#or at least however close to it it can in the 5sos fandom tumblr

[edge-oftheworld]

i know there's a run greyhound run in me but right now i'm tied up hazy and emotionally unaware

[its-bound-to-get-loud]

Ashton Irwin is not straight: a masterpost

It’s been a while since I’ve written a masterpost, but I’ve been meaning to get back into it for a while now. Giving a voice to some of my personal ideas is the main reason to start this blog in the first place. I’ve made a similar post about Michael several months ago. I can highly recommend checking that one out as well. This one will probably be a bit shorter than that one, since Michael has been banging on that closet door a ton, while Ashton is a little more subtle.

Before you continue reading, a quick disclaimer. If the idea that Ashton may not be straight makes you uncomfortable. Please do not continue reading. However, if you have an open mind and are willing to entertain other ideas than your own or if you share my ideas (based on the title) you are more than welcome to continue.

Finally, I’m asking you. Please, under no circumstance ever show my posts to any of the guys or people close to them. The posts that I make are meant for fandom discussion only. You can share them with friends, you can talk about them, just do not share them with the guys or the people around them. Also, I will not be publicly speculating about what label (sexuality) the guys may identify as. This is something very personal and it’s up to them to decide how they want to or don’t want to identify as. However, I do believe that at least Ashton, Luke and Michael are not straight. I haven’t completely made up my mind about Calum, but I think there are definitely certain signs that he may not be straight. I’m aware that a lot of people believe in Cashton as a couple. Personally at the moment I’m posting this I do not believe they are (or were) a couple. I understand why people think they are dating, I have seen plenty of Cashton evidence, but nothing has absolutely convinced me so far. They are super cute and I absolutely ship them though, I would love nothing more than to be wrong about this. Now that we have gotten all of that out of the way, let’s get to the reasons I think Ashton is not straight,

I do not have as many reasons for Ashton not being straight as I do for Michael, who has been incredibly vocal about not being straight. Ashton however has thrown a few hints out there and I am receiving them loud and clear. For me the first thing that pointed me towards Ashton not being straight sounds a bit vague. It was his demeanor, the way he acts, the way he carries himself. Ashton is very flamboyant in the way he acts. You know how you see someone you don’t know, but instantly know they’re not straight because of the way they behave? That’s exactly what I see when I look at Ashton. It’s hard to put into words, but if you don’t know what I mean I highly suggest googling the definition of flamboyant, I’d say it fits quite well with Ashton. Now I know this is very much a stereotype and not everyone who is flamboyant is gay* and vice versa, so this doesn’t make what I say a fact (unless Ashton comes out and says he’s not straight, this whole post is speculation). But those stereotypes do exist for a reason, they may not apply to everyone, but they do exist for some.

* I’m using gay as an umbrella term here, I don’t mean to imply he is only into guys. Simply that he is not straight.

“Girl and/or boy”

The following moment of the guys explaining what Don’t Stop is about can be interpreted in many ways. It starts with Luke saying the song is about a girl at a party, that everyone wants to take home to “hang out” with. Then after some further talk at 0:53 Ashton says “It’s just about a girl who everyone wants at a party basically. And/or boy”. Now this can be interpreted as a girl seeing a boy at a party who she likes. It could be a general statement that some boys aren’t (just) interested in girls, but (also) in boys and he’s trying to be inclusive. Which is not out of character for Ashton I’d say. It could also be a little more personal. Maybe meaning that he might not (just) be interested in girls. Personally I think it might be a combination, it’s a blanket statement that leaves plenty of room for plausible deniability, should there ever be a need for further explanation.

“I don’t wanna tug any of ya”

The fact that nobody is talking about this at all is at least surprising. I get that the interview is a few years old, but even in the comments I don’t see anything about it. At 2:19 the interviewer asks them who would win in a tug of war competition between 1D and 5SOS. After some back and forth talk, their answer nears an ending, but not before Ashton jokes “I don’t wanna tug any of ya” at 2:36 and letting out an adorable giggle. Michael doesn’t seem to take notice of what Ashton is saying. However Luke and Calum definitely get it. Now if there was any doubt about what Ashton would mean by tug. Just take a look at the Urban Dictionary. So Ashton jokes he doesn’t want to tug any of his bandmates. Does that mean he would like to tug someone else perhaps? This may have been a simple teenage joke and nothing else, but I think it’s important to at least take notice of.

