Adam Lambert is Censored - Madonna and Britney Are Immortalized

After American Idol finalist Adam Lambert kissed a boy during his performance at the 2009 American Music Awards, CBS network executives immediately blurred the image for all repeat broadcasts on their channel. But when Madonna kissed Britney Spears at the 2003 MTV Video Music awards, that 15 second girl-on-girl kiss was all we saw on the news for a month. And it was as clear as crystal. In fact some news networks slowed the footage down and enlarged it so we could see just how saucy (pornographic?) Britney and Madonna got during their open mouth smooch. They blurred Adam Lambert's kiss, but enlarged and enhanced Madonna and Britney's kiss. My point is: double standard censoring is alive and well.

Girls kissing girls on TV has become a lucrative business out in Hollywood, in part thanks to the award winning Showtime lesbian drama, The L-Word. But you will never see a show like The L-Word based on men, apparently. Mainstream society has become very comfortable with a girl kissing another girl. But obviously we are still not ready to see a boy kissing another boy on TV. Just ask Adam Lambert.

Tom Selleck kissed Kevin Kline in the 1997 movie In & Out. This movie received dozens of awards and nominations. Tom and Kevin were even awarded the MTV Movie Award for Best Kiss that year. The fact that both Tom Selleck and Kevin Kline are openly, and clearly, straight men didn't seem to matter. Despite receiving dozens of awards, unflattering reviews about the movie and its forbidden same sex kiss continued to pour out of the mainstream media, killing the buzz and prematurely sending the movie into home video status.

In 2005 the big screen took a giant step with the blockbuster movie Brokeback Mountain starring Jake Gyllenhaal and the late Heath Ledger. The movie was dubbed "the gay cowboy movie" before it ever even hit theaters. In the face of gay bashing movie reviews, Brokeback Mountain withstood the media's scrutiny to become one of the most honored films of 2005. A film about two men who meet and fall in love turned out to be controversial, but most assuredly successful. Could this be the beginning of a new trend in same sex censorship? Maybe in movies, but apparently not on TV. Just ask Adam Lambert.

In 2009, Hollywood released at least two films that feature scenes with girls kissing other girls: Sorority Row and Jennifer's Body. Some other widely accepted and popular girl-on-girl movies are: Cruel Intentions (1999) with Sarah Michelle Gellar kissing Selma Blair, Showgirls (1995) with Elizabeth Berkeley kissing Gina Gershon, and Basic Instinct (1992) with Sharon Stone kissing Leilani Sarelle. There are several others.

The most watched girl-on-girl kissing scene on YouTube is one from the big screen movie, Wild Things (1998) with Denise Richards and Neve Campbell. Even Kevin Bacon couldn't stop watching these two girls lock lips in the swimming pool. The two minute girl-on-girl make out scene from Wild Things has been viewed more than two million times, and has only been live on the YouTube website for one year. Here's the link to that popular video on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAwTGKaLCeo.

You won't find glowing reviews about the acting in any of these girl-on-girl featured movies. But what you will find is review after review describing the girl-on-girl sex scenes between the leading ladies in all of these movies. There are countless blogs and fan sites entirely devoted to big screen movies that feature girls kissing girls. This further substantiates the acceptance of same sex kissing, but only if it's between two girls.

In a straight male dominated world, scenes like Adam Lambert kissing another boy will never be widely accepted on TV or in the movies. One question I keep asking myself is: if Adam Lambert was a girl, would his same sex kiss have been blurred out at the AMA's? Um, well, obviously not. Is that okay? No, not really. But Adam Lambert is having the last laugh. Even as the media uproar around the AMA kiss controversy continues to bring him heat, Adam Lamberts new album on the RCA label, "For Your Entertainment," is selling like hot cakes. Which brings to mind the old saying, any publicity is good publicity.