Decryption | Billie Eilish’s uninteresting coming out

Can the sexual orientation of a star be received by the public as a “non-event”? This is what Billie Eilish hoped for this week, before being overtaken by reality. Explanations in five steps of this coming out who didn’t really want to be one.

Cover girl

The story begins on November 13, when the magazine Variety publishes a written interview with Billie Eilish, the cover girl of the number. When asked a question, Billie Eilish spontaneously addresses her attraction to women. The subject lends itself to it: Variety has just honored the interpreter of Bad Guy as part of its Power of Women event, which celebrates the achievement of women. Billie Eilish explains that she long believed that women didn’t like her. “I never really felt like I could get along very well with girls,” says the 21-year-old. I love them so much. I love them as people. I am attracted to them as a person. I’m really attracted to them. »

Highlighted

It was two weeks later, on December 2, that these remarks – first reported without fanfare – were highlighted. On the red carpet of VarietyBillie Eilish grants a video interview to Tiana DeNicola, producer of Variety, herself openly in a relationship with a woman. The latter asks her if she still has the impression that women don’t like her. “I’m always afraid of them, but I think they’re pretty,” replies Billie Eilish, which made the interviewer react. “Billie, did you want to do your coming out in this story ? » “No,” the singer replies. But I said to myself: wasn’t that obvious? I didn’t realize people didn’t know that. » She says she doesn’t really believe in the concept of coming out. “Why can’t we just exist?” »

Powder trail

This interview excerpt is spreading at high speed on social networks. The traditional media picks up the news. And Billie Eilish’s sexual orientation is discussed in all forums, sparking numerous reactions, both positive and negative. The artist lost 100,000 followers on Instagram, then 50,000 more, but she gained almost as many. Visibly annoyed by this media hype, Billie Eilish makes an update on Instagram. ” THANKS, Variety, for my price, and also for bringing me out of the closet on the red carpet at 11 a.m. instead of talking about everything that matters. I like boys and girls,” she wrote, asking that we “leave her alone” about this subject which “doesn’t matter,” and that we listen to her music instead. “Let’s respect his decision to make it a non-event and continue to listen to his music,” proclaims the French Vogue (after having paradoxically devoted a long article to the saga).

Reality check

Holder of the Research Chair on Sexual Diversity and Gender Plurality, Martin Blais would like to say that this is a non-event. He would even have preferred not to deal with it. But the reality is that society has not yet reached that stage where sexual orientation will be seen as a “non-topic”, he says: the noise surrounding the news and the variation in his followers on Instagram demonstrate this well. “The idea that it is a non-subject is also the idea that we could simply slip in this facet of ourselves, without it being in the form of an admission and confession,” he illustrates. For Marie Houzeau, general director of GRIS-Montréal, many people aspire for sexual orientation to become a characteristic of a person like so many others. This vision exists among certain groups of young people, she says, but according to her it remains a minority. “I understand that Billie Eilish may have been honestly surprised by how big this was, but it’s a reality check, probably for her too,” she says.

The importance of models

In this story, we can think of the Instagram subscribers who unsubscribed. To sponsors who might hesitate in the future to collaborate with Billie Eilish in a divided American society. But we can also think of all the people who feel alone and who recognized themselves in her, underlines Martin Blais. While there is still some form of price to pay for artists, there is also much to be gained. “This representation in the media by popular figures continues to play an extremely important role for the visibility of people, communities, identities,” he says. And even if we aspire for it to be a non-subject, it continues to be important to do it. » There are still few models of bisexuality, pansexuality, and even lesbian women, underlines Marie Houzeau. And that’s perhaps why Billie Eilish’s comments made so much noise. “The more this noise is shared, the more it will become completely normal,” she concludes.