Opinion: Listening to Mainstream Radio Sucks as a Gay Man
Mainstream music can absolutely suck to listening to as a gay man. In fact, it probably sucks for almost every LGBT+ person. This is because every time you turn on the radio, listen to Pandora, or hear a song recommendation from your friend, they are usually riddled with heteronormative language that idealizes strait relationships and forces that sexuality into the song.
Almost every LGBT+ person has been criticized and told that they are too sexual and that they need to stop shoving their sexuality in peoples faces. Whether it is a gay man wearing too flashy of clothes, a trans person requesting that someone use their correct pronouns, or even just a lesbian couple holding hands, they are criticized and told that they are being too sexual and forcing people to pay attention to their identity.
However, LGBT+ people have to deal with the opposite. Almost every movie, story, and song is about a heterosexual couple. We are forced to relate to a straight romance, but when we ask to make a movie that represents us, we are told it won’t be relatable enough.
This is what makes listening to a radio as a gay man so miserable. Yes, a lot of the music is amazing and yes, it can be enjoyable. But, on days that are a mental low point, main-stream radio forces us to look at how underrepresented we are.
This year during the VMA’s, Taylor Swift won an award for best music video for “You Need To Calm Down.” While I want to be angry that a straight woman got an award for a song celebrating being gay, she did do it with good intentions and even used to video to get traction for the Equality Act. But, that adds to my sadness.
Todrick Hall, who is in the featured image, partnered with Taylor Swift for that song. And, it does make me sad that LGBT+ people had to rely on a straight person to argue for us because in mainstream radio, we barely have a seat at the table to argue from.
We get a few people to represent us from time to time, but they are often drowned out by the masses of straight representation or they are told to stop trying to shove their sexuality in peoples faces. It sucks!
It is not because there is any shortage of LGBT+ artists out there. Every pride month, music magazines everywhere make it a point that many talented queer artists exist. But, when pride is over, the representation quits and those queer artists are once again shoved aside in favor of heteronormativity.
At the end of the day, representation matters. And, right now, there isn’t a lot of representation in mainstream radio.
