“Would I still be loved if I shared who I am right now?” she wrote. “Both an open wound and an act of liberation, it marks the start of a new chapter in a longer story. One I am still learning how to tell.”
It didn’t take long for fans to start speculating on what, exactly, Fletcher meant by this. By Thursday, she had dropped a new song that confirmed their suspicions.
“And I know it’s not what you wanted to hear / And it wasn’t on your bingo card this year / Well it wasn’t on mine / I fell in love / And it wasn’t with who I thought it would be / And I’m scared to think of what you’ll think of me / His lips were soft / I had no choice, I kissed a boy,” she sings in the chorus of “Boy.”
To clear up any misconceptions, Fletcher has always publicly identified as queer, not as a lesbian. There’s no actual shift to her identity (although it would be fine if there was!), but up until a few lines on her previous album, In Search of the Antidote, her music had centered around her relationships with and interest in women.
As soon as “Boy” dropped, Fletcher’s Instagram became a war zone between those who saw her romantic pursuit of a man as a betrayal and those frustrated by the biphobia being expressed in the comments.
“there’s nothing brave about revealing your straight relationships i hope yall know that,” one person wrote. “its giving corny is what this is.”
“This comment section is not it,” another argued. “queer women can still date men.”
It’s obvious from the lyrics and the post leading up to the drop that Fletcher herself saw the divide coming.
“There will be people that feel disappointed and feel confused and have questions,” she told Rolling Stone. “Girl, I had questions and I was confused too. It shocked me just as much as anybody else.”
The details of how this played out deepened the debate — dropping the song during Pride Month and deleting her previous social media posts both contributed to the heated conversations among fans.
“Fletcher releasing this song during pride month is wild. You couldn’t drop this LAST WEEK? I am not upset at the lyrical content, I actually like the song, and am fully aware she is bi. I’m upset that she built her career around wlw and this month was chosen for the announcement.”
“It’s really sad to me that Fletcher knew she’d get hate from her own community for exploring her own identity.”
“yes it did because bi and pan people still exist and are still valid during pride month.”
@jessicamasson/Instagram
“Kissing a boy fair Deleting everything to do with kissing girls not fair. But all love.”
“like i’m really not mad about fletcher finding love with a man or whatever like good for her But i do hate that it’s coming on the heels of jojo siwa Also renouncing lesbianism to be with a guy, just feels like an unfortunately regressive moment”
“fletcher may not see your comments, but your bisexual friends will. please remember that before you start spewing hate about bisexuals during pride month. thank you.”
“some of you seem to forget fletcher is a real human being with real feelings and real experiences, she isn’t here to fill out your diversity quota or to fit into the box you have made for her with your narratives. have a bit more sympathy im begging.”
Amidst all the debates, it seemed there may be more nuanced conversations to be had about the relatability and roles celebrities — especially queer musicians — play in our lives.
“She won’t be relatable anymore to me personally, bc I can’t relate to someone loving men and writing music about that experience. It’s that simple,” one fan wrote.
“There’s also genuine feelings of loss- of someone who [lesbians] related to- who narrated their experiences in song- is less like them,” another suggested. “It’s not rational. But it’s real.”
Whether these are conversations we’re currently capable of having in a big public forum like social media without taking a nosedive straight into biphobia is another matter — especially when they’re centered around a single person and their personal identity.
But regardless of any existing fears or disappointments some fans may have, Fletcher herself assured Rolling Stone that she has always been and will always be a queer woman. Her new album, Would You Still Love Me If You Really Knew Me?, is “not an album about a guy,” but rather an exploration of various secrets and aspects of her life and self she’s kept out of the public eye.
“My deepest desire for people was for them to boldly and unapologetically be themselves,” she said. “If that’s what I’ve been preaching to my fans who I love so much this whole time, then I have to give myself that same grace. Otherwise, what the fuck is the point?”
And it seems clear that she’s banking on her fans feeling the same way about her.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.pride.com ’
