If Sam Smith Was a Cis, Skinny Person, Perhaps This Piece Wouldn't Need To Exist

After calling Sam Smith's latest video 'too sexualised', their Grammy performance for 'Unholy' was dubbed 'satanic'.

Sam Smith in a still from their music video for 'I'm Not Here to Make Friends'.

(Photo Courtesy: YouTube/ Altered by The Quint)

Sam Smith has been all over my Twitter feed this past week – from a 'hyper-sexualised' music video to apparent 'Satan worship' at the 2023 Grammys. It's intriguing almost, to see the ways these narratives are spun online, and across media. 

In the music video in question, 'I'm Not Here to Make Friends', Smith enters on a golden helicopter dressed in pink. The next outfit is a gorgeous dress complete with an ostrich feather hat, but it's the one after that in the video that's got some up in arms.

They show up in a 1930s corset with nipple tassels and diamond-studded headgear. The video is cheeky at best and has several sexual undertones, but nothing that we haven't seen in pop music videos before. 

Sam Smith in a still from their music video for 'I'm Not Here to Make Friends'.

A plethora of music videos now are sensual, they're campy, and they're expressive, but all the hoopla surrounding Smith's video comes from who is expressing.

Their supporters have theorised that as a non-binary, non-skinny artist, they are subject to higher scrutiny. And it's true. For ages, bodies that aren't skinny have been ridiculed – several fashion influencers have also pointed out the difference in the ways the same clothes are perceived when worn by a skinny person and a fat person. 

Sam Smith in a still from their music video for 'I'm Not Here to Make Friends'.

People find it hard to differentiate between actual offensive content and content that offends them. The only difference between Sam Smith's music video and similar videos from cis artists is that their video is visibly queer – it features a non-binary artist, drag queens, and queer people being joyful. 

Fake Morality & Veiled Queerphobia

A majority of the backlash against queer people is shrouded under a fake 'morality' and is essentially veiled queerphobia.

Over the past few months, seemingly queerphobic protesters in the United States have peddled the false claims that family events, including story hour, hosted by drag queens are "unsafe" for children, and so, they show up to these events, sometimes with guns (as they did in Oregon, Nevada, and Queens).

Protesters have dubbed any queer presence as "dangerous for kids" without any evidence – because anything that goes against their idea of heteronormativity offends them. And since it offends them, it must be "offensive." 

The reaction to the 2023 Grammys is only more of the same – including claims that Grammy performances have somehow caused earthquakes.

Protesters of the 'gender ideology' treat queer lives and their expression both as comical and a serious threat.

Sam Smith's performance of 'Unholy' garnered very strong reactions for being 'Satan' worship that is being pushed for children. Neither claim is true, of course, but it falls into the same specific type of queerphobia that has entered the social sphere recently. 

Sam Smith in a still from their music video for 'I'm Not Here to Make Friends'.

Sam Smith's music, especially since they've embraced their identity, has been audacious, campy, fun, and 'too much'. While some people criticise it and try to put it down, scores of queer kids and individuals find a safe space when artists like Sam Smith take centrestage. 

(Sam Smith uses they/them pronouns.)

(This is an opinion piece and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)