In the wake of a Grammys ceremony (rightfully) dominated by women and a year seeing the meteoric rise of new femininomenal stars like Chappell Roan, Sabrina Carpenter, and Deochii, there’s an elephant in the room: Why do men seem unable to keep up with women in the music industry? RuPaul’s Drag Race and Cabaret star Marcia Marcia Marcia (aka Marty Lauter) thinks they have the answer.
“I see a lot of people theorize as to why we don’t have a lot of male pop stars, like, huge male pop stars,” they said in a recent TikTok. “And the answer is really simple: Whether it be their own personal feelings or pressure from their labels or higher-ups, straight men are not willing to commit to a character. They’re not willing to commit to choreography, or fashion, or emotion, because all of those things are gay. That’s what it is.”
Marcia’s theory, of course, raises another question. If queerness would be the key to men breaking into pop stardom, why aren’t there more queer men in pop?
“That would be a great idea,” Marcia said. “Gay men literally are obsessed with pop stars. They probably understand the pop star formula better than anybody else on the planet. Why, then, aren’t they taking over the pop industry? “The people in charge are deeply misogynistic and homophobic,” Marcia reasoned, “or at the very least, they’re not willing to lose the money provided by the demographic that is homophobic.”
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“How did we go from brat summer to fascist winter?” Lauter said before their performance. “That’s literally the plot of ‘Cabaret.’”
So, gay men aren’t able to break into the industry, and straight men aren’t willing to dive headfirst into pop star perfection. Where does that leave us? “The alternative is that we get straight men just dressing up like gay pop stars of the past — Elton John, David Bowie, Freddie Mercury — hoping that’s enough,” Marcia said. “Because ‘handsome man with guitar’ is no longer compelling to people.”
“That’s how we get things like Benson Boone at the Grammys performing a song that is not cohesive with the outfit he’s wearing and just, like, doing flips,” they added, referencing Boone’s performance of “Beautiful Things” at the Grammys, which, yes, featured a too-tight sequin jumpsuit and an inexplicable front flip.
“I think it’s not interesting because we can tell that he doesn’t believe in it. He’s just wearing it because someone told him to wear it, and people might think that maybe he’s a little queer, which young people will like, because young people like queerness,” they went on. “Young people have an understanding that queerness and sexuality can be fluid and can be bent, and just because you are interested in fashion and have an interesting concept that’s intelligent doesn’t mean you’re gay. And also, we don’t think that being gay is a bad thing like these older people do — that have all the money, that are giving the opportunities, that are supporting the new artists.”
“So yeah, that’s why we don’t have any pop stars that are men. Because they’re not willing to commit to the motherf*cking bit,” Marcia concluded. They can think of one major exception, though: “Thank you Troye Sivan for doing it. Thank you for dancing. Thank you for being in drag in your music videos sometimes. Thank you for embracing camp. Thank you for trailblazing. You’re a slay, 10 out of 10. Love you, girl. Keep on trucking.”
In Marcia’s comments, a few other gay men in pop submitted themselves for consideration to break the cycle. “hi hi hi ✨ i’m here to make it clear,” wrote Bronze Avery, whose 2024 album HEATWAVE delivered the gay pop the world has been waiting for.
Bentley Robles, the pop artist behind songs like “i hate the weekend” and “lay all your love on me,” chimed in too, writing, “hi marciaaaa i’m doing those things.”
When will the next big gay pop star emerge? Only time will tell — but in the meantime, we have Troye Sivan to tide us over.
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