Trend alert: in case you haven’t noticed, in the last couple of years bitching about the Eurovision Song Contest has become very fashionable and cool. Truth to be told, it is also a pretty easy pastime, as the show traditionally seems to showcase the most baffling examples of misfits European countries have to offer, including:
Operatic falsetto vampires from Romania
Azerian shadow dopplegangers
Turbo-accordion middle-aged tinfoil nazi transvestites
Latvian fashion pirates
The camp reincarnation of a notoriously bloodthirsty tyrant
A puppet
Disco grannies
Kamikaze Cirque du soleil rejects
Partially decomposed demons
(props to Amanda Yeslibas from Io9 for unearthing these videos)
Tonight’s semi-final however will feature something equally uncommon yet possibly much cooler. Ladies, gentlemen and others, let me introduce you Austria’s entry: Conchita Wurst.
This not-so-straight artist is playing as straight as it gets, not even acknowledging the obvious peculiarity that became a media crisis. How can they even talk about such a character without sounding rude, transphobic or just stupid? Wurst “in your face” genderfuck appearance is in fact as shocking as effective to push the discourse about alternative gender identities forward. Yup, that’s a bearded lady: got any problem with it?
This reminded me of the famous Lana Wachowski speech and of a recent Rolling Stone article about the second annual Trans 100 list of transgendered advocates. The basic message being that it does take courage to acknowledge one’s sexual identity, but it can be immensely empowering both for the individual and for anyone sharing the same orientation. And the more persons will refuse to hide who they really are, the more society will benefit of the inevitable acceptance of diversity, becoming a bit more open-minded and hopefully mature. Think about it as you watch tonight’s contest.