Harry Styles’ gay sex comments spark backlash
Harry Styles has often been accused of making a “profit off queer and/or gay aesthetics” without explicitly claiming to be part of the LGBTQ+ community, something which he has often hand-waved away.
However, this criticism hasn’t stopped him from playing the role of a gay policeman in his new film My Policeman, nor has it stopped him from going a step further when describing the difference between the gay sex featured in this film and that in other, unnamed films.
Speaking to Rolling Stone, Styles teased that viewers would see his bare bum (which he describes as his “bum bum”) in the film, and said, “So much of gay sex in film is two guys going at it, and it kind of removes the tenderness from it.” We’re not entirely sure which films the ex-One Direction member has been watching that made it seem like tenderness wasn’t portrayed correctly, but there’s no accounting for taste!
Since then, the backlash against Styles’s comments has only continued to rise, with the gay dating app Grindr also getting in on the action. “Harry Styles when he finds out gay sex is two guys having sex,” the app commented on Twitter, attaching a video of a lady acting shocked.
Other comments accused Styles of using his queer aesthetic to shield himself and his “takes” from being called homophobic. One user stated “Harry Styles gotta be the most underwhelming “queer icon” ever, he’s contributed literally nothing except ugly outfits and the occasional bad opinion. He’s like a straight girl’s idea of a gay celebrity.”
Styles has hit back at the perception of him being heterosexual, telling Rolling Stone that “sometimes people say, ‘You’ve only publicly been with women,’ and I don’t think I’ve publicly been with anyone. If someone takes a picture of you with someone, it doesn’t mean you’re choosing to have a public relationship or something.”
Regardless of his dating history, it looks as though some within the LGBTQ+ community has had enough with how the singer/actor has conveyed issues surrounding queerness, especially as he hasn’t been vocal about whether he belongs to said community in the first place.
Harry Styles’ new film My Policeman will debut on October 21 this year.
