Jordan Meehan · @JordanMeehan
10th May 2012 from Twitlonger
An Open Letter to Melissa Maerz of Entertainment Weekly (@EW): A Little Makeup Remover Cannot Fix Discrimination
As an Adam Lambert fan and a pop music blogger, I am going to try to be as objective as possible with what I am about to say. Like many Adam Lambert fans, I have just read Melissa Maerz’s review of “Trespassing,” and I found it to be one of the most unprofessional articles I have ever read. As a gay man myself, I was also incredibly offended by some of the things in this article.
I am relatively new to blogging about and reviewing music, but never once have I found it appropriate, or funny, to not only stereotype an artist but also make fun of their sexuality. To imply that, as an out gay musician, Adam is obligated to put out a “big gay dance-club album” is not only stereotypical, but downright ignorant. Just because Adam is gay does not by any means mean that he is obligated or bound to put out dance music. That is not only insulting to Adam as a gay man, but also as a classically trained musician. To further imply that Adam was flirting with straight crowds with his first album with classic guitar riffs and gender-neutral pronouns is also incredibly ignorant and stereotypical. This not only implies only straight people like rock music, but also that gay people only ever listen to dance-club music, which is just absurd. This may come as a massive shock, but there are thousands, hell I would even say millions of gay people that like MORE than just dance music! Shocking, I know, but true nonetheless.
Ms. Maerz also found it necessary and amusing to make light of the subject material in some of the ballads on the second half of the album, which I found rather offensive. She makes it clear early on in her review that she is well aware that some parts of the album (Outlaws of Love) deal with same-sex marriage and other LGBT issues, so what, I have to ask, is laughable about that? I say this not as an angry Adam fan, but as a gay man who has faced discrimination, bigotry and hatred for years growing up by not only my peers, but by my own government. Perhaps Ms. Maerz has never been discriminated against for being born a certain way, but I have been, and so have millions of other LGBT people and I find it highly offensive and unprofessional that it is made light of and deemed “laughable.”
If you don’t like the songs on Adam’s album, that’s all fine and well, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but to diminish the struggle faced by LGBT people everywhere is simply offensive and rude. “A little makeup remover” cannot fix decades of inequality and discrimination, unequal legal status and intolerance, which are what Adam addresses in these songs, and it certainly cannot fix the unprofessionalism shown by Ms. Maerz in her review.
Jordan Meehan
EQ Music Blog