Mika's Sexuality (A Different Kind of Thread)

[JackViolet]

I thought it would be good to discuss the subject aside from the gay/straight question for once.

 

So I was listening to “Big Girl (You Are Beautiful)” today and I thought again of all the Freddie Mercury comparisons. This song has garnered its fair share of them, even though it’s really not at all similar musically, but the subject seems to attract attention. Specifically, I was thinking how sweet “Big Girl” was in comparison to “Fat Bottomed Girls.” “Big Girl” has its own lyrical problems, but it is at least clearly positive-spirited, while as “Fat Bottomed Girls” is a bit more difficult. Some of the lines in it are just plain crass, others are hardly flattering, and in the end, while Mercury does sing the praises of a larger lady, these praises are entirely predicated on the sexual pleasure she can afford him. The way I’d summarize it, the song goes “Big Girl (You’re Not Beautiful But You’re A Damn Good F*ck.)” Reviewers, however, generally lambaste Mika for not being positive/enthusiastic/politically correct/whatever enough on “Big Girl” and seem to accept Mercury’s take. I remembered an article about the two I read once, that said Mercury, whatever his personal inclinations, sounded “wracked with lust” on “Fat Bottomed Girls,” while as Mika sounded removed from his subject.

 

Then I thought that the reviewer obviously had his expectations all wrong, because at this moment I cannot possibly imagine Mika sounding “wracked with lust” on any song, be it about girls, boys, dogs or otherwise. It may change of course, but right now, that’s just not what he is. The articles that call him a Disney kid, and complain of his “disturbing asexuality” (we all remember that one!) are onto something, even if they miss the point. It’s not that Mika’s squeaky clean, exactly—his performances of “Sweet Dreams” and “Love Today” certainly consciously play up his sex-appeal—but he is flirty, not dirty. His approach is quite coy, hiding any sexual references behind childlike images and playground rhymes (the entirety of “Lollipop,” “hook ‘er nook ‘er book ‘er” in “Love Today”), or else alluding to them only obliquely (“we’d wake up tangled on the sheets” in “Erase”). It may be that he’s just a little bit shy, but personally I just think he prefers a bit of sly innuendo to putting it all out there. He’s like someone bringing a lover home to meet the family—certainly there is sex involved, and no one is trying to hide that, but neither does anyone want to discuss the details over dinner. (I realize that some families do in fact try to act like sex is not happening. For purposes of this illustration, let’s assume this a family that has no problems with the lovers sharing a bed, and takes small expressions of affection in stride. Um. I’m getting off the subject here a bit.)

 

Coy and sweet as he may be, though, I think it’s really interesting to trace the way he’s used his sexuality through his media rise. I mentioned “Sweet Dreams” and “Love Today” before, but the introduction of the first song, and the addition of sexual elements to the second has been a fairly recent thing in his repertoire. DaMango’s take on it was “it’s like the boy suddenly discovered he’s got hips!” but when seen in the context of his performance history, that observation doesn’t quite fit. Mika knew he had hips before—and other things—and his brief interlude of shyer, restrained performances seems like a conscious break to me rather than just crowd apprehension.

A week ago or so, someone on gabbly linked me to a video of an “early” performance of “Grace Kelly,” back in last November. I watched it, expecting it to correspond to the other “earlier” videos (Jan-February-ish) I’d seen, that is, I expected Mika not to move around the stage as much as he does now, to jump around less, and to have a gangly, boyishly awkward atmosphere around him. In some ways, my expectations were affirmed—Mika’s dancing was more centered on his mike, he kept to his spot of the stage, and his moves were less fluid and more quirkily twitchy, but otherwise I was in for a surprise. Mika sang “Grace Kelly” as I only hoped it could be sang when I first heard it—he was blatantly flirting with the audience, and not in the cheeky way he sometimes flirts now, but full-on propositioning! Since it was Mika, it was still a proposition tinged with a bit of adorable adolescent artlessness, but a proposition none the less. He rolled his hips into his mic-stand kittenishly, he threw back his head, open-mouthed, he fixed the front row with a shy come-hither stare. I tried to describe how the performance struck me to the other chatters on gabbly, and the best way I could characterize it is that he was offering himself up like a boy prostitute. (I think this is awesome, by the way.) God, I wish he’d kept that, it was so appropriate for the opening lyrics of the song.

