For those of you who have never heard of the Eurovision song contest . . . ABBA. It gave us ABBA and then not much else for the next 40 years. That’s basically all you really need to know.
Anyway, the 2013 contest is currently underway, and Finnish entrant Krista Siegfrids is making a name for herself so far. After performing her song “Marry Me,” Krista proceeded to kiss one of her female backup singers, which apparently threw some people for a loop.
Here’s the thing: since Eurovision is meant to be as wholly inoffensive as possible, political statements aren’t allowed onstage. Most of Siegfrids’s critics aren’t so much concerned with the fact that she kissed a woman, as much as they’re worried that she might have been making a political statement. Soooooo . . . progress? Kinda?
In a televised interview after the fact, Krista talked about the kiss, saying that who she does or does not kiss is not a political statement and that she wrote the song for her boyfriend, which . . . okay then.
Are high-profile displays of affection between people of the same sex political statements? Usually, no. Are people going to treat them like political statements regardless? Yup. People are going to see something the way they want to see it. If someone sees a kiss between two women as a political statement, regardless of whether or not it is, there’s not a lot anyone can do to convince them otherwise. The best thing you can do is just try not to politicize everything.
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