Harry Styles addressed accusations of 'queerbaiting' during his opening monologue on Saturday Night Live on 14 March. The term, originally used for fiction that hints at same-sex relationships without explicit representation, has been applied to Styles by some who claim he profits from queer aesthetics without labelling his sexuality.
Wearing a suit, Styles joked: 'Back then, people seemed to pay a lot of attention to the clothes I was wearing, something called queerbaiting. And some people accused me of it but did it ever occur to you that... maybe you don’t know everything about me, dad?'
Later in the monologue, Styles kissed series regular Ben Marshall, remarking: 'Now that’s queerbaiting!' The singer, whose latest album Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally. was released earlier this month, previously addressed the topic in a 2019 interview with The Guardian, stating his choices are about aesthetics, not sexuality.
