In the ongoing effort to normalize the public display of everything sexual, Adam Lambert has caused people to pause (probably only briefly) to consider whether this is a necessary or even good thing.
Lambert argues that he is subject to a double standard since same-sex kisses and other displays of intimacy among female entertainers have been broadcast by the TV networks.
Reuters reports that ABC received 1,500 complaints from Lambert’s recent antics – a pitifully small number. That may reflect the size of the audience, but it probably says more about the nature of the audience. A vast swath of normal people from almost every demographic has surely tired of the increasingly feckless efforts of the entertainment industry to shock us.
Long ago broadcasters stopped giving us any reason to tune in, and they are now running out of ways to convince their dwindling audience to tune out.
Lambert says he didn’t mean to offend anyone by sticking his co-performers’ heads in his crotch. And his protestation rings true to an extent. He wants his own peculiar amusements to be perceived not as offensive, but as normal.
On the other hand, when the public display of such things becomes truly normal, entertainers may have to rediscover art as a means of attracting and holding an audience. And therein lies Lambert’s problem. Is he an artist or just a queer? Can he offer his audience something they value, or is it all about him?
In short, do Lambert’s talents extend to music? People who happened to be homosexual have made tremendous contributions to the arts. Their art is widely celebrated; their homosexuality is celebrated only in college classrooms.
On a somewhat related topic, I was intrigued by the ironic title of Mary Eberstadt’s recent article in First Things: “How Pedophilia Lost its Cool.” The article demonstrates, however, that the title is not ironic at all. In fact, pedophilia was recently making a play for mainstream acceptance among self-appointed sophisticates. For example:
In 1998 the prestigious Psychological Bulletin, published by the American Psychological Association, printed a subsequently notorious study called “A Meta-Analytic Examination of Assumed Properties of Child Sexual Abuse Using College Samples.” In it, three researchers took issue with “the common belief that child sexual abuse causes intense harm, regardless of gender.” The authors further criticized the use of conventional terms such as victim and perpetrator and recommended that “a willing encounter with positive reactions” be labeled “simply adult–child sex.”
Roman Polanski’s arrest pushed this issue to the forefront and highlighted the isolation of those who jumped to Polanski’s defense. Only Hollywood, it seems, failed to understand that art is not a defense to child abuse.
So there is something to be thankful for on this Thanksgiving Day. We can hope that the world took a look a pedophilia and indeed decided that it was not cool. We can hope that the entertainment industry, despite having an enormous megaphone for its opinions, truly is out of touch with society.
We can hope that Adam Lambert will either discover aesthetics and find an audience, or be largely forgotten – merely a social commentator with nothing much to say.
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