For the sake of my own dignity, I will not share my screen time, but I spend a lot of time on TikTok. Like, a lot. As dumb of an app as it can be, to quote a friend, it can serve as an analytical goldmine simply due to its popularity and intrinsic link with current generations of young people and how they express themselves and their opinions. In between the dances and silly jokes, interesting analysis can be done on its content. In this article, I want to discuss how the actions of two TikTok stars, Noah Beck (@noahbeck) and Cooper Neideicker (@filmcooper), to discuss how the commodification of gender noncomforming presentation by cis straight people can actually serve to harm the LGBT+ community.
Noah Beck’s reputation precedes him. Former soccer player and current TikTok star with 24 million followers on the app at the time I’m writing this. He’s a member of the Sway House, a content house with other social media influencers, and seems to perpetually be in an on-again off-again relationship with Dixie D’Amelio. Beck has been involved in numerous scandals during his short Internet career; including but not limited to starring in a Sway House LA TikTok where he appears to be mocking feminine gay men, as well as liking a series of homophobic tweets in 2018 and 2019. With this as a backdrop, imagine my surprise when I saw this post.
Now, let me be clear. I am not hating on Beck, or any other cis straight man for presenting femininely. My critique lies more with that fact that he chose to co-opt aesthetics purely for likes and profit from a community that he does absolutely nothing to support, and as proven by past actions, actively derides. Jade Fox, a queer lifestyle and entertainment YouTuber, puts it best in her video “The Problem With Androgyny. We Got Scammed.”(which you should all watch after reading this), saying “these are people who can jump in and out of “androgyny” for a photo shoot, for like, for “oh my god they’re so brave” points because at the end of the day we’re going to go right back to seeing them in their normal streetwear…I’m not saying that I don’t like them or I don’t like their style, but what I am saying is that it’s cute for a photoshoot, but it’s not cute when it’s your identity. I’m just tired of seeing cis white guys playing dress up for clicks and somehow redefining androgony (Fox, 00:06:59-00:07:39). Fox encapsulates the frustration many LGBT+ people that cishet people are being overly praised for performing gender-nonconformity in the context of photoshoots while gender nonconforming LGBT+ people in their everyday life are often met with violence.
On top of this, in the comments of his post, he’s lauded for breaking gender roles and a revolutionary in combating toxic masculinity. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but if you are of the belief that the struggle against toxic masculinity can be appropriately fought by presenting ever so slightly femininely, you have another thing coming. Deconstructing toxic masculinity is primarily about internal work and unlearning the expectation of men being required to be stoic, dominant, and completely independent with no emotional support outside of (maybe) their significant others. Changing one’s outward appearance to be more feminine while still perpetuating these damaging ideas does absolutely nothing to fight toxic masculinity and harmful gender norms within our culture. Not only that, but crowning Beck as the poster child for this detracts credit and attention away from years of activism done by LGBT+ people. For example, beginning in the late 1850s, anti-cross dressing laws emerged across the US, giving “a flexible tool for police to enforce normative gender on multiple gender identities, including masculine women and people identifying as transgender or gender non-conforming” (PBS News Desk 1). However, as fashion evolved and the lines between gender presentation began to blur (particularly in the 60s), arrests on the grounds of cross-dressing were thrown out of court. The laws remained in place, however, chiefly as a form of street harassment, sexual humiliation, and an excuse for police to raid gay bars such as during the Stonewall Riots in 1969. The push for people to be able to dress as they chose, and not inherently adhering to strict gender roles, has historically been made by and for LGBT+ people, and hailing people like Beck as the forefront of this moment ignores years of work done by the queer community.
The case of Cooper Neidecker is, in my opinion, a bit more complicated. In a video, he discussed how he had been criticized for not crediting queer people with and he expressed himself. He framed this criticism as if he were being violently harassed, and claimed he was “helping” the LGBT+ community by wearing pearls and black nail polish. Now, unlike Beck, Neidecker has (at least on TikTok) verbally and repeatedly aligned himself as an ally to the LGBT+ community. Though I appreciate his response to the issue, taking down the video, apologizing, and not posting for several weeks, from what I can piece together through the stitches, he still missed the mark. LGBT+ TikTok creators cite that, just as in the case of Beck, the issue with Neidecker has absolutely nothing to do with how he presents. It was that when he was presented with the opportunity to credit, and instead of doing so he framed his wearing of pearls and black nail polish as revolutionary and key to the “normalizing” of feminine fashion for masculine people. As TikTok creator Khalidah @artificialskyline puts it in a video reacting to Neidecker, “it feels off to frame your self expression as a service to the LGBTQ community and what you’re doing isn’t revolutionary; it only normalizes queer aesthetics and not queer people. Seeing queer people as outliers in society needing the “help” of a cis straight people to be accepted as “normal” is demeaning and homophobic.”
All of this being said, this article is by no means an all encompassing analysis of this complex issue. These are just two examples from TikTok I stumbled upon because I spend too much time on that app. If you’re interested in learning more, I have links to articles that go into more depth.
https://www.bitchmedia.org/article/is-harry-styles-queer-complexity-of-queerbaiting
https://everydayfeminism.com/2016/01/lies-media-tells-androgyny/
https://www.history.com/news/stonewall-riots-lgbtq-drag-three-article-rule
