The Sapphic stars \u201ccame out\u201d as dating men\u2014and rebranded accordingly<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you have been following The L Word<\/em>-esque web of breakups, controversies and memes permeating the Sapphic side of the internet for some time now, then you\u2019ll recognize the names Fletcher and JoJo Siwa. While both are undeniably regular celebrities in their own right\u2014Siwa from her stint on Lifetime\u2019s Dance Moms <\/em>and uber-success as a Nickelodeon child star afterward, and Fletcher from her time on The X Factor <\/em>U.S. and ensuing chart success\u2014their reputations precede them as pillars of lesbian TikTok<\/a> and the Sapphic pop music scene. The unbreakable connection between these two artists and the lesbian subsection of popular culture was not established accidentally. Both Fletcher and Siwa created a firm link between their art and their sexuality loudly and commercially. But now that both artists have found themselves \u201ccoming out\u201d as dating men in recent months, the clumsy transition away from their Sapphic branding and into something more true to themselves calls into question the value of tying an artist\u2019s product to their sexuality, and what it means to be<\/em> queer representation as a real person. <\/p>\n\n\n\n For those living under a rock (or simply aren\u2019t keyed into the Sapphic side of TikTok), you might be blissfully unaware of the absolute shitstorm of drama that has loomed like a dark cloud over this Pride Month within the lesbian community. JoJo Siwa\u2014self-proclaimed founder of \u201cgay pop<\/a>\u201d\u2014went on Celebrity Big Brother <\/em>UK and messily unpacked her attraction to co-star Chris Hughes before going on to date him once the show wrapped. Fletcher\u2014a Sapphic pop trendsetter and controversy magnet\u2014disappeared into the woods for six months and returned with a boyfriend and a shame-filled song titled \u201cBoy,\u201d which dares her audience to judge her for it. While discovering your sexuality is never a bad thing, the messaging surrounding both Siwa\u2019s and Fletcher\u2019s shifts in identity has been troubling. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Let\u2019s start with Fletcher. She is allowed to date whomever she wants, write whatever kind of music she wants, sell whatever kind of merch she wants and promote her album in any way she damn well pleases. However, her status as both a brand and a product\u2014whether she wants to be or not\u2014is where the wholesome, bubbly feelings expressed in her recent Rolling Stone<\/em> interview<\/a> or the hand-wringing fear laced throughout the dour \u201cBoy\u201d become problematic. When an artist primarily known for her unapologetic and loud Sapphic lyricism wipes her Instagram and replaces it with imagery of her running through a field, debuting a softer, less leather-clad aesthetic in the middle of the most conservative Pride Month we\u2019ve seen in ages, the messaging begins to feel like an intentional swing away from the community she\u2019s cultivated for the past five years and two album cycles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This aesthetic shift calls to mind similar pop-girl swings. Miley Cyrus grew out her hair, lay in the grass and returned to the country-tilted pop she started with on 2017\u2019s \u201cMalibu,\u201d distancing herself from the party-girl persona she established during the Bangerz<\/em> era. It\u2019s a tactic that has been used by everyone from Lady Gaga (gone were the daring surprises of Artpop <\/em>on her more demure Joanne<\/em>) to Billie Eilish (Happier Than Ever<\/em>, with its clean cover and white sweater, was a striking departure from When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?<\/em>). <\/p>\n\n\n\n While Fletcher did jump on TikTok<\/a> to express that starting fresh on Instagram is something she does every era and that she has not been \u201cchanged\u201d by the man she is currently dating, the words do little to assuage the messaging behind the product being sold. The T-shirts marketed to her primarily lesbian audience simply saying \u201cBoy<\/a>\u201d are the least of her worries\u2014it\u2019s the familiar aesthetic shift that signals a point of healing and a distance from her persona of the past, just as her peers have used before her. Her forthcoming album, Would You Still Love Me If You Really Knew Me?<\/em>, <\/em>asks her audience its titular question, of course, but it also loudly establishes its own slew of connotations that cannot be undone by a TikTok apology or any anxious explanations. She kissed a boy, and now she\u2019s healed; she kissed a boy, and now she\u2019s clean; she kissed a boy, and now she\u2019s so far removed from the woman stripping off her tank top on the cover of 2022\u2019s Girl of My Dreams<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It certainly doesn\u2019t help that \u201cBoy\u201d finds Fletcher leaning in to her worst instincts as a songwriter, employing her cheeky and endearing Gen Z slang in a way that\u2019s clumsy instead of cute, distracting instead of enhancing. She posits that this turn of events \u201cwasn\u2019t on [her audience\u2019s] bingo card this year,\u201d struggling to find any deeper meaning beyond tired tropes (\u201cMaybe I\u2019ve changed\/ Or maybe it\u2019s just him,\u201d she croons, echoing the sentiment that lesbians just need to \u201cfind the right man\u201d in order to get over their Sapphic affliction). It\u2019s a song defined by its uninspired hand-wringing about what others will think of her. While it\u2019s a valid concern in a bubble\u2014I mean, look at the wave of biphobic<\/a> responses to the song that have already been circling\u2014it becomes more worrying when placed against the backdrop of our current political climate, the lack of context within the song itself, and the poor timing of its release. Putting out a song at the start of Pride Month \u201ccoming out\u201d as dating a man when your music was previously about women feels tone deaf at best and downright malicious at worst. