Ranting On...One Direction and the Death of Homophobia?

Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson, Liam Payne, Zayn Malik & Harry Styles

I have not had the opportunity to see This is Us yet, but I am more than aware of One Direction and their current perch within popular culture.  I know all of the names of the band members.  I recently heard someone say that this was the first boy band that they'd never learned the names of, and they were proud of this fact, and I have to say, I was disappointed and my opinion of them worsened a bit-they aren't Stravinsky, but celebrating ignorance in any form is always a bad idea (hence why I've become better-versed in sports-go Andy Murray!).

Like most boy bands, One Direction features a host of attractive guys in their early-twenties (and I think still 1-2 in their late, late teens), and they have a series of catchy tunes and synchronized music videos.  They're fun and silly...and, okay, yes, I've become a fan.  I'm a bit of a Directioner (it's a much easier cross to bare than being a Belieber these days).  I know all the words to "Best Song Ever" and "Kiss You" and "That's What Makes You Beautiful" and I'm just going to throw this one in the guilty pleasure end of my personal preferences and justify it by reading Zadie Smith this weekend.

But one of the things that has puzzled me, and I have wanted to talk about for a while, is a certain element of the One Direction music videos, and in a way, the Generation Y attitude toward sexuality as a whole that I've observed.  We all know from Lance Bass that saying you're straight while you're in a boy band is not a contract written in stone, but at the moment, all members of the band One Direction have declared publicly that they are straight, and I'm going to take them at their word until I hear otherwise.  Even if they were privately gay, the principle fanbase of One Direction is certainly teenage-and-college-age girls who litter their walls with their posters and scream at their concerts.  The marketing team behind One Direction absolutely knows this, as having the guys remain largely single (screwed that one up Zayn) and talking about finding that "right girl" is part-and-parcel with Boy Band 101.

Then how do you explain some of their videos?  In one of their latest videos, "Best Song Ever," the guys pretend to throw the boy band model out the window (anyone who remembers 'N Sync knows this is the No Strings Attached period of their career), but they actually do in some respects.  They may hearken into stereotypes but do you think that even the 'N Sync/Backstreet Boys era bands would have had one of their band members dress as a woman...and then get flirted with and ogled by the other members of the band?  Or have one of their band members parade as a flamboyantly gay choreographer and then kiss one of the other members?  The past boy band model for balancing against gay rumors has been to amp the macho up-dancing with scantily clad women and creating a testosterone-fueled environment for all of the members.  One Direction has persistently been dogged by gay rumors, but they still make a video like this?  What gives, and what is the fall-out?

The fall-out, it seems, is they become more popular than ever, and this gay element of the band seems to have even become celebrated.  One Direction fans frequently "ship" the band members not just with fans, but with each other-teenage girls regularly talk about "Larry," for example, which is the secret hope that Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson are dating and the band's management team just won't let them come out.  Never before have I seen this sort of tolerance level for sexuality in a popular band, and it's completely shocking.

Some may say that this is perhaps because no member of the band is openly gay, and that this would change were one of the members to come out, but I'm starting to think that this might not be the case.  Take for example, Australian singer and YouTube sensation Troye Sivan, who recently came out of the closet.  Like One Direction, Sivan's main fanbase is teenage girls who dream of dating him.  After he came out, though, his fanbase has remained teenage girls, now though teenage girls who ship him with other YouTubers.  The term Troyler, which is a conglomeration of Sivan's name with fellow gay YouTuber Tyler Oakley, has been trending on Twitter and Tumblr for over a week, and Sivan's YouTube subscriber count has soared over the past month.  Not only has coming out not hurt Sivan's career, it seems to have done the exact opposite.

This phenomenon continues to seem to be a Gen Y-exclusive trend.  It's difficult to see even younger Gen X-ers like Justin Timberlake or Robin Thicke kissing a guy along with the plethora of women in their videos (the opposite isn't entirely true, as Britney Spears and other women have obviously celebrated bicuriousity at the very least, but female sexuality has been less taboo in pop music for some time now).  Most actors and performers born before 1982 who come out continue to have their career hobbled a bit (Ellen Degeneres and Neil Patrick Harris, aside), and their older skewing fanbase's perception on what they can believably portray on a screen or in song is limited with coming out of the closet.  Many other celebrities would rather have all of the rumors than directly address their sexuality on a camera or encounter the rumor through a gay movie or television role.

This is what makes this trend with One Direction so encouraging for anyone out there, regardless of their opinions of the band because homophobia and all that comes with it doesn't just disappear when tolerance happens-it disappears when it is celebrated.  I can bet you anything there are a number of young gay men who are in the closet who secretly want posters of One Direction and Troye Sivan on their walls, and they will see this celebration (not just tolerance, but full-on celebration) of the sexual orientation (or perceived sexual orientation) and come out of the closet at a younger age.  And seeing their peer group, their heroes so tolerant of the GLBT community will help those young gay youths' friends to make that transition out of the closet that much easier for all involved.  In this regard, One Direction is truly breaking the mold around homophobia, and that makes us all a little more beautiful.