that men and women who may have no particular problem tolerating homosexuals nevertheless depend on the emotional identification with male screen heroes (for men, as action avatars, for women, as lust objects) that knowing about a male actor's homosexuality ruins the possibility of illusion for them? That would suggest that there's something more complex than flat-out homophobia going on here. I remember seeing a community theater production of "The Music Man' some years back, and the leading man was -- well, he wasn't exactly effeminate, but he was obviously gay -- and it completely ruined the illusion of heterosexual romance necessary to the play's success.
Anyway, I would bet that all the tween girls who voted for Kris Allen would have been far more likely to vote for Adam Lambert had he been less open about his sexuality -- and had he not worn heavy make-up. I mean, come on! And I don't think that's either a matter of pure homophobia, or a case of middle-America standing up for good old-fashioned Christian values.
Here's a good comparison between their two styles. Judging from the clip, Adam is clearly the more talented. I am sure I would have voted for him. But I cannot imagine a 14 year old girl voting for his Maybelline'd face over Kris Allen's traditionally masculine appearance:
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Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
Have a great day,
Tommy
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Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
Have a great day,
Tommy
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