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Based on her past controversies, it\u2019s easy to assume that this is simply Fletcher’s modus operandi. According to Rolling Stone<\/em>, Knew Me?<\/em>\u2019s opener \u201cParty\u201d finds Fletcher removing herself from her drama-fuelled past (\u201cI\u2019d love to let you love me\/ \u2019Cause I\u2019m that kind of whore\/ Who needed the attention\/ I don\u2019t need anymore\u201d), but the timing of this release and the drama in which she is once again embroiled seem to suggest otherwise. With an entire career built on various scandals and viral controversies (from collaborating with her ex on a risqu\u00e9 EP and set of music videos to thoughtlessly dragging the same ex\u2019s new girlfriend into the promotional cycle for her single \u201cBecky\u2019s So Hot\u201d), Fletcher\u2019s response to the community\u2019s outrage feels more like feigned ignorance than genuine surprise. But isn\u2019t the drama what kept us all coming back? The fearless lyrics that were both cheeky and shocking; the unfiltered attitude that screamed confidence and conviction? \u201cBoy,\u201d in its tangible fear and stilted honesty, becomes doubly disappointing as the product of an artist who once felt so assured, now cowering behind confused messaging and a genuine fear of the audience she once hungrily cultivated. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In a similar vein, the controversy around Siwa\u2019s journey has been boiling for the better part of her adult career\u2014now bubbling over after her latest sudden rebrand. While embroiling herself in the discourse surrounding her \u201cCan\u2019t Be Tamed\u201d-esque switch to a more risqu\u00e9 style of music-making to specifically distance herself from her ponytailed Dance Moms<\/em> persona that has dominated kids\u2019 media for the better half of the last decade, Siwa made the selling point of both \u201cKarma\u201d and the album that would follow (2024\u2019s Guilty Pleasure<\/em>) her sexuality. The self-proclaimed CEO of gay pop featured female love interests in her music videos and her live performances, and positioned herself at the very apex of the LGBTQ2S+ community at every promotional stop. It\u2019s that overzealous and still-bemoaned era that makes her loud proclamation of \u201cF\u2014k the \u2018L\u2019!<\/a>\u201d on Celebrity Big Brother <\/em>after discovering she\u2019s more of a \u201cQ\u201d so baffling to the lesbian community. Siwa specifically used her sexuality to market her music, keeping lesbianism so close to her branding that she insisted on coining her own music genre, only to then entirely abandon that messaging, imaging and branding choice when she began dating her new partner. The intentional separation between the JoJo she once was and the JoJo she is now mirrors the same troubling imagery present in this new Fletcher era, signalling that each of these women is now removed from that \u201ctoxic\u201d or \u201cmessy\u201d phase of their lives and have finally found something real\u2014something entirely removed from the throes of Sapphic-presenting relationships that escalated them to this point of fame and notoriety within the LGBTQ2S+ community. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But that\u2019s the problem, right? These aren\u2019t characters in your favorite TV show or book, they\u2019re human beings with autonomy, feelings and whims. While sexuality isn\u2019t always fluid, it absolutely can be, and seeing Fletcher and Siwa embrace their newfound identities in real time is heartwarming. The stories of queer artists, especially queer artists in heteronormative-presenting relationships or exploring other aspects of their sexuality, are valid and welcome within the community. But that ability to grow and change slides further out of reach the more an artist aligns their product\u2014the music, the merch, the tours\u2014with their sexuality. Instead of a triumphant rallying cry flaunting the liberating feeling of self-discovery, these aesthetic changes and poor word choices become indicative of a changing product and have wider implications beyond the journey of an individual singer or songwriter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Artists like Rene\u00e9 Rapp and Dove Cameron are the perfect example of the possibility for a smooth transition between muses and discoveries in sexuality. Rapp, who had previously identified as bisexual for much of her professional career before using her Saturday Night Live <\/em>appearance as a platform to hard-launch her lesbianism, has continued to write and perform songs about her relationships without feeling the need to pen apology tracks to all of her fans who had expected more songs about dating both women and<\/em> men. Cameron, who exploded to TikTok viral fame with her track \u201cBoyfriend\u201d in 2022, never framed her bisexuality as a