Smith was acting just like any other straight, cisgender pop star (Picture: Vevo)
As I first watched Sam Smith sing and dance in their latest music video, wearing a white corset, nipple tassels and a, quite frankly, fabulous pair of sparkling silver gloves, I couldn’t help but feel perplexed.
After all of the online backlash it was receiving, I’d expected the video for I’m Not Here to Make Friends to be filled with nudity and extreme fetish play.
Yet, all I could see was a celebration of unapologetic queer expression, a person having huge amounts of fun and being completely and utterly themselves.
Sam Smith was no more scantily clad than other artists, the music video no more explicit than others that regularly churned out… What on earth were people so upset about it?
Although, maybe I shouldn’t be so surprised. It’s not, after all, the first time we have seen an overtly queer music video receiving hate.
Nearly 40 years ago Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s RELAX, which was shot in a gay nightclub and featured the band members surrounded by leather-clad muscly men, was banned by BBC.
And in 2002, the public complained when George Michael’s Freeek! was shown on Top of the Pops before the watershed. The BBC upheld that the video, which contained ‘erotic images and suggestive movements’, should not have been shown without a warning.
Time and time again, the same narrative crops up from the general public. Queer sexuality is not OK to be seen – or shown – openly.
Cisgendered, heterosexual people’s level of acceptance of us is not an uncommon conversation to be had within the LGBT+ community.
The overwhelming conclusion to these talks is that such approval seems solely based on if we act and look just like them. As long as we blend in and play by their rules, we are safe.
But as soon as we step outside of that, we all of a sudden become perverts. A trope that was popular in the 80s and has seemingly become popular again. The ironic thing is, in this case, Smith was acting just like any other straight, cisgender pop star.
Still, across social media there were comments describing the video as ‘utter filth’ and ‘simply disgusting’ , ‘extreme hardcore pornography’ and that the video is unsafe for children.
It’s been described as ‘hyper-sexualised’ and critics have called for it to have age restrictions placed on it on platforms like YouTube.
It’s the same recycled queerphobia that the growing anti-LGBT+ movement is always using to make it seem like queer people are a danger to children and society. It’s the same hysteria used when people protest against drag queen story time, trans health care and LGBT+ education in schools.
The difference here is Sam Smith is a plus sized, non-binary person who is unapologetic about it (Picture: Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images for iHeartRadio)
It very much feels like we are regressing into a puritanical society to silence anyone who is a ‘minority’, for want of a better term. It’s sad and scary to see this narrative becoming so widespread and harkens back into a time where Section 28 was enforced in the UK.
In 2022, the UK had fallen down Europe’s LGBTQ+ rights ranking for the third year in a row, according to ILGA Europe’s Rainbow Map. In moments like this, it’s clear to see why.
There are countless other artists around today who have posted videos with the same, if not more sexually-themed videos, and who have met much less backlash.
Take Little Mix, who, I hasten to add, I am a big fan of. In their Sweet Melody music video, they were wearing revealing outfits made of mesh and straps while dancing provocatively.
Now, I’m not forgetting that Little Mix did historically get criticism for not being family-friendly – but it caused nowhere near the amount of stink that Smith’s has. Where was the mass hysteria then? Or for, say, any other female singer/girl group music video for the past 20 years? Pussycat Dolls’ Buttons? Fergie’s M.I.L.F.$?
Where was the mass hysteria for Little Mix’s video? (Picture: Vevo)
The difference here is Sam Smith is a plus sized, non-binary person who is unapologetic about it.
Their music video showed them wearing fabulous outfits that any other skinny, able-bodied woman would have been celebrated for. If you think this video is unacceptable viewing for kids, fine, but hold other artists to the same standard. If you’re not going to allow a child to watch this, fine, just don’t let them go and watch an equally ‘raunchy’ video featuring a cis, straight woman.
Another reason, I think, that explains the level of backlash against Sam Smith is because they have ‘all of a sudden’ expressed themselves unashamedly queer, which goes against most people’s vision they had of them in their minds.
When Sam first became well known, they were often referred to as ‘the male Adele’ so people got this idea they were this ballad-loving, sophisticated, handsome performer. Now, all of a sudden they have become flamboyant, camp and colourful, it goes against everything they thought of them, which people don’t seem to like.
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This public and widespread condemnation of being and expressing yourself openly, freely and with no apologies is dangerous. As someone who has received an incredible amount of vile transphobic hate towards them, I know first-hand how this narrative of LGBT+ people portraying themselves in a way deemed too queer can end up.
The extent these people will go to just to demonise LGBT+ people is extreme. I was left suicidal and with an overwhelming feeling of hopelessness.
Attacks like the one against Smith have a widespread effect on the whole community, especially young LGBT+ people growing up and seeing that the world is so openly hateful towards them. In reality, this music video is no more ‘saucy’ than most of those that are pumped out every week.
I just hope that Sam is taking time away from seeing all of the conversations about them, has good people around them and is rejoicing in all of the streams their new song is undoubtedly getting.
Queer people will continue to be queer. The more people send hate towards us, the more unapologetic we will be.
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The only difference is that Sam Smith is a plus sized, non-binary person who is unapologetic about it.
