#and Nathan has a take to rival the idea that Louis wrote No Control to assert his heterosexuality

[dogsliampaynedoesntinstagram]

Just anecdotally I spoke to some friends who watched Harry’s set (non fandom) and just, zero impression of queerness to them. They don’t recognize I Will Survive as a gay song, just as a disco song, so they liked his “pimp coat.” They also went on about how sexy he was in his outfit and how they’re so attracted to his confidence. They barely registered the Medicine lyrics especially since it was mid set.

Anon 2:

But I do think that most celebrities would be read as queer, if they put on the performance Harry put on last night. // maybe in the 70s or 80s but that’s not how closeted celebrities ‘signal’ in the modern era. People are just reading it as him emulating 70s and 80s glam just like his early music. Bowie, Prince, Gary Glitter. None of them turned out to be queer. He writes explicitly about women and doesn’t even have bisexual rumours like Bowie. Of course no one is reading anything into it.

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These are interesting perspectives, thanks anons.

I'm fully aware that I'm an old and that there's a lot that I might be missing. I find it really interesting if such intensely camp performances no longer get read as queer, and would love any perspectives people have on that.

A couple of thoughts for Anon 2 - I don't think those acts were necessarily read as gay either. Lots of people thought Freddie Mercury was straight. I thought the Bad Gays episode on this was really illuminating, basically suggesting that for people like David Bowie being seen as queer was part of a disruptive aesthetic.

But I think the Freddie Mercury example is interesting, because often he was very publicly engaging in queer culture that straight people just didn't know about. So it didn't disrupt their idea of him. It's become understood as queer culture in retrospect because that version of queer culture has become much more widely known. And in general, queer culture is much more visible to straight people now than it was a few decades ago. Which does make it harder for closeted artists to engage in any way (which is why I'll always find Polari endlessly impressive)

I also don't think 'signaling' is particularly useful way of understanding what Harry's doing. Signaling is very focused on the audience, and I don't think Harry is here with coded messages. I think he's just engaging with queer culture in public.