Harry Styles Is So Right: His Sexuality Just Isn’t Important

Especially following the release of his second album, Fine Line, the question of Harry Styles’ sexuality persists throughout his fanbase.

“It’s not like I’m sitting on an answer, and protecting it, and holding it back. It’s not a case of: I’m not telling you cos I don’t want to tell you. It’s not: ooh this is mine and it’s not yours,” Styles told The Guardian. “It’s: who cares? Does that make sense? It’s just: who cares?”

In his interview with The Guardian, Styles noted that it’s not unexpected or unusual to be asked — he has fielded questions about his sexual identity throughout his career, ever since his early One Direction days. It doesn’t mean, however, that fans are necessarily going to get any definite answer, or that Styles owes anyone any explanation about his personal life.

“You respect that someone’s gonna ask,” Styles said. “And you hope that they respect they might not get an answer.”

As his stardom continues to soar, Styles is excited to play with boundaries, to blur the (ahem) fine lines between genres and (ahem again) styles that have previously defined music, fashion, and visual aesthetics. But he feels that how he personally identifies his sexuality just isn’t really relevant.

The Guardian’s profile notes that curious, ravenous fans regularly comb through any details Styles might weave into his work, searching for hidden messages between the lines. There is his Fine Line cover art, with its bold blues, pinks, and magentas that evoke the colors of the bisexual and transgender flags. There is the album’s sexy, fruit-heavy lyrics and tracklist. There are his bold, multicolored manicures and luxurious, ruffled wardrobe. 

In the process, people extrapolate meanings about his gender performance and sexual identity that he may not agree with or feel compelled to explain — but that doesn’t make his work any less genuine. 

“Am I sprinkling in nuggets of sexual ambiguity to try and be more interesting? No,” Styles said. “In terms of how I wanna dress, and what the album sleeve’s gonna be, I tend to make decisions in terms of collaborators I want to work with. I want things to look a certain way. Not because it makes me look gay, or it makes me look straight, or it makes me look bisexual, but because I think it looks cool. And more than that, I dunno, I just think sexuality’s something that’s fun. 

“Honestly?” he added, “I can’t say I’ve given it any more thought than that.”