Sam Smith has bigots up in arms again with raunchy photoshoot – and fans are loving it
Sam Smith is unapologetically playing with gender identity. (Perfect Magazine)
There’s no end in sight to the Sam Smith discourse, with the latest round of bigoted uproar occurring due to the singer’s new photoshoot in Perfect magazine.
Proving once more how to be a smart pop star in 2023, the non-binary “Unholy” singer has everyone talking about them yet again, simply by posting four photos on Instagram.
The shoot sees Smith wearing a corset, denim miniskirt and matching codpiece, with string wrapped around and squeezing their skin. In one image, they appear to emulate the feminist World War II “We Can Do It” poster.
Smith’s look is the work of designer Michaela Stark, whose lingerie pieces are crafted with the specific intention of contorting and disfiguring the body.
Despite deliberately highlighting fat and queer bodies, the shoot has left trolls basically inconsolable.
Some have slammed Smith for the crime of “wearing clothes that don’t fit”, while others are harping on about the photoshoot being “weird”, “disgusting” and “desperate”.
Smith is unlikely to be paying much attention to the comments. They don’t need to, because their fans are doing all the defending necessary.
“Michaela Stark’s clothing is all about manipulating body shapes into abstractions, distortions, and playing with ‘unflattering’ silhouettes as a critique on the rigidity of the form,” one person wrote on Twitter.
“Please level up your analysis if you’re just like ‘this doesn’t fit Sam Smith’s body’.”
Another said: “I think some of you need to realise that you don’t have to find Sam Smith attractive or like this photoshoot to be respectful towards them and their body.”
Canada’s Drag Race star Eve 6000 suggested that those with unjust criticism of Smith are simply missing the point, saying the photoshoot was “designed to be provocative and make people think” as “fat bodies are politicised”.
Another fan said: “Y’all want Sam Smith to walk around ashamed of their body so bad, and because they aren’t, it’s apparently very confusing to you.”
It’s not the first time Smith’s fans have had to leap to their defence, with hostility towards the singer increasing ever since they decided to embrace their body and their queerness.
Others were simply amplifying their love for the shoot, with one fan writing: “Sam Smith continues being a fat queer femme icon and I cannot overstate how much I am here for it.”
Some of the most memorable photoshoots of the past few decades – from Kim Kardashian’s “break the internet” event to Madonna’s SEX book – have caused major uproar.
If Smith is looking to join the ranks of pop’s most unforgettable stars, they are on the right track.
Other recent controversies that have incensed bigots include the singer jokingly using the word “fisherthem,” releasing a music video, and performing at the Grammys.