middle finger to her child stardom and Disney ties, ensuring her various songs about women were simply that\u2014songs about women, just the same as her songs about men. Cameron\u2019s recent comeback singles \u201cToo Much\u201d and \u201cFrench Girls\u201d both feature a male muse, but neither attempt to rehab her image in any way. And it\u2019s the casual nature of both Rapp\u2019s and Cameron\u2019s fluidity and shifting inspirations that makes their transitions feel seamless in comparison to what we\u2019ve seen from Siwa and Fletcher; that makes their change in audience, intention and presentation feel natural and celebratory rather than inflammatory and ashamed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In a world where real people are forced to become beacons of sexuality and representatives of the community lest they face the wrath of inquisition and disownment (like Kit Connor<\/a>\u2019s and Becky Albertalli<\/a>\u2019s forced coming outs pushed by skeptical audiences questioning their places in queer media), it\u2019s increasingly difficult to present as both an authentic individual and a mass-marketable product. The popularity of TikTok-forward music promotion asks artists to become an instantly recognizable figure in a 15-second window before someone scrolls away. Their music\u2014their product<\/em>\u2014gets shaved down to the bare-bones highlights, akin to its BookTok brethren trapped in trope hell<\/a>. In that way, it\u2019s not truly Fletcher\u2019s or Siwa\u2019s fault that their audiences were sold a specific, static premise; rather, it\u2019s the fault of a pattern that plagues a music industry continually asking its artists to commodify every aspect of their lives and personality to boost streams. However, that also does not absolve them of scrutiny for how those changes are presented. <\/p>\n\n\n\n For Fletcher, Siwa and any other artist looking to make a significant branding shift in relation to sexuality or identity, there is still an expectation of care and consciousness from the LGBTQ2S+ community. Because in the middle of the drama and the controversies and the mixed messaging, there are real-world consequences associated with these swings. Some are claiming that both Siwa and Fletcher are now \u201ccured<\/a>,\u201d referring to them each by their real names (Joelle and Cari, respectively) and insisting that embracing their \u201cfeminine energy\u201d and dating a man has radically shifted who they are as people. And it\u2019s that problematic way of thinking and speaking which is continually catapulting us back into a more conservative era. \u201cLet women date men!\u201d they cry, as if heteronormativity is something that has ever gone away. Siwa, in particular, continues to add fuel to the fire, noting in an interview<\/a> that she felt \u201cpressured\u201d to come out as a lesbian by those within the community rather than continue to identify as pansexual<\/a> following her string of exclusively female-presenting partners. And while Siwa\u2019s lived experience is, once again, completely valid and worth sharing, the continued finger-pointing toward the community feels like a pointed separation from her queer peers, carelessly inviting more homophobic rhetoric to be added to this unending discourse. <\/p>\n\n\n\n More than anything, Siwa\u2019s and Fletcher\u2019s confused and controversial swings speak to the cultural shift of the past five years, where sexuality can be endlessly commodified for easily marketable art and a moment of self-discovery can be used by bad-faith actors as a weapon against marginalized communities. With so much responsibility looming over the heads of our queer icons, we can only ask them for thought and respect in dealing with these changing tides, and we as queer audiences should be ready to give thought and respect right back. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Sapphic stars \u201ccame out\u201d as dating men\u2014and rebranded accordingly<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1196,"featured_media":274627,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"editorial_slug":"4","_editorial_slug":"4","exclude_from_latest_block":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,4,9],"contributors":[2999],"topic":[75,1922,2221,109],"clients":[],"series":[],"timeliness":[60],"editorial_format":[33],"type-of-work":[2536],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274624"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1196"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274624"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274624\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":274632,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274624\/revisions\/274632"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274624"},{"taxonomy":"contributors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributors?post=274624"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=274624"},{"taxonomy":"clients","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/clients?post=274624"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=274624"},{"taxonomy":"timeliness","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/timeliness?post=274624"},{"taxonomy":"editorial_format","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/editorial_format?post=274624"},{"taxonomy":"type-of-work","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/type-of-work?post=274624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}