Harry is a Girl

On Twitter, TikTok, and Tumblr, it's common for fans of male celebrities to call them wife, babygirl, mother, girlfriend, and so on as a joke. However, when an unknown percentage of Harry Styles fans call him a woman, they really mean it. These fans genuinely believe (or at least entertain and promote the belief) that Harry Styles is secretly a transgender woman.
Many believers of Harry is a girl (in later years, known as "Harry is a woman") on Tumblr, TikTok, and Twitter have combed through massive amounts of publicly available information (everything from interviews to candid photos to song lyrics to tattoos)See: by metal-eye on tumblr to find evidence that Harry Styles is a closeted transgender woman or transfeminine person. Believers do not generally offer up reasons why they believe Harry would do this outside of the general atmosphere of transphobia around the world, and sometimes with vague handwaves at management if they are Larries. Not all people who believe in this theory are Larries, but most of the people who curate information about the theory are Larries. In this way, it is an effective and intentional pipeline for trans people and allies to eventual belief in the larger Larry conspiracy theory.
This theory was originally created by Larrie blogger lapelosa who christened it "Harry is a girl" in 2012.https://web.archive.org/web/20150610001241/http://lapelosa.tumblr.com/tagged/harry%27s-a-girl Other Big Larries on Tumblr who believe, entertain, and/or promote this theory include twopoppies (known for creating Larry fanfiction recommendations), thisiskatsblog (creator of Rainbow Direction), bottomharrykingdom (a bottom Harry Styles fetish blog), jlf23tumble (another fanfiction recommender), non-binharry (prominent theorizer and fanfiction recommender), too-old-for-this-ship (masterpost creator), and metal-eye (masterpost creator). While this theory is rampant on other platforms, all of the radicalizing content originates on Tumblr. No prominent believers of this conspiracy theory are transgender women, and most of the biggest Larries who push it are cisgender women. Many of these believers will claim that they believe that Harry is non-binary or transfeminine, not a transgender woman, or that they are simply trying to be inclusive of trans fans. However, the rampant misgendering of Harry among its most aggressive adherents suggests that this is merely a radicalizing tactic designed by big Larries to mask the truth of their conspiracy theory. Larries often use this theory to recruit trans people (usually trans men, transmasculine, and non-binary people) into becoming Larries, direct messaging them masterposts of "proof" that is progressively more extreme.
It is important to note that "Harry is a girl" is not a traditional conspiracy theory as it does not directly invoke powerful and sinister groups in its explanation for why Harry might be a closeted transgender woman. "Harry is a girl" is instead an on-ramp to more traditional conspiracy theories, typically Larry, Xarry tinhatting, or belief that Harry's girlfriends are PR stunts without any shipping explanation at all. Despite proponents' claims of the progressiveness of the theory, believers often express extreme levels of misogyny towards Harry's girlfriends. Fans who are against the "Harry is a girl" theory claim that believers frame trans women as ideal bottoms, and that the theorists seem to believe that transfemininity is innately gay. They argue that this is very transmisogynistic against trans women and trans femmes attracted to men and have suggested that the people who believe in this theory have a fetishistic attitude towards trans women.
== Naming ==
This Fanlore page is named "Harry is a girl" as a convenient shorthand and to acknowledge the origins of the theory. Most of its adherents in the 2020s would not refer to it as anything other than a transgender headcanon or fan theory. Adherents may alternatively refer to this theory as "Harry is a woman," "Harry is non-binary," "Harry is trans," "Harry isn't cis," all of which will redirect here.
