Pop star and actor Harry Styles was slammed and called “homophobic” by fans after he said film depictions of gay sex usually involve “two guys going at it” which takes the “tenderness” out of it.
“So much of gay sex in film is two guys going at it, and it kind of removes the tenderness from it,” Styles told Rolling Stone in a recent interview about his new film, My Policeman, in which he plays a homosexual police officer.
“I would imagine, some people who watch it who were very much alive during this time when it was illegal to be gay, and [director Michael Grandage] wanted to show that it’s tender and loving and sensitive,” the singer added.
Fans, however, took to social media to blast Styles — who has so far refrained from putting a label on his own sexuality — for “speaking for queer people” when he “doesn’t even want to claim” the LGBTQIA2S+ community.
“queer people don’t need him and he better stop speaking for us,” one Twitter user proclaimed. “He stole queer culture for his benefits and fame, period.”
“If he doesn’t want to label himself idc but he shouldn’t be giving his opinions about a community he doesn’t even want to claim,” another wrote.
“I’ve kind of had enough of ‘unlabeled’ celebrities,” another declared. “straight people keep calling themselves ‘unlabeled’ just so they can put their foot in the door and be in queer ppls business and I’m just not having it!”
“There’s something about this kind of statement that is so deeply arrogant and homophobic, trying to front like it is somehow about respect for gay love while playing to the heterosexist tendency to cast gay sex as dirty,” another tweeted. “This man is so exhausting.”
“I like how some straight people love treating homosexuality like it’s some kind of philosophical new age experience,” another said of Styles.
“Even if he’s queer, he has never used his platform to really contribute to queer community which is weird,” another Twitter user commented.
“Harry Styles gotta be the most underwhelming ‘queer icon’ ever, he’s contributed literally nothing except ugly outfits and the occasional bad opinion,” another echoed. “He’s like a straight girl’s idea of a gay celebrity.”
“Ah yes here we have harry styles who is most likely a cis straight man giving his unwanted opinion on gay sex what a good day today,” another tweeted.
Harry Styles needs to stop cosplaying as gay. Quit toying with us and our experience for your own commercial exposure.
— Benjamin Butterworth (@benjaminbutter) August 22, 2022
In 2020, the pop star posed in women’s clothing for Vogue as the first solo male cover star in the fashion magazine’s history.
Styles also admitted to thinking about having children one day in the Rolling Stone interview, alongside his girlfriend, actress Olivia Wilde.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
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