Do you know who Hayley Kiyoko is? If not, you will soon.
Kiyoko, perhaps best known for her role as Stella in the beloved Disney Channel movie Lemonade Mouth, has evolved into a musical force to be reckoned with: her debut album, Expectations, drops on March 30, the music video (which she directed!) for her song “Girls Like Girls” went viral back in 2015, and she’s been hailed as the “lesbian Jesus” of pop music. She’s one of the best queer pop artists (and, I’d argue, one of the best pop artists, period) on the music scene right now, and it’s not just for the bubbly energy that her music exudes—she’s also doing some groundbreaking work in reversing stereotypes about both the LGBTQIA+ community, and women in general.
Here are five ways Hayley Kiyoko is changing the game.
1. She puts herself in typically “masculine” positions of power in her music videos, but still retains her femininity.
In an interview with The Huffington Post, Kiyoko said, “I realized at a young age that I wanted to be a man in the way that men are perceived by women. I wanted to be perceived that same way.” Too often, women are presented in music and film as objects of attraction or as supporters to male leads, and Kiyoko knows it.
So when it came to the music video for her newest single “Curious,” she reversed the situation: “My dream is to be in a boy band, so what am I doing? I’m dancing in a music video with four boys behind me! … And I want to be able to do all of those things ― I want to feel feminine and feel beautiful and be myself while doing all of those things.”
It’s awesome that she recognizes the underlying paradox—women are increasingly encouraged to go after positions of power, but are told that the way to do so is to act more masculine by being more aggressive, and less “soft.” By retaining the feminine aspects of herself, Kiyoko is challenging the idea that only masculinity is compatible with power.
2. She also has control behind the camera, in a male-dominated field.
As I mentioned before, Kiyoko directed the music video for “Girls Like Girls,” but that’s not the only one—she’s directed all of her music videos so far. That’s impressive, if you think about the music video industry as a whole, searching for a list of music video directors gets you many men and few women—and what’s more, those women’s praises are rarely sung. The 2017 VMAs, for example, had no female director nominees.
Not to mention, directing and starring in a music video is a huge time commitment, but it’s one Kiyoko is willing to make. She said to Out Magazine, “I’m telling these stories within my music videos and one day, I’d love to have the opportunity to [direct movies].” In an industry where queer people are often left out of their own narratives, it’s refreshing to see Kiyoko take the wheel on her own stories and make sure they get told in the way that she wants.
3. She rejects the idea that lesbian relationships exist solely for male pleasure.
If you don’t know what the male gaze is, the English Oxford Dictionary defines it as “the perspective of a notionally typical heterosexual man considered as embodied in the audience or intended audience for films and other visual media, characterized by a tendency to objectify or sexualize women.” If you’ve ever heard a guy in a movie say, “Can I watch?” to anything remotely sexual, or “Now take your clothes off!” when two girls are hugging, that about sums it up.
Lesbians, in particular, have a hard time getting rid of the male gaze and heteronormativity in general, when lesbian relationships are fetishized, marked “fun experiments,” or turned into spectacles for attention (remember Betty and Veronica’s kiss on Riverdale?). But Kiyoko refuses to play into that.
Talking about “Girls Like Girls,” she said, “I wanted it to be more of an overall statement that girls love girls and it’s not a joke. It’s not supposed to be oversexualized. It’s something that should be respected like any other relationship.” Listening to the lyrics, “Girls like girls like boys do / Nothing new” and “Don’t tell me, tell me what I feel / I’m real and I don’t feel like boys,” it’s clear that Kiyoko is claiming her queer identity as something that belongs solely to her—no boys allowed.
4. She recognizes female beauty without objectifying it.
The cover art for Expectations is stunning, it again depicts Kiyoko in a powerful position, this time with a nude woman in the foreground staring back at her. She said, “We decided to play with this idea of really idolizing and respecting and appreciating women in their truest form—which is nude. I thought that would be a really powerful moment because you should always feel comfortable in your skin and with who you are, as well as appreciating women and women appreciating each other. That’s why I’m looking at her and she’s looking at me.”
By placing herself in the center and highlighting the shared look between her and the model, Kiyoko puts the focus on female beauty without presenting the nude model as a passive recipient of desire. It also loudly and proudly shows Kiyoko’s LGBTQIA+ identity from the get-go, no shame or hiding here.
5. She works to normalize queer relationships and fight heteronormativity.
Working in an industry that consists mostly of straight artists, Kiyoko understands the weight her representation holds for the LGBTQIA+ community. She told The Huffington Post, “The way I’d put it is that [the music’s impact is] really important. Even though it’s 2018, that doesn’t change the fact that it’s still really difficult to love yourself and to be open about who you love and what you love and why you feel a certain way.”
But Kiyoko ultimately wants to go beyond simply letting people know they are not alone—she wants to let them know they are normal, too, and that their queer identity can be a big part of them without defining them. “Once I break this debut-album wall and introduce myself to world—obviously loving girls is a big part of who I am—but I hope people will just listen to the radio and be like, ‘Oh, I love that song. It’s by Hayley — she’s dope,’ and that the rest can just be normal,”she continued.
I have high hopes for her to reach that goal because something tells me she’s just getting started.
Expectations will be available to stream and download on Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes, and Google Play, starting tomorrow.