Last Sunday we were among the many people watching this year’s American Music Awards. We saw JLo slaying it on the stage with her dance moves, Jared Leto’s moving speech to Paris followed by a stellar performance by Celine Dion belting out Edith Piaf’s classic “L’Hymne à L’amour” and we were watching Meghan Trainor smooching with her duet partner Charlie Puth (who didn’t hold back too much and passionately grabbed Meghan’s behind while making out with her). So far, so good. We all know a little PDA at award shows didn’t hurt nobody, right? Well, kinda wrong, because the internet is furious about ABC’s alleged double standard policy about kisses at the AMA’s. Let’s take a look at some previous award show kisses and find out how Meghan’s kiss is connected to Adam Lambert!
All about dat ass grab doe @charlieputh proud of you Charlie #imsingle
Ein von Meghan Trainor (@meghan_trainor) gepostetes Foto am
Adam Lambert and the controversial AMA kiss
So if you don’t remember the controversial kiss Adam Lambert shared with band member Tommy Joe Ratliff, let us fill you up: Way back in the pre-Wreckingball/Anaconda-area Adam Lambert made his first stage appearance after American Idol at the AMA’s back in 2009 and left some people shocked about what he did on stage. In order to get rid of his Idol image and establish himself as an independent pop artist, he decided to leave an impression people won’t forget. Well, they most definitely didn’t forget that performance since many outraged parents,1,500 complaints to be exact, were hailing down the television broadcast station, claiming that “sexually suggestive choreography” including the man-on-man kiss (that got censored in the live boadcasting) “was absolutely inappropriate for an award show at prime time”. Take a look and then we’ll continue talking!
Well, allegedly Adam’s performance was so shocking to some producers it lead to a cancellation of his appearance at Good Morning America the day after.
Are we in the middle of a huge PDA double standard at award shows?
So there we have it: Meghan Trainor makes out with her male duet partner and nobody is offended, whereas Adam Lambert kisses his guitarist and gets censored and the internet was not happy about that. Take a look at what some people took to twitter!
remember when everyone was offended over Adam Lambert makin out with his guitarist on the AMAs? #MeghanTrainor #charlieputh #AMAs — mega-LOLZ (@cream_on_chrome) 23. November 2015
adam lambert kisses guy on stage america: BAN THIS. THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE. PROTECT THE KIDS. meghan trainor kisses charlie puth america: 🙂
— domi☽ (@domingalopezb) 23. November 2015
adam lambert made out with a guy at the #amas the camera’s couldnt cut away fast enough but its ok for @Meghan_Trainor and @charlieputh — Gregory (@Gbearden91) 23. November 2015
GIF via here
Oh, and we haven’t even mentioned Britney’s and Madonna’s kiss at the 2003 VMA yet that somehow became an iconic moment in pop culture history. As a matter of fact, there’s definitely a huge double standard going on in our society when it comes to public display of affection at award shows. If we take a look at these three examples we’ll see that if a lesbian kiss that is being marketed in a very tounge-in-cheek-I-kissed-a-girl-and-I-liked-it kinda manner, appearently people won’t have a problem with it. On the other hand some conservative people can’t deal with a similar kiss involving two males without complaining. And when a female pop singer kisses her male duet partner we’re rooting for them.
What can we learn from this?
It is a total contradiction to celebrate heteronormative kisses, but censor a same sex kiss or in case of Britney and Madonna, sell it in a very stereotypical showgirl-ish manner. Having said that, it’s everybody’s right to be offended by PDA. And if those people decide that the content being shown is too unsafe for their children to watch at primetime, they should complain about all kinda sexually related behaviour and not discriminate against a certain group.
Opening GIF via here
by Kemara Pol
