![i wanna take you to a gay bar song i wanna take you to a gay bar song](https://cdn.drawception.com/drawings/794848/LlqNcV2rtL.png)
“He just came out to me like a couple weeks ago. I’m fucking proud, bro! Except not really though because I was really into him, like so into him, he’s so hot oh my god, he’s so attractive.” So I wrote the song and made him fuck a dude.
![i wanna take you to a gay bar song i wanna take you to a gay bar song](https://s3-media4.fl.yelpcdn.com/bphoto/dyyIHFAoc232I352NCapIw/o.jpg)
I mean…that entire paragraph (on top of the song itself and everything else she’s said about it) is problematic, but as I say, Eilish is 17. Should I, a 31-year-old, really feel like ranting about a song written by a teenager? I asked myself that question yesterday, and came to the conclusion that if it was still bothering me today, then it was worth exploring.
![i wanna take you to a gay bar song i wanna take you to a gay bar song](https://s.mxmcdn.net/images-storage/albums5/0/9/1/6/4/9/47946190_350_350.jpg)
Turns out, I’m not the only one who felt like the song was exploitative. Over at Pride, Taylor Henderson wrote a great piece asking whether or not Eilish was queer-baiting her audience. It’s by no means a new trend, which is why it’s extra frustrating that the practice hasn’t been retired by now.Įilish has additionally said, “I wrote the song when I was 14 and madly in love with a boy.įor those of you (presumably straight) folks who don’t know what queer-baiting is, it’s pretty much exactly what it sounds like – clickbait, but specifically geared towards queer audiences. It’s supposed to be fun and playful way at dealing with rejection.” Please, please, PLEASE do not use the words “fun and playful” to try and explain why you’ve chosen to co-opt queer culture to benefit your musical career. I actually think the thing that bothers me most about all of this is the fact that Eilish (or, more likely, someone from her PR team) decided to use the 48 hours after the song dropped to donate a portion of proceeds from her apparel line, Blohsh, “to the Trevor Project, the world’s largest suicide and crisis prevention program for at-risk LGBTQ youth.” It extra makes my blood boil that, again, I am a 31-year-old giving a fuck about what a 17-year-old chooses to put out into the world, but seriously, how is it 2019 and this is still what people bafflingly believe is okay? I spent roughly two-thirds of my life wishing I wasn’t queer before I finally came out of the closet, so to hear that this is all just a big LOL for you kind of makes my blood boil. Even if it was a sign of genuine good will toward the LGBTQ+ community, how and why in the actual fuck did this song get made in the first place? If there was any iota of consideration or empathy at work here, why would you release a song that more or less makes a punchline of the LGBTQ+ community, and then turn around and throw money at a cause which still needs to exist because LGBTQ+ people, especially LGBTQ+ youth, are at risk?! I’m all for supporting the Trevor Project, so at least there is some semblance of a silver lining here.īut my feeling is that this was mainly a security measure, because someone had the foresight to think there could likely be backlash against the narrative. Look, I genuinely think all of this was a classic case of misguidance (shame on her team), because at the end of the day, she’s writing a song about an instance from when she was 14.