American Idol reject Adam Lambert performed at the recent American Music Awards. The porn inspired performance incited viewer complaints and a Good Morning America cancellation. The performance included tethered sex slaves, simulated oral sex, groping, and a defiant tween idol kissing a male dancer then a flip of the bird.
Why is there public outrage? America’s beloved Michael Jackson had a trademark on the crotch grab, Prince once replicated a Caligulian style orgy, and Madonna and her young panty-less protege Brittany Spears tongue-kissed to the delight of the MTV tween-age audience.
American’s have long been exposed to musical artists’ hyper sexualized performances. What seems to be the problem?
Carmine Sarracino and Kevin M. Scott in their book titled The Porning of America: The Rise of Porn Culture, What it Means, and Where We Go from Here, claim that when porn went mainstream, mainstream went porn. They suggest that the once marginalized porn culture is now a dominant theme in popular culture.
Critics that are outraged by the prevalence of porn, like Lambert’s performance, fail to acknowledge that porn culture is part of our everyday lives whether we like it or not. Sarracino and Scott explain that “Before this outing [of porn], we could look away, culturally speaking, and pretend not only that porn didn’t exist, but that the universality of sexual desire, the reduction of women and men to body parts, the no-strings ideal of uncommitted sex–none of this existed.”
To the disappointment of many, porn isn’t going to disappear. In a November 12, 2009 Washington Post article written by Monica Hesse, she laments the days when porn was confined to the privacy of homes. In the article, Hesse criticizes those who view porn in public. She describes instances of people viewing porn on laptops and handheld devices in public with little regard for those around them. She explains, “Like being exposed to the cigarette smoke of a nicotine addict on the street, people are inhaling secondhand smut.”
Our draw to porn is evident in the amount of media coverage that sex and sexuality receive. Celebrity sex tapes and political sex scandals are considered newsworthy. However our culture is at odds with the porning of culture. We love it and hate it. The boundary between the marginal and mainstream is now difficult to delineate. One thing is certain, unlike talentless tween idols of the moment, porn is not going away.
*note- The YouTube video of the Lambert performance is no longer available for viewing.
Even practitioners of theological principles are not immune to porn. They harbor a private inclination and then publicly thrash this phenomenon contrived as Satan’s blueprint to destroy the wholesome moral code of purity with God’s children.
As an aside, a friend some time ago found porn videos belonging to her boyfriend. Once confronted, his only reply was “Porn’s cool.”
…And that’s the way it is.