In the current issue of Details Magazine, sent in by Nicole H., American Idol’s Adam Lambert, who recently came out as gay in Rolling Stone, is photographed groping and kissing (sort of) naked women. Pictures after the jump; not safe for work:
So how do we make sense of this? Why would Details choose to do this kind of photo shoot with a gay man? I think Shakesville gets it right:
I find it really problematic that an out gay man feels obliged to participate in a photo shoot like this for a whole lot of reasons, but mostly I am just deeply aggravated by the perpetuation of the narrative that it is demeaning women that proves one’s manhood.
It’s particularly disappointing coming from Lambert, who noted in his Rolling Stone interview that part of the reason he came out is so he could avoid “looking over my shoulder all the time, thinking I have to hide, being scared of being found out, putting on a front, having a beard, going down the red carpet with some chick who is posing as my girlfriend. That’s not cool, that’s not being a rock star. I can’t do that.”
But he can do letting “some chick” drape her naked self across him for a photo shoot, because that is cool, that is being a rock star.
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Lisa Wade is a professor of sociology at Occidental College. You can follow her on Twitter and Facebook.
