I admit to watching The X Factor (but I don’t watch soaps, OK?), and to some extent enjoying it, especially towards the end of the competition when the dross has been filtered out and we get some quality performances.
Now Minogue was commenting on the fact that one contestant on Saturday night, Danyl Johnson, was gay. She’d read something, presumably, about his being so, and made the reference when he chose a song made famous by a girl.
Here’s how one source – Undercover.com.au, an Aussie website – describes it:
Danyl sang the Jennifer Hudson Dreamgirls show tune “And I Am Telling You”. Dannii’s completely inappropriate comment referred to the gender change to the lyric. “Changing a girl’s song into a guy’s song, but if we are to believe everything we read in the paper maybe you didn’t need to change the gender reference in it,” she said.
Simon Cowell was gobsmacked. “What did you say? What did you say? What did you say?”, he fumed, to which Dannii then foolishly repeated her out-of-place statement.
Inappropriate? Foolish? Sorry. I don’t see the problem, and didn’t when I heard Minogue apologise for the reference in last night’s votes show. All she did was say, although not in so many words, that, Johnson being gay, he could have sung the song with reference to a man rather than a woman, since it would be relevant to his own sexual orientation. Fair enough.
I don’t know whether any gay groups have complained – and, to be honest, can’t be arsed to find out – but, if they have, they should be careful. Gay people will be put side by side with some Muslims, Christians and other religionists who get all prickly if there’s a reference to their religion that they perceive to be offensive.
Minogue’s reference to Johnson’s sexuality was, as far as I could make out, just that: a reference. It wasn’t a criticism. It wasn’t even a joke and certainly not a jibe – just a whimsical reference.
Let’s stop this political correctness. Please!
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