Sam Smith Doesn’t Look Bad, You Just Hate Fat People
Sam Smith for Perfect Magazine
You might have asked yourself at least once as a child: ‘what do I need to do to become universally liked and respected?’
A solution could probably be becoming a virtuoso at artistic crafts like music or releasing over 5 albums in a single decade or even having a plethora of GRAMMY awards under your belt. Unfortunately, as it turns out, not even all of these stellar achievements could save pop legend and golden voice of their generation, Sam Smith from a cesspool of online ridicule, homophobia and fatphobia.
Sam Smith is currently undergoing one of the more shocking brand evolutions in pop culture comparable to Miley during Wrecking Ball or Lindsey Lohan in 2007. But unlike these girls pushed into drugs, drinking and an oversexualisation of their bodies born from an infantilization and obsession by the media, Sam Smith is simply evolving into a new phase of themselves, embracing their body and sexuality simultaneously. So why does the media scandalise this shift like it is such a scandal?
At 21, Sam Smith was already an acclaimed pop star with opportunity and wealth at their feet. Accelerating through their career with numerous GRAMMY nominations and wins while topping Billboard charts for their soulful music and angelic sound, Sam Smith was never really known for their fashion. It wasn’t until May 2014 that the seemingly perfect pop star told the public that they were gay. Although the news caused the amount of backlash and panic you would expect, Sam Smith was still by all means an attractive, slim, white man making beautiful music which was all the audience seemingly needed him to be.
Their fashion for the most part stayed true to their identity too. They began their spotlight fashion journey with suits as a staple up until 2018 where while sticking to the blazer and trousers, they added patterns and more adventurous colours. Then there was the trench coat era of 2019 before the era of colours from 2020 began. Florals, silk, makeup, Smith had it all as they began to tap into a new version of self-expression through their clothes. Through these changes, fans seemed to have been okay with Sam Smith’s fashion evolution up until 2022 when the music video for ‘Unholy’ dropped.
Sam Smith
‘Unholy’ was released in September 2022 after a teased snippet went viral on TikTok due to its addictive and transition-worthy sound. The song itself seemed to receive generally good ratings and reviews until the music video dropped in November. The video was a cinematic experience of a cheating husband who solicites sex work at a club called ‘The Body Shop’ behind his wife’s back. But other than the obviously disruptive plot, what critics seemed to be more entranced by was Smith’s corset outfits. Critics here refer to the Twitterati and podcasters of course.
Being gay, trans and/or gender-fluid has, for many decades, been as normal as snow in the winter in the music industry. Stars like Elton John are legendary pioneers of the ‘queer and talented’. Harry Styles has also been the quintessential metrosexual man for the past few years, redefining heterosexual male fluidity through his clothing and, sometimes, makeup since his solo debut in 2017.
Similar to Smith is Lil’ Nas X, a Black gay rapper and pop star who openly embraced his sexuality and expressed himself through his music and style during his ‘Call Me By Your Name’ era. Lil’ Nas X has also been called many things by conservative society ranging from “demon” to “devil worshipper” but none of the name-calling has been exclusively a result of his provocative and daring clothing.
Lil Nas X '/ E! Online
So why does Sam Smith, along with the devil-associating slurs, also suffer from extreme critics about their appearance? The answer could be as straight as fatphobia and society’s airbrushed idea of conventional beauty.
Many of the Twitterati have argued that their condemnation of Smith is simply a critique of their outfits being ugly and not a jab at their body or sexuality. One tweeter even compared Smith’s dragging with that of public personality, Blac Chyna and her GRAMMY outfit, saying that both outfits are objectively bad but people are unfoundedly blindly supporting Smith.
When thinking back on the Blac Chyna discussion, the bone of contention was the clothes on her body and the makeup on her face. People criticised her for the way she looked on that particular day. Of course, this in itself wasn't nice but, that same week, she trended once again for her NAACP Awards outfit and this time it was because the girls couldn’t get enough.
Black Chyna
Warranted or not, Chyna experienced something she and a host of other celebrities must be used to as a consequence of the spotlight. She was dragged for what people thought was a bad outfit. And some people would have you believe that the same is what’s happening to Smith, but when you look over the tweets and evidence, it’s obviously not. Instead of the outfit and how it looks on him, people can’t stop talking about his body (stomach and arms) and how they resemble a ham.
Another tweeter, in an attempt to defend their fatphobia, compared Smith to Harry Styles describing Styles as ‘beautiful’ while Smith is ‘not so much’.
Podcasters aren’t letting the pop star go easily either. Heavily disliked British media personality, Katie Hopkins, had numerous words to describe Smith. In conversation with James English on his podcast, she described Smith as ‘an undercooked Greggs sausage roll with nipple tassels on’. She also instructed Smith to ‘put some clothes on’ because he looks ‘beastly’ and ‘dirty’. Her tangent was then greeted by hearty laughter in agreement.
Comparasms have even been tossed around between Smith and Lizzo saying the latter has style and simply exists (which she is). But even a simple picture of Smith 'existing’ in the simplest of outfits caused the same amount of disdain among internet users.
Sam Smith
But the fatphobic community, in their bid to conceal their veiled hate, develop selective amnesia, forgetting that they once attacked the same Harry Styles and Lizzo when, like Smith, they started to disrupt what conventional beauty looked like.
In 2018, Harry Styles was bullied for having ugly outfits when he first started expressing himself through more androgynous clothes. Today, he’s used as a form of attack to someone doing the same thing he was. When Lizzo was ‘simply existing’ in 2020, she was used as the poster of double standards for ‘obesity’ among men and women compared to the likes of Fat Joe and DJ Khalid. Now, her existence is weaponized by bigots to perpetuate their hate.
In a few years, it’d be no surprise that Smith would be stated as an example for how to ‘do this fashion thing right’ to another celebrity just trying to find their own unique style.
Whether the outfits Smith has displayed are actually ugly isn’t the important question here. It’s that, even if people must talk about those in the limelight, why is their body the first item of attack and not the outfit in itself?
Far be it from me to be a defender for a white, privileged person born into wealth and opportunity but come on, people! It’s 2023 and we’re better than body-shaming and being fatphobic.
Here’s our verdict: the Perfect Magazine photoshoot was camp and Smith ate!
