Harry Styles has responded to allegations that he has used ‘queerbaiting’ to further his career.
Queerbaiting, for those who might be unaware, is when someone – an artist, a company, or similar – uses LGBTQ+ aesthetics or hints at representation without actually being a member of the community.
Quite how anyone presumes to where Styles is within any community isn’t exactly clear, but that hasn’t stopped some people from levelling their claims at him.
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The former One Direction star has often dressed in his life and career in a way that is gender fluid – he’s hardly the first music star to do that – and has spoken extensively about how he has no wish to be pigeon-holed or labelled.
Furthermore, he keeps his private life guarded and – obviously – private.
In an interview with Rolling Stone, the ‘As It Was’ singer pointed out how daft he reckons the whole argument is.
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He said: “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.”
On his private life, Styles added: “I’ve never talked about my life away from work publicly and found that it’s benefited me positively.
“There’s always going to be a version of a narrative, and I think I just decided I wasn’t going to spend the time trying to correct it or redirect it in some way.”
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At the minute, speculation is rife that Styles is in a relationship with Olivia Wilde, who he met on the set of Don’t Worry Darling, which Wilde directed.
However, whilst the pair have been snapped holding hands and spending time together, no official confirmation has been made, nor is it expected to be made.
In his latest film My Policeman, Styles plays a police officer who develops a relationship with another man called Patrick.
The movie is set in the 1950s and depicts a time when same-sex relationships were illegal in the United Kingdom, meaning that the pair are forced to keep their relationship hidden.
Styles continued: “It’s obviously pretty unfathomable now to think, ‘Oh, you couldn’t be gay. That was illegal.'
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“I think everyone, including myself, has your own journey with figuring out sexuality and getting more comfortable with it.
“It’s not like, ‘This is a gay story about these guys being gay.' It’s about love and about wasted time to me.”
My Policeman is released through Amazon Studios on October 21 and on Amazon Prime on 4 November
Topics: Celebrity, Film and TV, Harry Styles, Music, LGBTQ
Tom Wood