 

But he didn’t.

 

The thing is, the way he was putting himself out to the audience, the way he was flirting with them, was as an available object of desire—the way society usually conditions women to flirt. It was gorgeous, it was hot as hell—and it was also quite, quite gay.

 

Again, this is not about whether Mika is gay or not. That doesn’t matter, any other person doing those same moves would make the same impression. Whether he is gay or not, it seems that either he or his management decided somewhere along the way that his self-presentation on stage ought to be a little less coquettish. That makes sense: if you think he’s getting plenty of rude comments about being a “fag” now, you should see how that kind of sexual coquettishness would have been received. Mainstream society at large does not take well to men who are willing to sexualize themselves in terms of object rather than subject.

 

So, in between ditching that mode of performance and developing the one he has now, Mika seems to have decided to go with an endearing, childlike asexuality. (The childlike aspect was always present anyway.) In my view, all those middle-early performances where he seemed a bit hesitant with his body and didn’t move as much on stage, and interacted rather diffidently with his Big Girl dancers were as much due to him trying to figure out what direction he was going to go in, as they were due to reserve brought on by inexperience. It was a thinking-pause. He was trying to work out his act through these performances, and to work out how he should best incorporate sexuality into his show.

 

Eventually, we know, he hit on the routine he does now: unabashed enthusiasm coupled with some frankly-sexier moves, that don’t come across as particularly threatening due to that very unabashed enthusiasm. However, I think it interesting to note that his sexuality has transitioned away from object and more towards subject. Certainly, he invites the audience to look when he strips off his shirt for “Love Today,” but his focus is on the aggressive beating of the drums: he is in fact probably at his most masculine during that bit of the show. (The hip-swishing posturing on the drums, less so, haha.) With “Sweet Dreams,” there is no outside focus object, but instead Mika is internally focused, seemingly lost within himself during his performance. There is no flirtation with the audience, very little engagement of them in any intimate way whatsoever, and in fact at the height of both his “Love Today” stripping and his “Sweet Dreams” gyrations he hardly even looks up off-stage. He’s gone from the “go ahead, objectify me, I want you to” brand of sexuality to a more noncommittal “objectify me if you wish, and I know you will, but I am not really participating” type. As such he’s moved from female to ambiguous-male sexuality in his evolution as a performer, and I think he’s still moving in that direction.

 

I do wonder what exactly motivated this departure for him in the first place, however, and if it was all his idea.

 

--Jack

 

This looooong post brought to you by "Jack should really write essays on other subjects than Mika, but writes essays on Mika anyhow."

[mandilambi]

You've got some interesting points! You've brought up some points that I might never have considered. One thing though, you may want to keep in mind that Brian May wrote FBG, so although Freddie sang it, Brian was the one that came up with the lyrics...

 

Now you've made me want to go listen to FBG and BG.

[Kavi]

:thumb_yello:

wow jack! quite a read. u totally hit the nail on the head and u brought out what i was thinking and what i had observed. couldn't have said it any better.

[soon-to-bemrs.penniman]

I thought it would be good to discuss the subject aside from the gay/straight question for once.

 

So I was listening to “Big Girl (You Are Beautiful)” today and I thought again of all the Freddie Mercury comparisons. This song has garnered its fair share of them, even though it’s really not at all similar musically, but the subject seems to attract attention. Specifically, I was thinking how sweet “Big Girl” was in comparison to “Fat Bottomed Girls.” “Big Girl” has its own lyrical problems, but it is at least clearly positive-spirited, while as “Fat Bottomed Girls” is a bit more difficult. Some of the lines in it are just plain crass, others are hardly flattering, and in the end, while Mercury does sing the praises of a larger lady, these praises are entirely predicated on the sexual pleasure she can afford him. The way I’d summarize it, the song goes “Big Girl (You’re Not Beautiful But You’re A Damn Good F*ck.)” Reviewers, however, generally lambaste Mika for not being positive/enthusiastic/politically correct/whatever enough on “Big Girl” and seem to accept Mercury’s take. I remembered a article about the two I read once, that said Mercury, whatever his personal inclinations, sounded “wracked with lust” on “Fat Bottomed Girls,” while as Mika sounded removed from his subject.

