U.K. Eurovision entry! A lot of pearl clutching

[Colourofspring]

The outrage and comments I have seen about Olly Alexander’s performance is baffling to be honest. So much pearl clutching! Eurovision has always been completely camp and outrageous and yet suddenly he has been portrayed as some kind of disgrace and not representative of the UKs ‘values’ (what the fuck does that mean anyway?)

I like the song, I have seen him perform live at Glastonbury with years and years, he’s good live. Yes he’s openly gay - so what? Surely UK values should be based around tolerance and acceptance and not hysteria because his performance is considered risqué. Would it be considered the same if it was a load of half naked female dancers?

I am heterosexual but not offended by it - it’s just a performance - I hope he wins as he’s a nice guy!

So much pearl clutching!

Just watched on YouTube. Don’t see the big deal. Is is much saucier than the Austrian woman or the woman in the bodystocking who was a bit ga ga esque?

It’s not homophobia FFs. It’s a shit song performed in dirty toilets. (Who knew there were any public toilets left in the UK)

I completely agree that no one would bat an eyelid if it were female dancers scantily clad and dancing around a man.

I do also think if someone like Finland had done this no one would care?

for a long time now Olly has not been hiding his gay identity and I love it. Why should he.

I do think the sound mixing did him a bit dirty though - he didn’t sound bad but a bit badly balanced against the music I thought? Just not sounding his best. I have seen him live and he is incredible!

Also…. What was with the guy who literally had his arse out until they flew down come shorts? How is that any better?

Just awful made me cringe . The dancers especially the one with the gold tooth. It felt uncomfortable to watch . Didn’t feel sexy & fun , just seedy . I like Ollie but this production definitely did not work for the Eurovision set up

The competition seems to have turned into one about sexuality as opposed to entertainment. The UK team really missed the mark. It used to be a bit of fun but writhing around a dirty toilet is only fun for a tiny tiny number of people. I know lots of gay men who’d never dream of having orgies in the bogs.

They may as well just change the name to EuroPrideKink.

"People wouldn't mind if it was women!" Well, a lot of feminists would mind, and have been vocally minding about this sort of thing for years, and maybe the fact that it takes men's bodies being degraded like this for other people to start to feel uncomfortable shows how sexist our society is.

The fact that pop performers have been excessively sexualised for decades now doesn't make it OK, you know?

I think there may be an increasing trend of fetishising gay men. (Just like women have been fetishised forever.) That's not actually terribly progressive and accepting. It seems to be getting harder to be gay and just be normal. (I'm sure Alexander chose to perform like this, but would a young gay man who didn't want to be sexualised be getting the same opportunities?)

A brief and unscientific look through some past Eurovisions suggests the general over-the-topness (what most people seem to be calling "camp") really got started about 2004. Interestingly revealing clothing came in about the same time. It's quite striking how modestly dressed most performers of both sexes are before that.

(Eurovision maybe a bit behind the trend there; chart pop had women prancing around half-naked well before that.)

Well, if we're going to insist that thinking that the dance routine is sleazy and debases men is homophobic then it could equally be argued that it is not homophobia that has prompted the responses to the dance routine but misogyny.

Women dancing half naked and thrusting about is fine it's normal it's expected it's what women are there for.

But men? No. Men should be above that sort of behaviour. It's women that gyrate nearly nude, not men. It's shocking that a man should lower himself to perform in a female fashion.

Me? I think sleazy is sleazy and everyone should put their clothes on and behave with a lot more class but claiming it's homophobic just ignores the misogyny in performing that everyone's used to and sees as normal.

We should be cringing when anyone is half naked and twerking and thrusting away because it is cringeworthy. It's tacky.

I will happily "clutch my pearls" (another misogynistic term and ageist too) and say people need to put their bloody clothes on and ruddy well keep them on.

The UK got this one badly wrong! The dirty toilet performance was not a good look. Embarrassing. Whoever got to be on charge of that - needs sacking.

People would mind if male dancers were doing the same in the stage of a dirty toilet to a female singer.

Pretending that people don't mind when it's men and women on stage doing the same things is disingenuous. The difference in that people will simply ignore women complaining about the way women are portrayed.

I also don't think many gay men would still appreciate the old cliche of sex in dirty toilets.

I think it was a locker room toilet

It was!

I also don't think many gay men would still appreciate the old cliche of sex in dirty toilets
Exactly.

To be fair I’ve yet to see a Eurovision entry where a woman is writhing around a dirty bog.

A PP mentioned the fetishisation of gay men and I think that’s it. That’s what makes some of us side eye the competition now. There seems to be a push to promote only two types of LGBT person. One is the exhibitionist, promiscuous, Kylie loving type. The other is trans. This ignores all the other types of gay men who are just as diverse as heterosexuals. It also ignores lesbians.

I wouldn’t be surprised if in the next couple of years we will see an entry which is just someone singing ‘Gay, gay, gg gay gay to the tune of No Limit whilst dressed in a leather thong on a set made to look like a glory hole.

Being gay is more than this and Eurovision should be more than this.

Why do PPs keep talking about toilets and urinals? The set was clearly a locker room / shower.
Lying about the details (or seeing what you want to see) to suit an agenda absolutely smacks of homophobia.

If someone doesn’t like a song they must be’pearl clutching?’ The song was dire. It doesn’t make me homophobic

This is the most spot on post I have read

@Zebedee999's comment was referring to the fact that you asked "what the fuck" British values are (there is an official list of British Values, as they have to be taught in schools), and then go on to mention one of them: tolerance.

It wasnt clearly a locker room.

And why did it need to be dirty?

In context does it matter? A communal shower room or communal toilet. Both associated with a harmful cliche of gay men meeting for senu public sec. Both, associated with rape and sexual assault of gay men.

The UK got a poor score because the song, performance and staging were shit and cheap. It was almost as if someone had sat down and said, ‘OK, we’re just going to go for the gay vote’ assuming that all gays were into bad songs and musclemen twerking. It was real lowest common denominator stuff.

He looked like a Poundland Sam Smith tribute act at drag night in the Rose and Crown. Totally outclassed. Eurovision is a bastion of camp and inclusion and has been embraced by the European gay community for very good reasons, so that’s not why he bombed. Replace last night’s effort with something like George Michael’s Outside using the kind of visuals from that video and it would have gone down an absolute storm.

The song and the performance, in this case, were just not good. And it’s not as though all the other countries hate the UK. We came second two years ago, and likely would have come first had Russia not invaded Ukraine, so we know we can do it, but really, I don’t think whoever’s in charge wants us to.

It's not homophobic to think that simulated sex of any kind isn't appropriate on what should be a family show and a celebration of European cultures and music. So many acts last night were bordering on porn simulation. I laughed at Finland because it was cheeky, funny and totally ridiculous.

There weren't any lockers or shower heads either, so how is that assumption any more valid than assuming it's a public toilet?

The was a shower head on the wall and some taps

The tiles were black mucky. Local authorities need to do better - get their act together and do a deep clean of these toilet/ changing room facilities.

Is it not just the fact it was a rather weak song?
The dancers were good but the actual act a whole just wasn't very nice really. Not shocking really.
It wasn't fun just a bit grimy looking.
Being gay is not an issue, in fact the winner was rather camp, no idea about sexuality and don't actually care.
The winner had a better song, interesting act ( that moving disc took some work) bright and fun outfit.
Just accept it was actually a bit crap. But no it's not homophobic. Not giving a gay man points at Eurovision when quite clearly many other acts are also going for the LGBTQ+ vote and are just better is simply the way competition works.

Now the politics! That was interesting.