After singing about oral sexand ranting about homophobia in the hip-hop world, there have long been rumours about Iggy Azalea's sexuality. But the artist has finally put all of those lesbian rumours to bed once and for all by telling PrideSource she’s categorically straight. 'I’m not gay. I love gay people, but I’m straight. I don’t wanna kiss girls,' she said.
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But while it's a shame she felt the need to clarify her sexuality, what's more interesting is the reason behind her wanting to set the record straight. 'I know I talk about women a lot, and I think women are beautiful, but I didn’t want people to misconstrue that and think that I was being a fake lesbian,’ Iggy continues. 'It’s almost like gay nowadays is so trendy that people want to be gay.'
It's certainly true that an element of faux-lesbianism seems to be infiltrating the music world right now. Who can forget Miley making out with Katy Perry et al when she's on stage in a seemingly off-the-cuff act or Rihanna and Shakira rolling around on a bed together in that video for Can't Remember To Forget You? 'It just frustrates me to see this kind of homoerotic posturing when it’s nearly impossible to see examples of queer relationships taken seriously,' wrote The Lingerie Lesbian about the video on Jezebel. 'I’m so tired of having same-sex intimacy co-opted as a performance for others to enjoy.'
The rise of this 'performance lesbianism' is perhaps also why there was such a furious reactionto formerly out-and-proud Jessie J claiming her bisexuality was just a phase and she now wanted to settle down with a man. Lesbian role models – in any part of entertainment world – are all too lacking, and the confused messages put out there only cloud the water.
This is why we can only applaud Iggy for – as usual – straight talking and insisting that she won’t buy into faux-lesbianism to make herself more marketable.
Follow Sophie on Twitter @sophiecullinane
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.