Adam Lambert at the AMAs: A Poor Performance, or a Double Standard?

Sunday November 22, 2009, we saw a jaw dropping performance from American Idol runner up Adam Lambert. The performance was so risqué, the west coast version edited out some of the suggestive behavior. (I'm on the east coast, so I got to see all the good stuff.) He sang his first single "For your entertainment". The content of the song is obviously about sex. It's aggressive, but it's not anything that we adults haven't heard before. But when Adam performed this song on the AMAs, the after-buzz was very unfavorable.

Adam, who is openly gay, had both male and female dancers performing on stage with him. They were dressed provocatively, and danced with Adam in a slightly "unclassy" manner. In the beginning of the performance, he spins a female dancer around on the floor while she is lying on her back. He then held a male dancer on a leash. Later another female dancer grabbed his crotch. At the end of the performance, he grabs a male keyboard player and makes out with him.

There were people saying that they are no longer Adam Lambert fans after this performance. Personally, I don't believe that. If that performance made you not like Adam Lambert, you probably were not big fans of his in the first place. But back to the AMAs.....

Adam later released a statement saying that this is discrimination since we've seen this kind of behavior in the past from women. He mentioned how Madonna and Britney Spears shared a kiss on the MTV awards and no one was disgusted about that. I think some people were, but the reaction was a little different. There was a lot of talk about the kiss with Madonna, but there wasn't a lot of "disgust" per se. There wasn't anyone saying that they were no longer Britney or Madonna fans after their performance.

I think that there is a double standard here. Women have been participating in this kind of behavior for a long time. Girl on girl action is something a lot of people actually like to see. Not only have women been behaving this way with girls, they also have with men. Christina Aguilera danced provocatively on her "Dirty" video. Ciara also did on her "Love, sex, magic" video with Justin Timberlake. This is not new behavior. What's new is the fact that a man doing it now.

Not only a man, but a gay man. The way society reacts to gay men is very different from the way we react to lesbians. People are much more accepting of gay women. Once again, many people like to watch girl on girl action. But I think this is a result of holding men to a higher standard than we hold women.

I take it as an insult on women. How come? Because society views women as the weaker sex. We are the "victims". No matter what happens, people always come up with an excuse for women's behavior. When a man "misbehaves" so to speak, they have no excuse. We just shake our finger at them like, "You know better than that."

But don't women know better than that, too? Don't all adults know right from wrong? Don't all adults know what's classy and what's not? Don't Britney, Ciara, Christina, and Madonna know better than that? Or is it just Adam who knows better?

We are not as accepting of gay men because it's simply not as easy on the eyes as lesbians. It's not as "entertaining". We are so visual in this country, we agree with whatever looks good. Just imagine the difference of the reaction if this would have been Beyonce or Jennifer Lopez.

This country is not ready to accept the differences we are undergoing. We have a history of discrimination. We did it to Blacks, we did it to women, now we're doing it to gays. I wonder what's next. Will we pick on certain religions, another ethnic group, or what?

We are in denial about the different cultures, sexualities, religions, etc. in our country. We have a culture where if you are not like everyone else, then you're a freak of some sort. I don't quite know what it takes to make us a little more accepting of each other. Maybe it takes the same "keep up with the Jones'" attitude many of us have-to do whatever everyone is else is doing rather we want to, like it, or could afford it or not.

I applaud Adam for his performance. I'm glad he exposed us to this, because homosexuality exists and we need to wake up and smell the coffee. We don't have to agree with it, but we don't have to be in utter disgust either. Keep in mind, the same nation that is against what Adam did, is the same nation that spends billions of dollars on average on pornography. So I really don't understand why everyone is acting so prudish.

If Adam had put on less of a performance, we would have been talking about how he didn't deliver.
Either way, we would have been disappointed. I thought this performance met up to the standards of the song. It was kind of refreshing to see someone of the gay community be brave and stop letting the opinion of the rest of us keep him in the closet.