Cracking the Conspiracy

Cracking the Conspiracies

Conspiracy theories are generally thought to be ‘out there’ notions about how the world is being run by a small group of corrupt billionaires, or how certain groups believe that vaccines cause autism (insert eye roll here because they don’t, autism is a genetic predisposition) or how covid was fake (tell that to the people I know who lost loved ones or to the patients I cared for who had intensive care stays as a result.) My point is many conspiracy theories are baffling as much as they are untrue, but it’s understandable how people can fall for them, or get drawn in, in the same way as normal people get drawn into cults. 

However, not every conspiracy theory is false and there are times that conspiracy theories are proved correct. Examples of this are when Watergate happened or when fans proved that Britney Spears was in fact being abused through the conservatorship she was subjected to. Both of these things were so-called ‘conspiracy theories’ but in fact were true and just because some things are sold to the public as conspiracies does not mean they also can’t be true. 

This article is going to explore some of the abuse fans of the One Direction boys have faced over the years for believing they were abused, believing they were and still are closeted and for calling out the music industry for the mistreatment of the boys and other artists. Many artists have come forward over the years and explained that they have stayed in the closet due to pressure from management companies and labels, so would it really be surprising to find out that some of One Direction have been closeted by the same label as most of these other young men from boy bands?

When talking about boy band formula you have a set PR guideline for each member to allow the group the biggest reach. You have the sweet one (Niall), the quiet one (Zayn), the perfect boyfriend (Louis), the teddy bear (Liam) and the player (Harry). These roles were assigned to the boys very early on; in fact some of this was seen while the boys were still competing on the X Factor. 

Why is this important? It’s important because if we look at other boy bands from the Backstreet Boys to Nsync to Westlife, Five, Boyzone, New Kids on The Block and Take That there are the same formulas used to encourage girls to find their favourite member. The idea behind boy bands is that they are safe to fantasise about and that’s appealing to young girls, especially teenagers, who are just discovering their own identities and sexualities. Giving boy band members specific traits means that they appeal to wider audiences and therefore will sell more records. 

The flip side of this is that if there is a member of the band who is queer, they are pressured to stay in the closet by management teams, labels and their media trainers. They are informed that coming out could ruin the band, could impact on their careers and could damage not only their careers but also the careers of the other members of the band. This is a lot of pressure to put on a young person just finding their way in the world and potentially discovering their own identity. 

Many ex-boybanders come out after their contracts have ended and they are either retired from the industry or before their band reunites. Mark from Westlife stated that he was extremely depressed during the early years of the band because he was being linked with females and couldn’t be himself. Lance Bass has made jokes on TikTok of himself with a beard. Jordan Knight discussed the pressure his management put on him to stay in the closet. 

How is this related to a conspiracy theory? Well I can’t count how many times myself or my friends are called conspiracy theorists for believing that people can and are closeted to this day in the music industry. Even Sam Smith was closeted until a few years ago but is out now and still an exceptionally successful artist. 

Fans of the One Direction boys were fed lies by the media, who were most likely themselves fed by management companies probably and PR firms  that Harry and Louis hated each other, were mortal enemies and were so disturbed by the rumours over the fan theories that they no longer spoke or interacted. Fans were gaslit by the media who called them conspiracy theorists, delusional and shippers. 

This gaslighting still persists to this day and many interactions of fans on social media sees Larries (fans of Harry and Louis who believe they are together) called crazy, delusional, told to go and touch grass, age shamed and told they should go and get a job. Sometimes the insults aren’t enough and fans are told to kill themselves which is horrific. 

This has all come from the One Direction days where these narratives about how Larries ended the friendship between Harry and Louis were put out into the press and fans turned on one another. Solo fans of the boys hate on the other boys too and it can be incredibly lonely or hurtful to hear from fans who loathe you for seeing beyond the media narratives. 

Many Larries are older fans who adore the boys, but they also see beyond the media narratives because they’ve lived these lies before and watched time and again as multiple young men have come out. The only difference is that these were individual men and not a couple from the same band. This makes coming out infinitely more difficult when one half of that couple is Harry Styles. 

Harry was pigeonholed by Sony early on as the breakout star from One Direction. They saw his cheeky charm, sweet nature and incredible talent and decided that he was going to be their star. The only problem they had was that Harry wasn’t straight. He was, in fact, in a relationship with another member of the band and therefore both of them were pushed into the closet so far that Louis might as well be in Narnia and Harry’s in a glass fronted closet where he can show some of his sexuality but can’t state explicitly that he’s queer.

One of the reasons that he can’t come out is because if he does then he implicates Louis and that can’t happen. If Harry was to come out then it would show that he was forcibly closeted when he was only seventeen years old with the closet tightening when he was eighteen. There are hours and hours of film or video proof where we see Harry and Louis fighting back against the closets imposed on them, but there are also print articles where ‘a source close to the band’ has stated or Louis has said etc, but unless these things are said in person then they are less than believable and even then we have to remember the narrative behind the artist and what they would have been briefed to say by their PR manager.  Even social media posts can and have been proven to be manipulated as there was a post by Louis to his then long term beard Eleanor sent at exactly the same time as another band member photographed him asleep on an airplane.

Max Clifford who worked with One Direction and was Simon Cowell's close friend and PR person was interviewed by Louis Theoroux in the early 2000s and in the interview he discussed how [the most effective ways of ] to closet a person. If someone was gay, he told the interviewer, he’d give them a long term relationship as a closeting tool to ensure that they appear straight to the general public. 

Where does that seem familiar? Oh Louis and Eleanor. Fans have been eagle-eyed and noticed that whenever Louis was out with his ‘girlfriend’ he was always accompanied by a stunt handler by the name of Katie Ray, who incidentally worked with one of his current management team just a few years ago. 

Some conspiracy theories are dangerous, can cost lives, but believing that the music industry has a history of closeting people and that it’s still going by the same playbook isn’t crazy, nor is it delusion. It can’t be proven as 100% fact yet, but that also doesn’t mean that it’s not true. We know the industry is abusive, how abusive is yet to be seen, but from what I’ve found out over the last few years it wouldn’t surprise me to find out that they were still heavily closeted.  celebrities to sell records. The labels only care about the bottom line- money and not the artists’ mental health or the fans who’d support the artist regardless of their sexuality. 

So, the next time you call someone delusional, tell them to ‘touch grass’ or worse, perhaps you might think instead about this article and remember that if we’re wrong then we have simply made an error regarding the object of someone’s affections but if you’re wrong, you’re complicit in closeting people you’re supposed to care about. Which of those is worse? 

Behind The Curtains