 

Then I thought that the reviewer obviously had his expectations all wrong, because at this moment I cannot possibly imagine Mika sounding “wracked with lust” on any song, be it about girls, boys, dogs or otherwise. It may change of course, but right now, that’s just not what he is. The articles that call him a Disney kid, and complain of his “disturbing asexuality” (we all remember that one!) are onto something, even if they miss the point. It’s not that Mika’s squeaky clean, exactly—his performances of “Sweet Dreams” and “Love Today” certainly consciously play up his sex-appeal—but he is flirty, not dirty. His approach is quite coy, hiding any sexual references behind childlike images and playground rhymes (the entirety of “Lollipop,” “hook ‘er nook ‘er book ‘er” in “Love Today”), or else alluding to them only obliquely (“we’d wake up tangled on the sheets” in “Erase”). It may be that he’s just a little bit shy, but personally I just think he prefers a bit of sly innuendo to putting it all out there. He’s like someone bringing a lover home to meet the family—certainly there is sex involved, and no one is trying to hide that, but neither does anyone want to discuss the details over dinner. (I realize that some families do in fact try to act like sex is not happening. For purposes of this illustration, let’s assume this a family that has no problems with the lovers sharing a bed, and takes small expressions of affection in stride. Um. I’m getting off the subject here a bit.)

 

Coy and sweet as he may be, though, I think it’s really interesting to trace the way he’s used his sexuality through his media rise. I mentioned “Sweet Dreams” and “Love Today” before, but the introduction of the first song, and the addition of sexual elements to the second has been a fairly recent thing in his repertoire. DaMango’s take on it was “it’s like the boy suddenly discovered he’s got hips!” but when seen in the context of his performance history, that observation doesn’t quite fit. Mika knew he had hips before—and other things—and his brief interlude of shyer, restrained performances seems like a conscious break to me rather than just crowd apprehension.

A week ago or so, someone on gabbly linked me to a video of an “early” performance of “Grace Kelly,” back in last November. I watched it, expecting it to correspond to the other “earlier” videos (Jan-February-ish) I’d seen, that is, I expected Mika not to move around the stage as much as he does now, to jump around less, and to have a gangly, boyishly awkward atmosphere around him. In some ways, my expectations were affirmed—Mika’s dancing was more centered on his mike, he kept to his spot of the stage, and his moves were less fluid and more quirkily twitchy, but otherwise I was in for a surprise. Mika sang “Grace Kelly” as I only hoped it could be sang when I first heard it—he was blatantly flirting with the audience, and not in the cheeky way he sometimes flirts now, but full-on propositioning! Since it was Mika, it was still a proposition tinged with a bit of adorable adolescent artlessness, but a proposition none the less. He rolled his hips into his mic-stand kittenishly, he threw back his head, open-mouthed, he fixed the front row with a shy come-hither stare. I tried to describe how the performance struck me to the other chatters on gabbly, and the best way I could characterize it is that he was offering himself up like a boy prostitute. (I think this is awesome, by the way.) God, I wish he’d kept that, it was so appropriate for the opening lyrics of the song.

 

But he didn’t.

 

The thing is, the way he was putting himself out to the audience, the way he was flirting with them, was as an available object of desire—the way society usually conditions women to flirt. It was gorgeous, it was hot as hell—and it was also quite, quite gay.

