Monday, May 31, 2010

Do Female Pop Artists Have To Swing Both Ways To Be Popular?


Though not so new to the world of entertainment, girl-on-girl action has been practiced by several female pop artists as of late. It’s at the point where it has become something ordinary to see. While in earlier decades there was always that one artist that wasn’t afraid to push the envelope, there are more female pop artists interested in shocking music fans than there are female pop artists who are interested in just playing it safe.

Why is that?

The high school I attended was very gay friendly. The school was filled with 95% females with 5% being males. Out of the 5% that were male, 3% were gay…get the picture?

So, homosexuality was nothing new nor was it reason to constantly draw attention to; however, if there was anyone that admitted that they enjoyed batting for both teams (bisexual), they were automatically labeled as “confused.” I imagine that this was the thought pattern of other people out in the real world as it was considered the standard belief regarding people who were bisexual.

The thought of a person liking two sexes (their own and the opposite) encouraged people to believe that-that person was greedy.

Today those people are considered normal.

When Madonna would make risqué videos of her being touched and groped by women and men, some people in the late 80’s and early 90’s were left clutching their pearls, shocked that a person would act in such a way and build a career off of it. Today, Madonna is considered the Queen of Pop and her predecessors want the same shine and acknowledgment.

And even though we knew that Madonna was a woman that was unpredictable, we were still surprised to see her kiss both Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera on the mouths during their performance at the 2003 VMAs.


It seems like this moment in music opened the doors for other female artists to come out, literally and figuratively.

Here enters Lady Gaga.

Once Lady Gaga was a known-name, people loved her talent but they almost always affiliated her with her love of both sexes. But shortly before Gaga, singer Katy Perry released a catchy song explaining why she liked kissing a girl.

Though we all knew Gaga’s preference (subconsciously perhaps) when she decided to admit that she was bisexual on Barbara Walter’s "Most Fascinating People" special, no one was really surprised.

And yet when she did, everyone else wanted to get a piece of the shock value pie.
 
Rapper Nicki Minaj, singer Ke$ha, and Black Eyed Peas’ Fergie have all openly admitted to being bisexual while singers like Rihanna and Christina Aguilera depict them in their music videos. Rihanna had people thinking that she’d admitted to being bi when she admitted in an interview that she wouldn’t mind playing a lesbian, assassin, or both in a movie and that she would want Transformers actress Megan Fox to be her girlfriend…

Now, I don’t for a second doubt that any of these women are really interested in both sexes. I do, however, find it interesting that it has become their key card in keeping their names rolling off tongues.

Someone’s sexuality is always interesting whether they are straight and have various partners or if they are secretly gay. For some people it’s just that interesting.

But the onslaught of female pop artists who are all of a sudden openly admitting that they like women AND men just in time for album releases or when they need a little attention, is very telling.

At any rate, surely they are doing some sort of justice to those who have been saying that they are bisexual for years and can now say it without feeling judged.


Maybe the artists profiting off of a sexual preference that was once viewed negatively doesn’t bother people so much because they are females.

But what if they were men?

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