== History and Beliefs ==
The first archived post about this conspiracy theory was created by lapelosa (a cisgender woman) on June 25th, 2012. While this post did not take off at the time, many core arguments and speculations in the post would be lasting elements of this conspiracy theory:
# Harry has compared himself to a girl numerous times
# Other people have compared Harry to a girl
# Harry has pretended to give himself breasts on occasion
# At one point, Harry expressed discomfort with painting his nails on camera
# Harry could, in lapelosa's imagination, cross dress while having sex with Louis
Lapelosa tagged this post #harry's a girl, a tag which would be controversial until it was retired.https://hiddensymposiarch.tumblr.com/post/108653911602/i-agree-with-everything-you-said-in-your-long By February 2015, Lapelosa's #harry's a girl tag was 50 pages long.https://web.archive.org/web/20150221100302/http://lapelosa.tumblr.com:80/tagged/harry's-a-girl In November 2014, an anonymous ask to lapelosa's blog laid the groundwork for how actually, speculating about Harry's gender is very progressive: 
Hiddensymposiarch (a cis woman) also gave a defense of the "Harry's a girl" tag in January 2015: 
Some users, such as theboyfriends, seemed to both believe Harry might be transgenderhttps://web.archive.org/web/20150706010815/http://theboyfriends.tumblr.com/post/103942996013/and-like-he-always-looks-so-pissed-when-people and have male pregnancy fetishes.https://web.archive.org/web/20150226111052/http://theboyfriends.tumblr.com/tagged/fic%20rec As seen in their art tag,https://web.archive.org/web/20150226111306/http://theboyfriends.tumblr.com/tagged/fan%20art art where Harry wore dresses, was pregnant, gave birth, and was a mother to Louis' child were all common around 2014. They also created popular masterposts in 2014 about Harry wanting breasts, Harry being sad that he couldn't get pregnant, and how hot they thought he might look in high heels.https://web.archive.org/web/20150226111040/http://theboyfriends.tumblr.com/tagged/masterpost In the early 2010s (likely 2013, as that is the earliest findable post of another user using the tag #sasha styleshttps://www.tumblr.com/homesweetlouie/55468981041/sasha-styles-is-definitely-a-thing-a-wonderful?source=share) lapelosa created her #sasha tag for these discussionshttps://web.archive.org/web/20150227145638/http://lapelosa.tumblr.com:80/tagged/sasha which would later be picked up by thisiskatsbloghttps://thisiskatsblog.tumblr.com/tagged/sasha and too-old-for-this-shiphttps://www.tumblr.com/too-old-for-this-ship/tagged/sasha among many others. According to tumblr user intheseshoestoday, "hundreds if not thousands" of blogs were creating content related to Harry being transgender in 2015.https://lapelosaaf.tumblr.com/post/117687565572/no-people-are-allowed-to-grow-but-its A glance at gotbagsofcharm's #gender fuckery tag confirms the popularity of this theory among a certain segment of larries around this time period. 
A text post about this theory, titled "Have a feeling that Harry might be transgender," circulated on Twitter in 2015: 
Some users decried the perceived heteronormativity of the theory, saying that believers were trying to make Harry the "woman" in the relationship.https://www.tumblr.com/lewiswtommo/134869076974/genderneutralsongs-my-biggest-issue-with-the The blog stopsashastyles was created in 2015 to respond to both the "Harry is a girl" theory generally and lapelosa's "Harry is a girl" tag specifically: 
Despite the controversy, conversations about the theory persisted throughout 2015.https://lapelosaaf.tumblr.com/post/121921393117/lapelosa-was-labelling-him-with-their-harry-is Once One Direction broke up, the theory died for a while. Harry shot Dunkirk, wrote his debut album, and got ready to tour. Many of the Larries who pushed or believed in this theory abandoned the fandom at this time. 