 

Again, this is not about whether Mika is gay or not. That doesn’t matter, any other person doing those same moves would make the same impression. Whether he is gay or not, it seems that either he or his management decided somewhere along the way that his self-presentation on stage ought to be a little less coquettish. That makes sense: if you think he’s getting plenty of rude comments about being a “fag” now, you should see how that kind of sexual coquettishness would have been received. Mainstream society at large does not take well to men who are willing to sexualize themselves in terms of object rather than subject.

 

So, in between ditching that mode of performance and developing the one he has now, Mika seems to have decided to go with an endearing, childlike asexuality. (The childlike aspect was always present anyway.) In my view, all those middle-early performances where he seemed a bit hesitant with his body and didn’t move as much on stage, and interacting rather diffidently with his Big Girl dancers were as much due to him trying to figure out what direction he was going to go in, as they were due to reserve brought on by inexperience. It was a thinking-pause. He was trying to work out his act through these performances, and to work out how he should best incorporate sexuality into his show.

 

Eventually, we know, he hit on the routine he does now: unabashed enthusiasm coupled with some frankly-sexier moves, that don’t come across as particularly threatening due to that very unabashed enthusiasm. However, I think it interesting to note that his sexuality has transitioned away from object and more towards subject. Certainly, he invites the audience to look when he strips off his shirt for “Love Today,” but his focus is on the aggressive beating of the drums: he is in fact probably at his most masculine during that bit of the show. (The hip-swishing posturing on the drums, less so, haha.) With “Sweet Dreams,” there is no outside focus object, but instead Mika is internally focused, seemingly lost within himself during his performance. There is no flirtation with the audience, very little engagement of them in any intimate way whatsoever, and in fact at the height of both his “Love Today” stripping and his “Sweet Dreams” gyrations he hardly even looks up off-stage. He’s gone from the “go ahead, objectify me, I want you to” brand of sexuality to a more noncommittal “objectify me if you wish, and I know you will, but I am not really participating” type. As such he’s moved from female to ambiguous-male sexuality in his evolution as a performer, and I think he’s still moving in that direction.

 

I do wonder what exactly motivated this departure for him in the first place, however, and if it was all his idea.

 

--Jack

 

This looooong post brought to you by "Jack should really write essays on other subjects than Mika, but writes essays on Mika anyhow."

 

I've just read the whole post and i have got to say, WOW!!!!

 

You are SO smart!!!!

 

I loved it. Though i don't agree with everything i think you make a very valid point.

 

Very interesing.

 

Do you know where i can find the early Grace Kelly performance you were talking about??

 

Thanks for starting this thread!

 

(This has got to be the wisest thread on this site by far!)

 

I am not kidding, I'm in awe of your intelligence!

[sunshine931]

Wow....

 

First of all keep on writing essays like these cause your really good....

 

And that is one very interesting point of view

 

let me ponder that for a moment now !

[Kavi]

click it it takes u to the performance on youtube

[Cassiopée]

Wow! This is really a different kind of thread about sexuality. You can't stop impressing me by your thoughts and reasonings. And the way you write it... Je t'aime Jack il n'y a pas d'autres mots!

 

It's a smart way to analyze all this and I did notice the difference between the gig I went to in March and now. I wonder why he changed...

[soon-to-bemrs.penniman]

click it it takes u to the performance on youtube

 

How could i miss that?? I guess i was too lost in thought....

 

Thank you Kavi!

[mellody]

stb-mrs-p: there's a link to the video in her thread.

 

interesting post... i just don't really see him flirting that much in that video, maybe it's just too late at night and i've been at the pc too long, but to me it looks like he has his eyes closed most of the time, and at the beginning he's a bit disturbed by the fact that sth's wrong with the sound, probably the one in his ear piece, anyway he waves a sign to the sound ppl twice. and i don't see much hip rolling either (just at one point very slightly). anyway, it was nice to watch that video, hadn't seen it before, thanx for posting!

 

so, um, is it just me seeing no special flirting in that video?

[BonjourMika1990]

Jack you express yourself so well! I love it When you write your first book, let me know... I wanna buy it!

[ohwowitsnicka]

Who owns? Jack owns.

 

Gosh you're so smart.

 

Honestly.. I would have never thought of that.