“It’s not a guy”

This moment is honestly iconic, I don’t know what else to say. In this video they get asked some random stuff such as “first band you saw live” and in this case “favorite hometown spot”. 20 seconds into this video and Ashton does a shout out to Frankie’s in Sydney. Which is all fine, but what follows is where it really gets interesting. He says “spent way too much time in you”. This could just be a bit of unfortunate phrasing, sometimes our brain to mouth filter works in weird ways. Then Luke feels the need to add “it’s a rock bar”. This smells like damage control to me. They could have just laughed it off and made it into a joke. I mean, Ashton says a lot of ridiculous stuff at times, so this wouldn’t even be that much out of character. Ashton however must’ve felt defiant that day, because he decides to add fuel to the fire by saying “it’s not a guy”. Then he smirks while looking off camera. He is well aware of what he’s saying and I 100% believe he saw an opportunity and took it. Also a special shout out to Calum’s face after Ashton said “it’s not a guy”. Also, the fact that he says guy and not girl is something to take notice of. Now in all truthfulness, if he’d said girl it would have sounded rather gross and I probably would have to scold him myself. But I’d say Frankie is an androgynous name that doesn’t stereotypically belong to any specific gender.

“Boys, boys, boys”

5SOS reads thirst tweets is iconic as a whole, but one of my favorite moments is “boys, boys, boys”. It starts with Ashton reading the tweet, followed by Luke going “you can’t say boys like that”. Ashton being Ashton doesn’t like being told what to do, so he decided to be extra and repeat himself a couple of times. Now this may just be Ashton being defiant. But there is an extra added layer to what he says and how he says it. The way he says it is just so flamboyant, the way he stares into the camera he knows what he’s saying.

“If Walls Could Talk”

There is a reason I called my blog its-bound-to-get-loud and the reason is obviously this song. The moment I realized what the lyrics to this song were I had to look them up, cause it sounded a lot like a closeting song to me. After reading the lyrics that thought was solidified in my brain. I have written an extensive analysis of the whole song together with R. If you want to know more about our interpretation of the song, read our analysis here.

This has been my masterpost about Ashton not being straight. As always, this post is speculation based on my personal opinions. I hope it brought some new ideas to people who maybe didn’t think of this before. I’d love to hear your reaction if you have read this. You don’t have to agree with me, as long as we can have a friendly conversation about our differences I’d say we’re good. If you liked this post, please reblog it so other can read it as well. Tumblr absolutely sucks in getting my posts to show up in the search results and I don’t have a ton of followers either. So any reblogs are very welcome. A big thank you @full-of-lonely-people​ and @ashtons-ass for proofreading this for me. Your effort is very much appreciated!

[ashtonsunshine]

It's alright. I like it when people write long replies because that way I get to know what they are thinking in a clearer way.

Yeah, I know Twitter has a specific kind of humour, as do we here on Tumblr, but I also think that having a specific kind of humour doesn't give people the right to be directly disrespectful towards the subject of the joke. We all joke about 5SOS, we all make memes and share them, but there's a line we shouldn't cross, in my opinion.

I said the same thing when fandom members were tweeting and commenting sexual things directly at them, too. I don't think that's right, you know. 5SOS follows fans back and see a lot of shit on their timelines. They see all these jokes and comments all the times. I just think stan Twitter lacks some boundaries and should start self-regulating when it comes to these types of negative jokes and sexual comments.

And it's not just about the jokes. If I were a celebrity and my timeline was spammed with "no" and "follow me" and "I want new music" comments, I'd be pretty bummed, but that's me. I don't know how 5SOS take Stan Twitter and their humour.

I know stan Twitter does a lot of things to boost 5SOS, I never said otherwise. I was simply commenting on an instance that is not isolated. It may not be standard behaviour, but it's pretty close to be. And commenting "no" on someone's work online is the equivalent of you showing your work to someone and them saying no to you with a straight but unamused face, turning their back on you, and walking away. I'd say that's disrespectful and, if I may add, hurtful.

