HENRY McCULLOCH writes:

A sadly very confused Austrian man, Tom Neuwirth, has won the Eurovision Song Contest.  For those unfamiliar with the ways of postmodern Europe (now very loosely interpreted: Azerbaijan sends contestants), the Eurovision Song Contest is a freak show in which the post-nations of post-Europe send contestants to vie for their nation’s honor by singing pop songs that are almost unimaginably bad.  The worst — to my ears, not the judges’ — is usually awarded first prize.  The rapid surrender of Europe to (usually) unarmed Muslim indigents barging in from Africa and the Middle East is far easier to understand once one is familiar with the social dynamic represented by the Eurovision Song Contest.  People who can find amusement and, what is worse, uplift in entertainments this bad and decadent are themselves already very far gone, and the Eurovision Song Contest is hugely popular.  Let’s just say that the kitsch Swedish super-band of the 1970s, ABBA, is to the typical Eurovision winner as Beethoven is to Justin Bieber.

Back to Herr Neuwirth.  Neuwirth has decided, it would appear, that he is actually a woman, but with reservations.  So he dresses as a woman, but does not shave his beard.  He goes by the new name of Conchita Würst, which in German is obscenely suggestive in a way I won’t explain.  And he sings, sort of.  Well enough to win the Eurovision Song Contest, anyway.  So goes the progress of music and culture in the land that was home to Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, the Schumanns, Brahms, the several Strausses and so many others of the greatest musicians the world has known.

In truth, though, it was not Herr/Fräulein-wannabe Neuwirth’s inherent deviant oddness that made this story catch my eye.  That sort of thing is the alternate normal now.  No, what piqued my interest (otherwise I should have ignored it altogether) was the reaction to this peculiar development by a Catholic writer in England.  Her response to this story encapsulates so much of what is wrong with post-Vatican II Catholics who imagine themselves conservative.

The writer in question is a Britalian, Cristina Odone, who writes for The Telegraph and was previously editor of the Catholic Herald among other journalistic jobs.  La Odone celebrates this triumph of perversity-beyond-parody because she believes the victory of a bearded transvestite in a pop song contest is “one in the eye for Putin,” that bad old meanie “homophobe.”  About “Conchita,” La Odone gushes, accepting without hesitation the physical and moral impossibility that the tragically disordered Herr Neuwirth is actually a woman named Conchita Würst:

 “I felt like tonight Europe showed that we are a community of respect and tolerance,” enthused Conchita Wurst after she won the Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday night.

The Bearded Lady, aka Tom Newirth, former member of an Austrian boy band, had a point. A few decades back, “she” would have performed in a freak show, Austria’s answer to the Elephant Man; at the very least, she would have been the butt of curious stares and vulgar jokes. Not so today: Conchita, with her long locks, spangled frocks and unshaven cheeks, won the popular vote for daring to be herself. [sic]

In her homeland, once synonymous with the waltz and The Sound of Music, Ms Wurst enjoys cult-like status. She stars on the telly, the cat-walk, and social media too. Austria’s image abroad will never be the same: in her push-up bra and false lashes, this androgynous vision of bearded bling has erased all memories of Julie Andrews yodelling in the Alps.

If so, alas sad Austria.  The old saying, celebrating Habsburg success at dynastic alliances, was Bella gerunt alii, tu, felix Austria, nubes (Others wage war; thou, Happy Austria, weddest).  But perhaps weddings as we have known them are falling out of favor in the land of gemütlichkeit.  Reinforcing the eye-popping stupidity of La Odone’s remarks is that Julie Andrews is no more Austrian than La Odone herself!  Enough.

Or almost.  La Odone, who imagines herself a guardian of Christian morality in an ever more neo-pagan Europe, closes with the following, which might lead one to despair altogether if it were possible to take La Odone at all seriously:

Putin has depicted the West as the decadent incubator of gays and lesbians: too much freedom and diversity have created a soft and libertine people to be pitied and despised. The honest folk of Russia, Georgia and the Ukraine must steer clear of Western influence, lest they become infected by its perversions.

