Sam Smith radiates non-binary joy in new music video – and naturally, bigots are raging
Sam Smith serves non-binary excellence in their new ‘I’m Not Here To Make Friends’ music video. (Universal Music)
Sam Smith’s new music video is an unapologetic celebration of queer sex and queer bodies – and unsurprisingly, the bigots are up in arms.
The video for “I’m Not Here to Make Friends”, taken from Smith’s new album Gloria, begins with the pop star arriving at a grandiose manor via a golden helicopter, wearing a fluffy, head-to-toe, hot pink gown.
Smith exudes non-binary excellence throughout, showcasing no less than six glittering looks in just four minutes — from an elaborate black gown and feather headpiece, to a nipple cover, crown and corset combo.
They are accompanied by a glamorous dance troupe, dressed – at various stages – in feathers, ruffles, arse-less shape-wear corsets and leather jockstraps.
Yes, there are moments where Smith and co imitate sex acts, including a scene à la Lady Gaga’s “Alejandro” music video, and one not-so-subtle ode to the pleasures of a golden shower. But it’s a song about popping to the club to find a hook-up. The song’s entire point is to celebrate sex and sexuality.
While Smith’s fans are very much enamoured with their newfound queer aesthetic, right-wing trolls, bigots and haters are beside themselves, rehashing the old “think of the children” cliché, in an attempt to get the video censored.
Appearing on Good Morning Britain, journalist and former GBNews presenter Alex Phillips proclaimed that it was “not good for society” and likened it to “extreme hardcore pornography”.
She said: ‘We live an age now where porn is becoming so normalised. It is in music videos, it is in fast fashion that is being marketed to teens and we also live in an age where we know that people are getting sexually assaulted at school.
“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.”
On Twitter, some particularly upset individuals decided that Smith is a “disgusting creep”, while another said that the singer should “quit showbiz” for daring to put out the video.
Right-wing Reclaim Party founder Laurence Fox branded Smith the “perfect poster child for what wokeness will do to the human mind”.
Others have noted that while the video is a little on the risqué side, it’s no different to hundreds of similar videos that have been released in the past few decades.
Joining Phillips on the Good Morning Britain debate, radio presenter Shivani Dave said that countless other pop singers have crafted racy videos.
“Madonna has done this, Miley Cyrus has done this, Nicki Minaj has done this,” Dave said.
“So many people have done this and what I think the difference here is, is that Sam Smith was assigned male at birth and we are not used to seeing people who are assigned male at birth dance around in lingerie and corsets.”
Journalist Owen Jones also came to Smith’s defence, writing on Twitter: “Sex has always been a running theme in modern pop music, and music videos often flaunt it.
“But Sam Smith has made the criminal offence of being a) queer and b) not skinny, and in an increasingly anti-LGBTQ culture, that can’t be tolerated.”
Throughout Smith’s career, they have faced endless vitriol for daring to reveal that they are non-binary, as well as horrendous remarks rooted in fatphobia.
It’s a point that many on social media are making.
“If Sam Smith was a cis-guy with a gym-fit torso and pecs, no one would be batting an eyelash about the sight of them in a corset. It’s fatphobia,” one person said. “Nothing to clutch pearls about.”
Another wrote: “Just watched the Sam Smith video and… THAT’S what the Right are poo-ing themselves over now? I was expecting it to be an overreaction but I’m actually shocked how MUCH of an overreaction it is.”
A third person wrote: “Sam Smith look good to me; folk’s fatphobia and femmephobia is what’s ugly.”
Smith, always the professional, has simply responded to the controversy with a photo of themselves in one of the gorgeous outfits from the video, with the classy caption: “Never too much”.
