The American Far-Right Hates Harry Styles. Why is Everyone Laughing? — Part 5: So Long, Goodbye.
On September 27th, 2022, Rolling Stone ran an article saying, “Harry Styles is having about as enviable a month as one could imagine in the entertainment world.” They listed off his accomplishments — number one film, number one song, Rolling Stone cover, Madison Square Garden residency, etc., etc., etc. Objectively, these are amazing accomplishments, but as year-end lists poured in saying this sort of thing again and again, I couldn’t help but feel both conflicted and gaslit. Harry Styles was objectively financially and numerically successful, an object of fascination, adoration, and speculation. But is that the definition of an enviable year?
In 2022, Harry Styles became a vessel for both denizens of social media and the traditional press to dump endless amounts of homophobia, transphobia, biphobia, femmephobia, and misogyny into. Both of his movies were mocked by huge numbers of people, including critics. His dating life and sexuality were invaded and fetishized, and he was regularly mocked on an unfathomable scale. The American right-wing fixated on him, scapegoating his gender deviance and sexual fluidity as something to be feared and reviled. There was so much hate and disdain that, in the interest of brevity, I elected to leave out most of what I saw in this analysis. I don’t envy any of this, and there’s no amount of money you could pay me to experience it. If I had to guess, I would say most people wouldn’t want to experience it either.
At the risk of saying something controversial, I think Harry Styles deserves better. His queer fans deserve better. All queer people deserve better. In a world full of hate, we cannot afford to cringe and laugh at people embracing queer joy — no matter how rich, how attractive, or how eccentric they are. We as a community cannot afford to be turning on the most high-profile sexually fluid and gender non-conforming man when the right-wing views sexual fluidity and gender non-conformity, especially in men, as dangerous gateways to perversion. Whether you are a fan or not, “ironic” or not, making fun of his presentation or sexuality, harassing his partners, and belittling his work all eventually trickles into a river of right-wing hate. Your words and actions affect him, and they affect you too whether you like it or not.
It can be easy to feel hopeless in the face of all this ugly noise. The online hate machine is very powerful, and having no equally powerful allies can produce feelings of frustration and despair. Before anything else, you should honor those feelings. Being strong is not the same as being numb; in fact, sometimes the strongest thing you can do is allow yourself to feel. However, there are also measurable steps you can take to improve the situation. I will speak first to the needs of fans, and then to any journalists or writers who may someday come across this piece.
How Can I Help as a Fan?
1. Don’t engage directly with online bigotry. These ghouls want nothing more than for you to interact with their content and it only makes them stronger. It may feel counterintuitive, but riding the wave of a nonsensical moral panic can sometimes suffocate it.
2. Research the right wing to understand who the “important” voices are and how they are trying to sell their bigotry. This will help you to distinguish regular trolls from conservative talk show hosts. The YouTube channel “Some More News” is a good start.
3. Think twice before you make fun of Harry, his friends, his family, his partners, or his collaborators. That snarky hit tweet that you share without a thought could wind up in front of a Breitbart writer someday. Also, it’s just not very nice. He’s been through enough.
4. Take the right-wing seriously, and try to not belittle the emotions of other fans when they feel concerned about negative attention. If saying “shake it off” to yourself is something that works for you then absolutely do that! But everyone copes with this pain differently and deserves the space to process it however they are able.
5. Don’t feel like you have a personal responsibility to “control the narrative.” You are no match for a story that has gone out of control and, as a regular person, it is not your job to try and counter it. Countering disinformation is the job of journalists, and it is not your fault that thus far they have failed you.
6. Log off and go do something else for a while if everything gets to be too much. Cook yourself a meal, go for a walk, make something with your hands, spend time with a friend. The right-wing’s goal is to rob you of autonomy and joy. It is in your best political and personal interest to tend to your own garden.
How Can I Help as a Journalist or Writer?
1. Erase the word “queerbaiting” from your vocabulary. Arguing about whether or not it exists (even if you disagree that it does) prolongs the conversation and creates a permanent association between Harry Styles and that word.
2. Research and believe what Styles has actually said about himself. If you have influence over people’s opinions, there is no excuse to not know.
3. Stop writing articles implying Styles is straight, closeted, or that it’s some open winky-face secret that his sexual orientation is fluid. It’s extremely biphobic and hurtful to Styles’ queer fans. If you don’t feel comfortable talking about his sexuality on his own terms, then don’t mention it in your article.
4. Read articles about Styles’ queer fans. “A Starter Kit for Understanding the Appeal of Harry Styles” is a good start.
5. Stop trying to ascribe ulterior motives to Styles’ queerness. It’s an extremely conservative way of thinking and it’s really hurting people.
6. Track right-wing hate aimed at Styles, even if it is only through internal information channels. Journalists could have figured out years earlier that the right-wing was going to focus on drag queen story hour and grooming accusations if they had been paying attention to what the right-wing was saying about him.
7. Stop spreading tabloid rumors about Styles just because you don’t like him or you think they’re funny. A lot of people are really invested in telling lies about him in order to make a quick buck.
8. Think twice before you share a tweet dragging him — especially if it uses dehumanizing language or slurs like “monster,” “creature,” “queerbaiter,” or “faggot.” Discourage your colleagues from doing it as well. This is how hate spreads.
9. Make sure your articles about Styles offer a variety of perspectives and ask intelligent questions. Harry Styles fans are not a monolith — we aren’t all good or bad, young or old, former “directioners” or new fans. We aren’t all girls and women, and we aren’t all white or Western. Harry Styles fans deserve to be treated with the same light touch afforded to queer fans of other famous artists.
I hope that this is helpful advice, and that this has overall been an illuminating essay series. Take care, and be well.
Series: “The American Far-Right Hates Harry Styles. Why is Everyone Laughing?”
