Harry Styles is More than TWPK

For many years the name Harry Styles has become synonymous with celebrity gossip, celebrity relationships and celebrity breakups. He’s an exceptionally good looking man, with a beautiful smile, and one of the kindest celebrities out there. But although Harry’s personal motto is Treat People with Kindness, so much so that he wrote a song about it, do people and more specifically his fans, treat him with kindness? 

Harry isn’t just some celebrity icon or some hot guy for his fans to thirst over. He is a son, a brother, an uncle and if you believe as I do, a loving partner to his other half. His name has, however, been dragged through the mud by celebrity gossip sites, with Deuxmoi claiming that Harry’s fans are more interested in his dating life than his incredible talent - be that his acting, his singing or his songwriting. 

Harry is also someone who repeatedly gets stopped by ‘fans’ for photographs with some claiming that since he’s famous, he has no right to personal agency or to privacy while going about his daily life. Although Harry is a celebrity, he has every right to deny photo requests and every right to privacy while he’s not working. Further, filming Harry after he’s explicitly said no to a photograph is both morally wrong and sickening. Fans of his should respect the fact that he has been paraded around enough for their pleasure and enjoyment without encroaching on the little time he has to himself when he’s not working. 

By this I mean that while Harry ended Love On Tour in July 2023, he hasn’t as many fans expected had a break from being seen. He was paraded around with his new ‘flame’ multiple times over the last year and this person was brought to places where Harry often enjoys anonymity to try to prove the realness of their relationship, which was confirmed by the media, played out through the media and ended by the media. Some Harry fans, however, refuse to believe the ‘relationship’ ended and cling to the belief that the ‘couple’ continue to date privately. Our thoughts on the matter are that the one year contract ended and that the person he was attached to got the desired goal with more people knowing their name, 

Another thing that I strongly, or vehemently oppose is the sending of nude pictures unsolicited to anyone, regardless of their stature or your idolisation of them. One girl recently, apparently sent her nude images to Harry while they were eating a meal at the same place. Harry didn’t accept the request obviously as this constitutes sexual harassment and we’ve seen Harry be sexually assaulted on multiple occasions  over the years, both during his time in One Direction and since going solo. 

Harry has been abused by reporters, by invasive media personalities, by colleagues and by fans who only see him as some sort of object for their sexual gratification which infuriates me and encourages me to write these articles defending him. Harry is more than someone to thirst over. Is he good looking? Without a doubt. Is he in the public eye? Yes. But does this give his own fans a right to sexualise him to the extent that he no longer comes online? Emphatically no. He’s not just a thing for your viewing pleasure and he deserves the respect that he would give you in return.

He does not ask to be -  nor does he want to be - a sex symbol. In fact Harry has explicitly stated that his portrayal as a sex symbol makes him unhappy and uncomfortable. In fact at the Grammy awards last year when the presenter commented on Harry’s sex symbol status, it served to make Harry look even more uncomfortable than he was, which is saying something since Harry already looked tense, on edge and unhappy. 

Harry wears his emotions on his face and if he is unhappy it manifests itself all over his features. He is very emotive and when his own fans are making comments about how he’s dressed to get attention, that A. he does not need and B. that does nothing but draw unwanted attention to himself, it’s not only unfair, but uncalled for. Fans online have made comments about him wearing - and I quote - ‘slutty shorts’; have said he has no right to refuse photos and that they don’t blame fans for invading his private time and demanding photos, then is it any wonder that Harry doesn’t spend time online?

We all adore Harry, but perhaps some are more respectful than others and realise that Harry Styles is also just Harry when he’s not working and just Harry deserves to be able to walk down the street without fans recording him without his consent, without worrying about people stalking him or following him home and if you can’t understand or respect that, then perhaps you need to take a long hard look at yourself. This is especially true when other celebrities and so-called friends use Harry for their own benefit or mention Harry to draw attention to themselves. People like Chris Olsen and his ilk need to remember that according to multiple people who’ve worked with him over the years, Harry is the most amazing, genuinely kind and sweet person, so they should stop encouraging fans to ‘find Harry’ and using his name for clicks. 

If you cannot separate the person behind the fame from their fame then you are no better than the management team who use Harry to make money, the media who sell his name for clicks and his label who have used and abused him since he was 16 years old. It’s time for music fans to invest their time in the music and learn about the music industry instead of buying into the media narratives of these famous people because they miss the harm that the labels and their accomplices in management companies inflict on artists. 

Fans should respect their artists and treat people with kindness, both in person and online because it’s easy enough to be nasty online, but words have consequences and if people only see you as a sex symbol or as a golden ticket to fame, then is it any wonder that you don’t want pictures or want your image constantly shared online when you’re on your time off? 

Harry Styles is more than many of his fans see him as and it’s high time that this was respected by the fans, the media and his label/management team.

Food for thought

BTC