Harry Styles and his Glass Closet
Who is Harry Styles? I don’t think many people in the world haven’t heard the name Harry Styles, haven’t heard of his singing career, acting career or know him as 1/5th of One Direction. Harry is a household name in his own right, especially amongst people of a certain age, but who is the person behind the persona? And why does he keep getting accused of queerbaiting? Why are some of his solo fans so adamant Harry is straight despite almost mountains of evidence to the contrary?
This article is going to explore who Harry is, but is also going to look at glass closets such as the one Harry is in where his queerness is played up, yet never confirmed, where he alludes to not being straight, but cannot outright claim to be part of the queer community. What we know about Harry Styles comes from years of media exposure, but is Harry the person he’s shown to be in the media or is it a marketing tool by an unscrupulous music industry who’d sooner see a young man labeled a womaniser who can’t settle for more than a short period of time with any partner?
So who is Harry Styles? Harry is a thirty year old man from a small village in England called Holmes Chapel. He’s a talented singer, musician, lyricist, actor and appears to be a sweet and kind man. He’s private and kind, friendly and yet is there more to him than meets the eye. You see, Harry is a queer person. He’s been closeted by an unforgiving music industry and has identified himself as queer on multiple occasions.
He has queer coding in his songs, has acted in a movie about a closeted policeman and has come out on stage on so many occasions I’ve lost count. He’s danced around with pride flags and draped them over himself, has alluded to having gay sex, has a song called Medicine that explicitly states, ‘the boys and the girls are in, I mess around with him/ them and I’m okay with it’.
He has also spoken out in interviews on numerous occasions stating that a partner being female isn’t that important to him, that you shouldn’t knock male on male sex until you try it and has confirmed via interview that he’s unlabeled, so why does the general public refuse to see his queerness and why does the queer community come down on him for not being out?
This is twofold- forcing people to come out is wrong. No one owes you or anyone else their label and being unlabeled is perfectly valid, however in the eyes of many in the queer community Harry is queerbaiting, not coding and some very vocal members of the queer community have come out and condemned Harry for things he’s done.
People such as Billy Porter have claimed that Harry is misappropriating queer culture and queer representation by wearing nail polish, dresses and appearing notably queer, but because of the media narratives tied to Harry presumably by his management company and record label, he has been ridiculed and attacked by those in the community.
Harry is also bound by multiple contracts, numerous NDAs and if, as many suspect, he is in a relationship with another former member of One Direction, then it becomes that much more complicated and difficult for Harry. He can’t simply come out of the glass closet he’s been forced into throughout the later part of his career because his closet isn’t just about him -it’s about his partner too.
What is a glass closet? A glass closet is when a person is identifiable as a member of the LGBTQIA+ but their queerness isn’t explicitly acknowledged. Harry can be as open within the closet as he is allowed, but cannot come out and confirm it.
Another reason that fans are aware that Harry is closeted is that he’s only publicly been linked with women, yet when asked about this has stated that he hasn’t publicly been in a relationship with anyone. If you look on say Wikipedia or Just Jared, Harry’s dating history reads like a phonebook of Victoria Secret models, actresses and even the occasional singer.
Yet the only person Harry has publicly confirmed he’s dated was Louis Tomlinson when asked by a fan many years ago.
Harry also stated his first real crush was Louis before the media training and closeting kicked in, so what happened between being the young boy who was proud and happy to share his first crush and the man who publicly cannot confirm his sexuality? Years of abuse, coercion, manipulation and bullying in both the press and potentially by management and his record label have made this a taboo subject.
Fans of Harry’s are split into those who believe he is in fact queer, those who believe has always been in a relationship with Louis Tomlinson and those who believe Harry is straight and has never been with a man. This causes numerous arguments between fans and heated debates that encourage solos to abuse others for their acknowledgement of Harry’s queerness.
Harry has also suffered abuse in the form of being called a queerbaiter in the media and the bullying from the queer community and the heterosexuals who believe that he is straight must be so damaging. Why does he need a label? Shouldn’t we be past making people label their sexuality? Isn’t it time that we moved past the heteronormativity of labeling everything and just let people be who they are, love who they love and be open with who they want?
Love is love at the end of the day and whether someone is gay, bi, pan, unlabeled or trans shouldn’t matter to anyone. All that should matter is whether they are a good person or not. A person’s label is not all they are, nor should it be, so fans should stop trying to force public figures to come out to make society happy and let people have the right to a private label away from the public eye if they so choose.
Behind the Curtains
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