#average celebrity is not good or meaningful represntation

[colorisbyshe]

Do people not know that t.A.T.u. literally gaybaited for YEARS? And Nicki Minaj said she lied about being bi? Like. It does happen; it’s an uncomfortable reality that it does occur from time to time. Right now there’s a certain momentum for LGBTQ+ artists.

the tATu thing is funny because one of them ended up being an outspoken ally and one of htem ended up being bisexual herself but also homophobic specfically against gay men in a way that's really appalling but also really confusing. this caused a feud between the two, fun fact. (i think the rift has since been mended but i don't intentionally follow them, just every 2-3 years i go on a google deep dive)(do love their music tho, like, i think i own all of hteir albums, lol, the gaybait wORKED!)(shout out to this mashup btw)

ANYWAYS

i think a lot of things people call ~gaybait are a bit unfair and that a lot of it is just hilarious to me regardless of the "intent" of the celebrity doing it (like dua lipa wearing a shirt that just said HOMO in glitter across her boobs??)

but like ultimately celebrity's displayed sexuality really cannot be equated to the average person who does not have a persona they can leverage for fandom, money, fame, or whatever. or to shield themselves from criticism, like when people complained about a pride fest headlining ariana grande and like... tripling hte price, pricing out locals, and when people said "hey, we want actual gay artists performing and we want it to be affordable," ariana went "i'm an ally i love you guys!!" but then a month later collabed with victoria monet and sang that she loves women and men and was like YOU DONT KNOW MY SEXUALITY BUT THE SONG DOESN'T CONFIRM ANYTHING! and kind of used to to shut down the ongoing conversation and thus framed gay people raising their eyebrows as intrusive after just vehemently saying she was a heterosexual ally.

and it all boils down to celebrities KNOWING people are too invested in their sexuality and wanting to sort of get the best of both worlds, the same with like... a strong handful of actors going "i'm a straight man, i love women, but culturally... i'm a gay man" like... normal people don't say that shit

normal peopel can't profit off of people speculating about their sexuality

and while it does often blow up in celebrity's faces (discourse, creeps writing manifestos "proving" their sexuality (which isn't the same as casual RPF), whatever) it's still... absolutely and undeniably a thing?

or even when it's not necessarily gaybait, cishet artists absolutely use gay shit for attention or shock value... like... i watched hte britney/madonna/christina kiss unfold in real time at the VMAs

it's not even a bad thing all the time!! let's just all be normal about it and care less about celebrity's sexualities

like them kiss for attenetion sometimes but then just go "YAY We're doing this now!" and then forget about it