Speculation- It’s The Name of The Game
In recent months and years there seems to be a lot of discourse online with regards to sexuality and the sexuality of celebrities. While this is common place for many fandoms in many genres of TV, Film and Music, it has become somewhat of a taboo, almost untouchable subject for many in the media and in many online fandoms.
Online spaces give fans a safe space to belong and whether you are fourteen or forty or sixty, having a safe space online where you can be yourself and where you can go to discuss your favourite TV shows, movies or singers is freeing and helps you to connect with others in a way that we couldn’t before.
Fandoms often offer young fans a safe way to explore the world, explore their sexuality and find others who like the same things but it also offers older fans a form of escape and a way to connect with people with the same interests or who view couplings on TV shows, in films or in the media in a certain way. Shipping, is the act of liking two characters, actors or singers together and can give young queer people a safe outlet to explore that side of themselves without exposing themselves as queer to their families or friends.
However, shipping real people isn’t socially accepted and could potentially be dangerous. There are multiple reasons for this, one is that it could cause backlash and another is because you could, unknowingly or unwittingly, be putting undue amounts of pressure onto real life relationships, or you could be showing other queer people that it’s okay to be queer. There is a bit of an issue with ‘shipping’ people and this problem with it came to light in 2011/2012 when One Direction were rising to fame and two members of the band were ‘shipped’ together.
These two members were Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson. Early on their management team encouraged it and would get the boys together for photoshoots and interviews, but when people started to look beyond ‘shipping’ some noticed that there was a lot of tension, a lot of evidence and a lot of discrepancies in the way these two boys had been presented to the public.
Larries, fans of both Harry and Louis as a couple, began collating evidence and noticed that both Harry and Louis seemed to be showing that they were together, not just a ‘ship’, but a real life actual relationship. And when fans began speculating loudly, just before the band attempted to break into the American music market, the fun bromance and the sweet touches and moments between Harry and Louis stopped completely.
They would no longer sit together in interviews, no longer smile at each other or interact with each other at all. This went on for years and One Direction’s management put out statements into the press saying that Larries had ruined Harry and Louis friendship by thinking they were together.
Why would that damage their friendship? If people thought they were queer from 2010-2012 then why did they suddenly have a problem with it in 2012? What was the reason? Was it because the ‘Larries’ side of the fandom grew too big or was it because of the attention that both boys drew when sitting together and showing affection to each other? Lastly, why would a group of people thinking you are queer have any impact on your friendship with someone else? If you aren’t queer then you’d ignore the speculation that had been there from the very early days of One Direction, and continue to act how you always have?
But if you are closeted and the breaking into America means that you have to be separated from your significant other in public because anyone with eyes can tell there is deep love and a genuine connection between you and your partner, ]then it would happen exactly like this happened.
There are videos of Harry wanting to reach out to Louis and almost touching him before shaking his head and dropping his hands, of Harry wanting to give Louis a hug on stage and then being told by management that he couldn’t, of the boys being told during a signing that they couldn’t sit together and of Louis wanting to comfort Harry during a Radio Disney interview when Harry cried, only to drop his hand and shake his head. All of these things are on video, along with another video of Harry offering Louis bubble tea during One D day when every single boy reacts simultaneously to something fans can neither see, nor hear.
Why did this stuff happen when the boys were trying to break America? Why did the media start portraying this awful narrative that it was disrespectful to speculate on the sexuality of others when fans of boybands had been doing this forever? As far back as Wham there were fans of George Michael who suspected he was queer, or if you jump forward there were fans of Boyzone, Westlife, Blue, Nsync etc who suspected there was a queer member in the band. It’s not a new thing, so why was it suddenly seen as invasive and disrespectful or insulting? This point right here, is what I want to explore in the article because many people in the public eye claim it’s disrespectful and insulting for fans to speculate on someone's sexuality.
Speculation on the sexuality of those in the public eye like I mentioned above has been a long running thing, so why now? What changed? Is it because there is a lot of evidence to show that both Harry and Louis are closeted? Is it because if you say fans are disrespecting and insulting people by stating that they are believed to be queer, that labels can make fans feel bad and cause tension and disruption to their fandoms?
Solo fans of Louis and Harry will often attack the ‘Larries’ side of the fandom, but why? To what end? Do these solo fans honestly think they are going to change the ‘Larries’ minds or are they planted by management or labels to cause discord within fandoms and stop them looking too deeply at the abuse and downright criminal practices of music labels and music management companies?
And why do these fans say that others calling them queer is insulting? Are they attempting to say there is something wrong with being queer? Or that thinking someone is queer is insulting? Why? Why is it insulting? Who is it insulting? If someone calls you queer and you’re not, you shouldn’t get insulted and if you do, then it’s a sign that you are probably homophobic and that is something you should address.
It is not an insult to think or say someone is queer, or to watch them and see them queer code and queer flag and acknowledge that. Real people can’t queerbait, but music labels can and do closet artists so listening to artists, acknowledging their queercoding and and believing in them isn’t disrespectful, nor is it insulting. For the longest time calling someone queer was seen as insulting them, the same as calling them gay, but it’s not an insult and now queer people are taking control of the word again. It’s a catch all word and gives people a label without actually labeling them.
I’d rather be wrong about someone being queer, than to ignore someone who is queercoding when that person probably needs the safe space their fandom provides more than the fans do because it shows them that someone is listening, someone sees them and someone loves them.
Speculation about sexuality isn’t the problem- homophobia is.
Not everyone is straight and many queer people are drawn to the arts as a safe way to express themselves, but the world is messed up, and people can take the speculation too far. Harassing families and friends isn’t, nor will it ever be okay, but watching and listening, acknowledging and accepting is something we could and should all be better at.
Fans need to be careful not to cross the lines, but remember the labels want the fandoms divided and they need us to be a disunited mess, so instead of fighting each other about whether your fave is queer or not, try educating yourself of the reasons they might not be able to be open about it: try looking into the music industry because the more people who are educated and the more we unite instead of dividing into factions based on beliefs, the stronger we are and that is what labels and management companies fear the most. A united fandom is so much stronger that one embroiled in fights that change nothing. Look at Britney’s fandom and Free Britney, or Taylor Swift's fandom and how they are challenging Ticketmaster.
We could do that if we worked together, so let’s try spreading love instead of hate and if you don’t agree with my opinions in this piece then that’s okay, however it doesn’t make me wrong or you right. It makes us human and humans make mistakes.
So share love, spread love and stream the fuck out of Louis Tomlinson Live because he deserves the world!
BTC
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