"Harry is a girl" began to re-emerge in 2018 with a new bottom Harry fetish blog, bottomharrykingdom. On February 18, 2018, they reblogged a gif of a very young Harry with moving pink hearts around his face and tagged it #princess #femme #lipstick.https://bottomharrykingdom.tumblr.com/post/171005018796/louhxrry-%E2%81%B0-%E2%81%B0 #Princess would be the blog's official tag for Harry,https://bottomharrykingdom.tumblr.com/tagged/princess with #king being the tag for Louis.https://bottomharrykingdom.tumblr.com/tagged/king Tags associated with Harry on the blog in 2018 included (but were not limited to) femme, dainty, makeup, nail polish, tiny, curvy Harry, sub Harry, mpreg Harry, and Harry is a bottom.https://web.archive.org/web/20181218025419/https://bottomharrykingdom.tumblr.com/fulltags The blog also openly promoted feminization content, including editing Harry onto softcore images of of women in lingerie.https://bottomharrykingdom.tumblr.com/post/174099000421 In December 2018, bottomharrykingdom posted the first draft of their she/her Harry bottomharrykingdom fic rec, which they would continually update for three years.https://bottomharrykingdom.tumblr.com/post/181536607796/climb-into-my-mouth-now-500-you-are Between 2018 and 2021, bottomharrykingdom would share or create 32 pages of trans Harry conspiracy contenthttps://bottomharrykingdom.tumblr.com/tagged/trans%20harry/page/32 and 17 pages of she/her Harry conspiracy content.https://bottomharrykingdom.tumblr.com/tagged/she%20her%20harry/page/17 Trans Harry and bottom Harry fanfiction would experience a slight resurgence at this time, and there would also be a resurgence of Harry fans using she/her pronouns for him on Twitter. In September 2019, bottomharrykingdom shared the popular fanfiction Second Spring to their account, which featured a trans woman Harry recovering from a vaginoplasty.https://bottomharrykingdom.tumblr.com/post/187944974466/second-spring 
Upon release of the Fine Line album cover, Tumblr and Twitter users noticed that the colors on the cover matched with the trans flag and began theorizing that Harry was coming out as transgender.https://bottomharrykingdom.tumblr.com/post/188815150551/horizontal-stripes-in-the-same-shades-baby-bluehttps://bottomharrykingdom.tumblr.com/post/188818000401 Trans interpretations for the song She followedhttps://bottomharrykingdom.tumblr.com/post/190121405506 as well as Fine Linehttps://bottomharrykingdom.tumblr.com/post/190164167701/fine-line-is-gender-bc-i-say-so and Only Angel.https://bottomharrykingdom.tumblr.com/post/190277387021 Twopoppies began to give recommendations for fanfiction about being non-binary.https://bottomharrykingdom.tumblr.com/post/190370441801/heyy-do-you-happen-to-have-any-recs-where-one-of Soon, an extensive masterpost was created that updated through 2021, combining photographs of Harry with analysis by fans that bottomharrykingdom enjoyed.https://bottomharrykingdom.tumblr.com/post/637056027316174848/a-woman-whos-just-in-his-head-she-sleeps-in-his These photos suggest the idea of either a non-binary or trans woman Harry, but lean towards viewing Harry as a transgender woman. Metal-eye soon followed with their own masterpost of reasons Harry might be transgender. https://www.tumblr.com/metal-eye/624188187830632448/harry-and-gender-an-ongoing-masterpost All of metal-eye's work has also been translated into Spanish.https://larry-archives.tumblr.com/post/641233181732929536/harry-styles The following list is the updated "proof" that "Harry is a girl" believers will argue supports their theory: 
#Harry's friends have used she/her pronouns or feminine language to refer to him before
#Harry has worn feminine clothing before
#Harry has posed or moved in feminine or flamboyant ways
#Harry has worn and sold nail polish, gender neutral perfume, and makeup
#Harry's music, in their opinion, references transgender experiences
#Harry's music videos, in their opinion, reference transgender experiences
#Harry has, in their opinion, referred to himself as a mother
#Harry has, in their opinion, expressed a desire to be pregnant
#Harry has, in their opinion, referenced not caring about X and Y chromosomes
#Harry has compared himself to a mermaid and has a tattoo of a mermaid, which is a symbol of transgender people
#Harry uses the nickname "H" and "Sue" among his close personal friends
#Harry has waved trans flags at his concerts before
# Harry's album cover and clothes are in the color of the trans flag
The overarching counterpoint to this theory is that Harry Styles has said he is a man many times over the years, most recently in print in a 2022 Better Homes and Gardens profile where he talks about sex, sexuality, and invasiveness:
However, fans who do not believe in the theory say that there are many other counterpoints to the individual tenets of these theories, as seen below:
#Harry is attracted to men and women, flamboyant, and has many gay friends. It is common in queer culture for queer men to refer to each other with she/her pronouns and feminine descriptors.