[JackViolet]

Awww, thanks guys.

 

I know not all of you agree with this interpretation, but that was kind of the point--I wanted to start a discussion, and to hear your opinions as well! I think it's interesting to track the way musicians project and alter their images through their career. And hey, Mika discussion is fun.

 

so, um, is it just me seeing no special flirting in that video?

 

Hmmm, to me the flirting is quite obvious at the beginning--like the way he tosses his head and then brushes his hand back over his ear--that's a classic pin-up pose. The way he places both hands on the microphone and swishes his hips back-and-forth against it, too. Plus the hand cocked on the hip. I interpret the closed eyes as more of a heavy-lidded look of abandonment.

 

Oh, and mandilambi, thanks for the info on FBG's writing credits! That makes more sense, now.

 

--Jack

[Hannah]

Jack, you are so talented and amazing.

 

I very much agree with you, and it is a very interesting point that you made.

 

I do find more of a "flamboyancy factor" in the early video, and I must say that I like it.

 

The thing is, the way he was putting himself out to the audience, the way he was flirting with them, was as an available object of desire—the way society usually conditions women to flirt. It was gorgeous, it was hot as hell—and it was also quite, quite gay.

 

I agree, and I love it, quite frankly. There's something about the slightly feminine/sexy/flamboyant Mika that is incredibly attractive and appealing.

[JackViolet]

I agree, and I love it, quite frankly. There's something about the slightly feminine/sexy/flamboyant Mika that is incredibly attractive and appealing.

 

Exactly! I have to say I really rather wish he might bring some of that flamboyant-flirty energy back into his act eventually. It's delicious, and I want more of it.

 

--Jack

[Suzy]

As such he’s moved from female to ambiguous-male sexuality in his evolution as a performer, and I think he’s still moving in that direction.

 

 

 

Christine and I both remember feeling the "sexual tension" displayed when Mika was "singing" to Martin at the Toronto, MOD Club performance last March. I'm not implying anything other than it seeming more natural for him to fall into the intensity of that role. It was certainly stronger than any Big Girl contrived, playfulness that I've seen.

 

However, I don't know if MIKA even knows or is conscious about his display of sexuality. I often think he does what he does or what he feels at that moment into the song, without too much analysis.

 

Jack - you know I still wanna grow up to be just as smart as you though.

[lilmot]

Thanks for starting such an interesting thread. I had also noticed how Mika, as a performer, has evolved and changed. I think it is truly fascinating to watch the earlier performances vs the later ones. He is so much more comfortable on the stage now, and he "owns" his performances more. I also like the coquettish Mika, but I like the "subtle" coquettish Mika, I'm not a fan of anything too blatant. I see him being flirty and even sometimes dirty now, and I love the way he teases. To me there feels like a lot of interaction going on between Mika and the audience and I love his ability to change quickly between object/subject...it's like having the tables twisted on you quickly where one moment you are in the audience being made love to and the next moment....well, never mind:mf_rosetinted:

One thing that truly fascinates me is how his perfomances are different in different countries. The French Mika seems so different (still subtle though) than the British Mika and the American Mika really threw me for a loop! I thought he had evolved to something else, but then he went back home and became more like British Mika. And then, when he is in Japan I think he really likes to be touched by the audience. Maybe they touch more softly, where Americans would pinch and squeeze? Well, I have probably gone off subject now, but thanks again for your interesting thoughts and I want to think about it some more myself. Mika is a fascinating subject (oh, and object too ) and I agree that you should go on writing Mika essays as much as you want.

[Fmbm]

Nice.

[DavidM]

WOW,Im with you Mika have even said I like to sexualize songs and he have

 

"Sucking to hard on your lollipop""Lick her lips like theres something other" and phrases like that and I was watching this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W81-xBhwcvQ and look when he said Lick her lips like theres something other look at the hand while holding the mouth , what do u think he is trying to say

[DaMango]

Oh wow Jack! I am amazed at your ability to draw from various chats and posts to compose a clear, concise essay. Wonderful! Ah yes, I do fondly remember the "boy prostitute" conversation, as well as your explanation of the difference between feminine macho sexy, and coy boyish sexy. I hate to disagree with you (like I usually do), but I prefer the feminine macho sexy.