Everyone can share their opinion on what 5SOS does, as long as they show some decency when doing it. I had a conversation with another person on this post and we were civil about it. There's no reason we shouldn't be. If you don't like the song or the path 5SOS are adventuring on, that's completely fine and you're well within your right to think that and express it. It's not your job as a fan to adore the floor they walk on, and everyone who thinks otherwise, I'm sorry to break it to them, but they are wrong. Like I said at the end of my post, we don't have to accept everything they do blindly. I certainly don't.

I do understand where you are coming from when you say Easier doesn't feel organic. You're not expected to support it or stream it or watch the videos on repeat; you can just go "Okay 🤷‍♀️" and move on. We all have our tastes. I'm not gonna judge you on your musical taste.

However, I do have to disagree with you about Live From The Vault not being anything compared to their live performances. They performed Live From The Vault both at Wango Tango and Summertime Ball, and Ashton as already stated that that's the version they will be playing on their live shows. It's only on radio shows and interviews that they play Easier acoustic.

And when it comes to teasing us with new music but giving us the same material repackaged, that's not entirely correct. They already announced that the next single will be on the soundtrack of 13 Reasons Why which comes out on August 23rd. They never announced the Charlie Puth version, at least not officially, only with those t-shirts that I thought were a way of them mocking the paparazzi, so I don't know why people are so discontent. We're gonna have a new song next week and, on top of that, we got an extra one (again, nobody is obliged to like it) for our entertainment. We already have a set date for the new single; there's no reason to be mad at 5SOS for giving us an extra version of Easier that we can ignore. That's what I'm trying to say.

I agree and I can see that happening, and yes, it's true that most people who are listening to the remixes are 5SOS fans, but think of the live performances I mentioned. At Wango Tango and at Summertime Ball they managed to introduce the heavier version of Easier to the general public. That's also something to consider.

But you can ask, why would they release Easier if they always intended to play Live from The Vault live all along? Because with Easier they manage to capture the pop side of the industry, the casual listeners, the radio audience, and with the Live from The Vault version they manage to stay true to us, the fans. I'd say that's pretty smart of them. Releasing a more pop song as the first single is a smart move because we, the fans, know they are capable of more and will do more in the album to come, and the casual listeners have a change to discover them and hopefully get hooked too.

5SOS aren't doing us a favour by doing all those things, but they don't have to do them either. Many renowned artists have no interaction with their audience. They just update them on new material. That's the point I'm trying to put across. 5SOS, by following back fans, by listening to our requests to play older music live again, by replying to tweets they weren't even directly mentioned on is something nice they do for us. It's not their job to get in on the joke, or update us on their lives or dogs when we ask for it.

The bottom line is, I just wished that people were more polite and civil when it comes to internet and fandom discourse, and that people would try to see the bigger picture instead of focusing solely on their needs as fans.

5SOS stan Twitter is so negative.

I made the mistake of reading the replies on the latest 5SOS tweet sharing the Charlie Puth version of Easier and, man, they need to chill.

Commenting "no", "you're late", "we want new music", "put x on the setlist", "follow me and I'll stream it" and negative memes is kinda disrespectful, in my view.

What's wrong in releasing multiple versions of the same song to reach different audiences? What's wrong in them working a song to its maximum potential, both music and business-wise? They did that with other singles too, reaching way back to SLSP and Don't Stop, so I don't know why everyone is feeling so damn displeased now.

I feel like this fandom is so closed in itself and expects its needs to be met right then and there that they forget to think about how 5SOS is trying to grow their audience. They did that with Lie To Me ft Julia Michaels, with Who Do You Love with The Chainsmokers, and now with Easier ft Charlie Puth. You don't have to like the versions or agree with the choice of partnership, but you can try to see what they are trying to do and respect the fact that they are trying to make 5SOS something more than a band that exists for its fandom and nothing else. They're creating music for us and for people who are casual listeners too. Shouldn't we be proud of that? Shouldn't we support that decision? Isn't that what we all want after all, that 5SOS reaches the highest global status in the music industry?

Besides, 5SOS aren't here to appease your every need on the spot. They don't have to follow you back; they don't have to put older songs on the new setlists; they don't have to be "on time" with tweeting about new releases, but they do, because they respect us and want to engage with us. And what are we doing in return? Being negative towards their hard work? That is just not right, fam.

I think it's time for us to respect them too. We don't have to accept everything they do blindly, but we can be nice and measure our words when we disagree with them. And, for fuck's sake, don't comment "no" on other people's work. That is the height of disrespect and dismissal.