#Clothing has no gender.
#Feminine and flamboyant movement has no gender, and hyperanalyzing someone's movements is homophobic and invasive.
# Makeup and nail polish have no gender.
#There are alternate interpretations for Harry's music that do not involve being transgender, and many of the examples given such as Fine Line and Only Angel are about women he has dated.
#Harry's music videos reference gender non-conformity, which is different than being trans.
#Harry's references to being a mother are simply creative references, jokes, or misinterpretations of the work.
#Harry putting a balloon under his shirt or rubbing his stomach while addressing an audience is a joke.
#Harry saying "X or Y" is not a reference to chromosomes.
#Harry can like mermaids in a way that has nothing to do with being transgender.
#Many musicians use stage names different than their own. Since Harry was born with the one he uses, it seems likely that using nicknames helps him separate his personal and professional life. Also, see #1.
# Harry is merely showing support for the trans community.
#Pink and blue are very common colors, and mixing them could be commentary on androgyny, not being trans. Harry also countered this argument in an interview with the Guardian that he is not hiding secret clues that he is queer in his album cover.https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/dec/14/harry-styles-sexual-ambiguity-dating-normals-rocking-a-dress
Additionally, Harry has performed gender reveals at his concerts, which fans say he would be unlikely to do if he were transgender. He has also never expressed the personal desire to be a woman. Larries additionally believe that Louis helped Harry explore his feminine side and has been supporting him in this endeavor for years. This is not included in the "Harry and gender" masterpost documents, because they are designed to be accessible to both larries and non-larries.
Through 2022, non-binharry, thisiskatsblog, metal-eye, and twopoppies have become the leading voices in transgender conspiracy theorizing on Tumblr. There is a significant presence on Twitter and has been since 2018, but it generally waxes and wanes.
==Example Fanworks==
*The Cheerleader Skirt Series: The oldest Harry/Louis fanfic that exists on AO3; crossdressing kink.
*We Put Our Love First: Harry is a trans woman. Louis is asexual. Note the bottom Harry tag.
*Second Spring: Harry is a trans woman who gets a vaginoplasty and Louis supports her. Note the bottom Harry tag.
*fallin' and laughin' at the drinks we spilled: #vanlife Harry/Louis AU where Harry is trans. Note the bottom Harry and Harry in panties tags.
*Time Passed: Louis supports Harry through figuring out their trans identity. Note the bottom Harry and feminization tags.
== Fanart and Graphics ==
File:Breath for fluff.jpg|While mpreg is very common in fandoms, the hyperfeminization of Harry in this 2014 drawing by breath-for-fluff (rosketch, on main) is notable.https://br.pinterest.com/pin/581949583081552279/
File:Tumblr inline njum35wbxc1sp8ytl.jpg|Early portrait of a feminized Harry wearing a dress by prettytruthsandlies. Circulated on Harry is a girl tumblr in 2014 and 2015.https://br.pinterest.com/pin/581949583081552279/
File:Tumblr 4d39a8d07882fff143cfe4997843d045 3b76c26b 640.jpg|This 2020 manip by halohamilton juxtaposes the lyrics of She with Harry's beauty papers shoot and a description of dress construction. Captioned "she's the first one that I see," it evokes in the viewer the feeling that Harry is "she."
==References==
Category:One Direction