220-plus news stories about Harry Styles non-bisexuality?!

That’s how many “news sources” appeared about Harry when I searched the keyword “bisexual” today in google news.

Sigh . . . These certainly are the dog days of summer for the media, yes? Exhibit A: Harry says he doesn’t think he is a bisexual person, and it’s headline news (as in my preceding post about Jennifer Aniston denying she is a nudist, I am using the word “news” here loosely).

I am not in the least ashamed to admit that I didn’t know who Harry Styles is, though I had heard of his group, One Direction. No, no, I don’t listen to their music: Rock station CHOM-FM (97.7) in Montreal, my fave station, doesn’t play One Direction.

I was searching for news stories related to bisexualism because, well, I am a bisexual person and I write about LGBT matters, among many other things. There isn’t a lot of real news about the “B” in LGBT, i.e. bisexual people seldom rally for equal rights. So perhaps that’s why the media are all over the Harry Styles “I’m pretty sure I’m not” bisexual story. It’s a chance to get another sexy word — like “nudist” — in headlines, drawing more reader clicks to their sites . . .

But why does the word “bisexual” attract so much interest in articles about celebrities? Why would it matter if Harry were bisexual? Why would anybody care? What’s the big deal?

Hmm . . . Could it be that many ‘heterosexual’ people fantasize about having same-sex encounters, that they know they are innately bisexual, and that they feel some sort of affirmation when a bisexual celebrity comes out?

I think there are more bisexual people in the proverbial closet than lesbian, gay and transgender people. LGT people tend to want to come out, while bisexual people seem more inclined to keep it private. I’m not sure why, and that’s a subject for another post, perhaps.

Cheers

Jillian