Hmm....How about a slightly different perspective?
[grins wryly]
Back in the early days of Planet Fierce (PF), the site from where ATOP germinated and one of the very early Adam fandoms, we jokingly did an informal survey one day of what the members did for a living. The answers were pretty astonishing. PF was **way** overrepresented, statistically, with professional women in male-dominated fields: engineers, hard scientists, mathematicians, lawyers.
It was weird. But it wasn't.
Nearly everyone in those early PF days had been in the position of having to prove their worth above and beyond what their male colleagues did. The pressure to act a certain way, in order to conform to a 'male-standard' norm. The scorn if you did anything 'girly'.
We EMPATHIZED with Adam. To know that you were technically better than your competitors...but watched them win over you anyways. To not be taken seriously for things completely irrelevant to your skill set. To realize that the slightest slip would be magnified at any available opportunity.
We saw Adam struggle, and it resonated with our own struggles.
We fought for him because it hurt that his amazing talent was often intentionally obscured for reasons totally non-related to his singing. That his articulateness was reduced to the most scandalous off-hand phrase. That for every 99% of impressive accomplishment, only the 1% of human foible was reported.
We had been there, and so fought for him.
Ergo, while to many it may seem odd that Adam has a female, often older fanbase...it shouldn't. IMO Adam's fanbase, and its protectiveness, is far less about Idol, than it about desperately wanting equal rights and opportunities for someone whose talent and work ethic warrants more acknowledgment that he's received.
Adam's discrimination is because he is gay. For many of us fans, ours is due to a double x chromosome. But those who have experienced the unlevel 'straight man' playing field, Adam's battles strike deep within our phyches, and we want this beautiful gay man to win.
[winks]
Plus, he looks really hot in leather pants. ;D