With her Eurovision victory, the Bearded Lady from Austria unwittingly fired the opening salvo in this culture war. Putin thinks that Westerners will prove a push-over when it comes to defending sexual freedom. I’m not so sure.

No points for guessing which side the “family-values conservative Catholic” is on.

— Comments —

Buck writes:

It seems, as far as I can tell within my limited awareness, that when we don’t concentrate real hard (or use an auto-bot correction program), or care, we will lapse into the appearance of soft tolerance or acceptance, even when we fully intend not to. Over time, I’m convinced, our collective lapses will degrade into a wide tolerance and acquiescent approval.

“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages.” says, one of Shakespeare’s characters. Is that what Shakespeare actually thought?

Tennessee Williams said of the actors taught by Lee Strasberg, who is considered the best-ever teacher of actors, and “father of method acting”; that “They act from the inside out. They communicate emotions [that] they really feel. They give you a sense of life.”

I understand the idea of drawing from personal experience to generate your characters required emotion, but it’s still make-believe. Actors pretend to believe, to think, to do and to be what they are not; and to be convincing, even if they hate or disagree with or don’t even understand the sentiment that they need to portray.

Tom Neuwirth is not Conchita Wurst. Tom Neuwirth’s act is Conchita Wurst.

“Wurst’s song of ‘Rise Like A Phoenix’ has been compared to a Shirley Bassey James Bond-theme and it’s not surprising that she was able to pull off such a haunting performance.”

Do we live in such an increasingly graying world that we can’t make the effort to make the profound distinction between fact and fiction, when the whole purpose of our discussing it is to do so, because the larger audience no longer cares? Neela Debnath of the Independent.co.uk writes “she” in reference to “Wurst’s…haunting performance.”

Is it Wurst’s or Neuwirth’s performance? Does it depend? Is it subjective? Debnath didn’t bother to be precise, because there is no need to be. For whose benefit? Neela Debnath knows that it is a male performing the song as a female. But, why be a killjoy? Conchita Wurst is bringing the joy, not the sad, pathetic Tom Neuwirth. Wait. Which is it?

I always look forward to entries and comments by Henry McCulloch. No exception here. He always brings an interesting perspective. Not once does he misstep as he navigates through the muddle of he/she/him/her/Tom/Conchita (s). Bravo.

Here’s an example of the muddle of language that troubles me. I’m not really a grammar Nazi or spell Nazi, and certainly I’m not that proficient at writing, but this won’t let go of me. Mark Richardson, with whom I’ve discussed this (gay, gender, etc.), places, in my opinion, insufficient importance on the command and use of certain terms, which I argue is very important if we are to deploy the few tactics that we have. If the effort to recapture and command the use of terms captured and held hostage by modern liberals, then a strict adherence to their defense of use, is not too late or irrelevant, unless what I often hear about a distant, hopeful future is false.:

Mr Wurst appealed for support by drawing on the liberal principles that currently dominate Western thought:

“I created this bearded lady to show the world that you can do whatever you want,” said Wurst, the drag persona of 25-year-old Austrian singer Tom Neuwirth, at a recent press conference in Copenhagen.

“If you’re not hurting anyone you can do whatever you like with your life and, it’s so cheesy, but we’ve only got one (life),” she added.

“Mr. Wurst”? OK. He has me looking down the rabbit hole. I need to get my flashlight. He continues:

He’s [ Mr. Wurst? ] right that what he does fits in well with liberalism. Liberalism says that what matters is that I choose autonomously for myself what I am and what I do: that I am to self-determine or self-create my own being and identity and that this is what creates meaning or purpose in life.

If that is true, then Conchita Wurst is a better person than the rest of us as he/she is not “limited” by the sex identity that he/she was born with, but has played creatively to mix and match it.

“Conchita Wurst is a…person…, born with” a sexual identity? “He/she”? Perhaps Mark Richardson is having some creative fun. Certainly I get and agree with the point that he makes so well. Hopefully, the three identities that he refers to will look out for each other’s well-being.

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