4 Matching Annotations
  1. Aug 2023
    1. That he might then support BLM in a similar manner

      I think this is kind of an unfair expectation because Harry Styles has much more of a connection to LGBTQ community than he does BLM since I'm pretty sure he himself has said before he doesn't know where he falls sexually so he actually has somewhat of an understanding of the feelings and prejudices that group faces (if he is gay or bi). I don't interpret him not acknowledging the BLM flags as him being ignorant or not standing in solidarity, I think he just realizes he doesn't have anything worthwhile to add to the conversation because he hasn't faced the specific prejudices that group has faced, so there's no real point to call attention to it because unless you're a bigot (which he clearly isn't) it should go without saying you support the ideology of that group. If all your doing is talking you aren't paying attention to the real issue, which is something I see a lot of other celebrities do in speeches that are very clearly not genuine because they don't know what they're talking about, and if they really wanted to make change they would let people who have actually been through those injustices do the talking. If anything they should just raise more attention for those voices because if Harry Styles did wave around a BLM flag that was getting passed around his concert he's not really making that deep of a statement compared to the latter

    2. [but] is part of the fan's (sense of) self" (2005, 101).

      This quote sticks out to me as I have heard multiple stories of actors, celebrities and musicians either losing a ton of weight or gaining a ton of weight and in both cases their being massive fan outrage which I think is really silly. It's not like with any of these outrages either, fans were actually concerned about the health of the person (even though they may have claimed to be). For many of these cases upon deeper analysis what they found was that one reason fans liked said celebrity earlier aside from their talents was that they physically looked like them and attached their sense of self to them based on that, so when that trait was taken away from them and that interpersonal connection was broken, they were naturally mad which I believe is a very unhealthy mindset to have. The most recent example I can think of is when Adele lost a lot of weight a few years ago and there was vocal outrage

    3. "an evasive bugger when it comes to answering questions."

      I think this is fair criticism but I think you could also make a good argument for the fact that Harry Styles has no moral reason to answer these questions. He's claiming to be a popstar not a prophet, and I think you could interpret his lack of attention to the Black Lives Matter signs at his concert as being a way to show support even though he's smart enough to recognize that he doesn't have firsthand experience understanding the struggle of that marginalized group, so he has nothing worthwhile to add to the conversation other than basic support and empathy. I think if it looked at it this way, Styles's approach is actually very mature, and I think something people can learn from as there are ways to support groups in silence as sometimes really paying attention is simply the best thing you can do as opposed to putting your own voice out there, especially if it's about something you don't fully understand or are ignorant too. However, it is always possible the more cynical option exists that he just had those signs up at his concert because his pr manager told him to do so.