 

Thank you also for quoting me! However, I would have liked it more if you included my entire quote, which reads...

 

“it’s like the boy suddenly discovered he’s got hips...that have the ability to steer hot-blooded American women away from pure sisterly thoughts, and have them burning with fervent desire!"

 

Get it right next time, dear.

[canderson]

Gosh Fat Bottom Girls is such a dirty song. lol. i even knew that when i was seven.

 

That was really eye opening, but before i had put any subject towards the "mika evolution" i had just figured that it was him adjusting to where his music was taking him. Like he'd have to move around more because his audiences are bigger and he'd also have to use bolder bigger theatrics to entertain a bigger rowdier group. i think i might still have the same opinion. the opinion that it's just Mika responding to his audience's responses.

 

i hope i made since.

 

 

...annnd i kind of miss the old mika.

[chartreuse]

That was a little too overanalytical for me. Didn't he say somewhere that he doesn't sexualize his music? .......... Psh. As though he's not conscious of his acts. I'm sure he's at least somewhat aware of the more subtle stuff, but how can he not notice how flirty he gets. You can't tell me hearing "hook her nook her book her" doesn't give you even the slightest twang. I mean sexuality is totally natural and I'm not surprised a lot of his music and act is kinda sexually charged. And really that's all I think of it. Nothing more to it, the man uses sexuality in his work. But it's definitely pretty fascinating the way he kinda straddles female/male sexuality and is almost as feminine as he is masculine.

[buttnugget040]

For some reason this well, i'll call it a compostion, confuses me , maybe it's me being dumb but I dont know what you mean, but I do at the same time?Does that make any sense to you at all?

[Hannah]

...I was just watching the Grace Kelly official video again, and even THAT seems different to me than the Mika of now. Y'know, with the whole red outfit, dancing with the tube, etc. I just can't see him doing that now.

[lazy_daisy]

Gosh, you are a great writer; no point in denying that. But I don't agree with you at all. You made many a good point in your essay, but I don't think Mika is so concious about his sexual image during his performances as your compositon would lead us to believe. As far as I'm concerned, music is about passion and about expressing things that are buried deep down inside people and that, for a broad variety of reasons, can't be expressed in any other way. It's true that Mika's performance changes with time, but I assume this is due to the fact that he's more experienced a showman by now. His confidence increases and, naturally, that results in cheekier and sexier moves (which, of course, us faithful fans fully appreciate).

Something that must be considered as well are Mika's claims about his being constantly rejected and laughed at throughout his childhood. I gather that is reason enough to be coy and shy on stage. Only as he understands that we really like him as he is, he starts to loosen up progressively. But I don't really agree with the statement that he is asexual. There are different ways to express sexuality and this is his. It may be somewhat restrained at times, but it still shows (and I love it).

Let's make things clear: sex sells (in the sense that it makes almost anything popular in the market). So yes, it's highly possible his manager or someone else hinted Mika into exploitig his sexy side. However, I don't think Mika is that worried about the market. He must be, of course (his album is out there), but not so much as to change his way of being just to fit in. His dancing and all the rest are, as far as I see it, a direct result of his growth and developement as an artist.

Your distinction between Mika's subjective and objective attitude towards sexuality is very sharp and it proves I'm speaking to a person with wits (I agree with the others here). But, in my opinion, it's a bit far-fetched. I mean, would you think about a thing like that when singing or when talking to people? I certainly wouldn't be worried about looking as an available object or as a subject in people's eyes. We are going too deep to explain a fact that probably is only natural: Mika is more confident now and has learnt how to manage his body on stage.

Anyway, this post does not intend to hold the ultimate truth. It's only an opinion. The world would be utterly boring if every person on earth thought in the same way.

[DaMango]

I see what you mean Lazy daisy. Mika's sexier image may be a side effect of new-found confidence...perhaps?