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The Backlash Against Sam Smith's New Video Isn't Surprising, Just Stupid
Smith is living their best life, and some people simply cannot handle that.
Sam Smith released their latest music video last week — a celebration of queer, genderbending decadence — and the repressed bigots absolutely can’t stand it.
“I’m Not Here To Make Friends” features Smith leaning further into a decidedly queer aesthetic than has traditionally been seen as their style, and it’s truly a wondrous thing to behold. Flaunting pink ruffles and nipple tassels, dancing with barely-clothed femmes, and sparkling on a swinging chandelier are all memorable moments — but what really sticks out is how joyful and comfortable with this self-exploration Smith appears to be as they sing about looking for a lover.
But as usual, there seems to be little conservatives are more threatened by than queer people blurring gender lines and appearing comfortable in their own skin while doing so. As such, Smith’s video is already receiving blowback from people acting like it’s full-on pornography targeting hapless children in the midst of Saturday morning cartoons.
“The point is that teenagers and young people are the audience who are watching these things and it doesn’t come with a block. They are fully available on YouTube and TikTok,” journalist Alex Phillips said on Good Morning Britain. “It is the overt sexualization, the S&M aspect, it is what would be considered extreme hardcore pornography being symbolically represented in various acts in this video and the audience for that being young people.”
There are absolutely moments of sexualization in Smith’s video — hardly anything that could be referred to as “hardcore pornography” in any serious manner — but nothing that hasn’t been present in (heteronormative) music videos for at least the last two or three decades.
\u201cTo be honest, the Sam Smith video is pretty fucking tame and if you\u2019re shocked by it, you are deeply, deeply sad\u201d— Owen Jones (@Owen Jones) 1675074029
\u201c"Think of the children!" is such a good argument until you remember being a child and remember how unaffected you were the first time you saw some boobs on the wrestling or a sex scene on something you'd rented from Blockbuster. We couldn't have cared less.\u201d— SHANE REACTION (@SHANE REACTION) 1674940616
While Phillips insists her criticisms have nothing to do with “how Sam Smith dresses or their pronouns,” it’s difficult not to see this as yet another manifestation of the conservative inclination to conflate bucking gender norms with sexualization, though the two have very little to do with one another. The kind of backlash Smith’s video is receiving is simply almost unheard of with similar videos that stick to heterosexual and gender binary norms.
\u201cSo women artists can make explicit music videos, as can straight men, for decades there can basically be soft porn in mainstream music & that's all harmless hetty fun but now Sam Smith does it & suddenly it's perverted grooming filth. HELLO HOMOPHOBIA & TRANSPHOBIA!\u201d— Dr Finn Mackay Adult Human Queermale (@Dr Finn Mackay Adult Human Queermale) 1675004487
Moreover, why should artists be responsible for what children watch on TikTok? Assuming teens are even the target audience in the first place feels like quite the leap, but putting the onus on artists to only make art that is appropriate for everyone so parents don’t have to parent is unhinged behavior.
\u201cTo the majority of comments here:\n1) your homophobia is showing\n2) it\u2019s not Sam Smith\u2019s job to stop your kids from watching his video. It\u2019s yours. \n3) hetero, cis people have always displayed their sexuality in their videos, you just don\u2019t like it because Smith is queer.\u201d— Thomas Willett (@Thomas Willett) 1674998352
Fortunately, Smith doesn’t seem to be listening to the haters — nor should they. A celebration of queer joy isn’t something created to be palatable to the judgmental masses. If they don’t like it, they should try something novel: accept that it’s not for them, and move on.
\u201cNever too much \u2728\u201d— SAM SMITH (@SAM SMITH) 1674991735
Smith is not currently in a relationship that the public is aware of.
Smith was born May 19, 1992.
Smith wrote a song called "Writing's On The Wall" that was used as the theme in the 2015 James Bond film Spectre.
Rachel Kiley is presumably a writer and definitely not a terminator. She can usually be found crying over queerbaiting in the Pitch Perfect franchise or on Twitter, if not both.
Rachel Kiley is presumably a writer and definitely not a terminator. She can usually be found crying over queerbaiting in the Pitch Perfect franchise or on Twitter, if not both.
