YUNGBLUD/Controversies

# Controversies

## 13 Reasons Why Soundtrack

A few fans of his have criticised him being on the soundtrack of a controversial Netflix show. However in an NME interview, he defended the show, stating *"There’s so much controversy around this show because people think it’s glamorising anxiety. I do not. It’s doing what good art should do: it’s highlighting a subject that people wouldn’t normally talk about."*, *"People say that it’s triggering and uncomfortable. I suffer from anxiety and depression, and I have a lot of my life. Do you know what’s more uncomfortable than that? Someone not understanding what you’re going through."*

## Queerbaiting

He has been accused of queerbaiting by a few people online due to him being unlabelled with his sexuality and kissing his male guitarist, Adam Warrington, at each show. He responded to those accusations in a interview, where he stated: *"I’ve been accused of queerbaiting. But I am absolutely not. I don’t tread the boards or tiptoe on eggshells for anyone. If I’m not going to tiptoe around what clothes or lipstick I wear, I’m not going to tiptoe around what’s politically correct."* Over a year later he came out as Pansexual and Polyamorous in Attitude Magazine.

## Trans Wizards Hashtag

On 5 August, he celebrated his birthday, which appeared Harry Potter themed as his friend posted Instagram stories of both themselves and him watching Harry Potter dressed up in gowns color coded matching the house that they matched. Toward the end of the night, he posted a tweet about liking Harry Potter but disliking the creator of the stories, J.K. Rowling—*who on more than one occasion made it known that she didn’t agree with how the worlds ever-changing rules seemed to have started to cater to transgender women and in doing so in her opinion, step over cisgender women such as herself, a comment that displayed transphobic views*. He ended the tweet and Instagram Post with the hashtag *#TransWizardsMatter*, which offended a portion of his trans fans, while the other portion didn’t see the harm in the hashtag. However prompted by transgender fans, who were offended by the hashtag, in his DM's on Instagram, he took to Twitter to defend his character. One fan replied to him telling him he needed to offer an apology and acknowledge his mistake to those he hurt instead of defending his character. He replied to the fan with an apology. but proceeded to like a few tweets—and reply to one—made by his transgender fans replying to him saying that they didn’t believe it was harmful. Which seemed to the transgender fans that were hurt by the hashtag that he had gone back on his apology and didn’t see the harm himself.

> On 20 August, due to a different issue fans had with him, he spoke to a fan though FaceTime and explained that whilst he understood his transgender fans anger at him liking those tweets, he was glad that some of his transgender fans didn’t think he was a *"a piece of shit"*.
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## COVID-19

During the COVID-19 Pandemic, there were a few times that fans criticized him due to being seen in photos not wearing a mask or being too close to fans. In one specific situation he traveled to his local pub-*The Hawley Arms*-with a few friends, which was fine, but then a few fans came to see him because they knew where he was. The fans took to Instagram to post stories of them being there with Harrison and his friends, other fans saw this and became worried about distancing as there were no masks on the fans. The situation became bigger and more aggressive as there was silence from Harrison after he found out about the raised concerns. He tweeted that he would go live on Instagram at 6:30pm. In the live, and in Direct Messages on Instagram, he explained that he and his friends walked into the pub with their masks on and sat in a taped off restricted area-reserved for them-fans came into the pub looking for him and he greeted them, he admitted that he got too close to the fans, and explicated that he didn't want to be rude.

## The YUNGBLUD Show 4

On 8 March 2021, he announced via social media that a fourth episode of The YUNGBLUD Show was going ahead, premiering on YouTube. Fans were seemingly disappointed in his choice of line-up. As YouTuber and rapper KSI, had previously used transphobic slurs, Lil Huddy had said a racial slur and allegedly misgender a former friend of his multiple times with no apology, Tommy Lee had abused his ex-wife and served jail time for it, and Machine Gun Kelly had used slurs in the past with no apology, and, multiple times, gone without a mask during the pandemic. Fans called him out, and he addressed it in a livestream a few hours later, explaining that he does not condone their behaviour in the past and doesn’t agree with it, and wants to let them into the community to change their perceptions. He also stated that condemning people for their actions is not what YUNGBLUD is about, rather educating them. Fans became mad at YUNGBLUD due to him being more concerned about sacrificing minorities safe space, in an attempt to help change the perception of the people on the line-up. A few fans left the fandom due to this. After the backlash, the next day, KSI apologised for using the slurs.

## References

1. ↑ NME — "Yungblud: “I suffer from anxiety and depression, and ’13 Reasons Why’ highlights a difficult subject”". Published 29 July 2019. Written by Andrew Trendell.
2. ↑ Evening Standard — "Meet Yungblud: the poster boy of Gen Z". Published 19 February 2020. Written by Samuel Fishwick.
3. ↑ YUNGBLUD (@yungblud) on Twitter — "every single part of my being is to make people feel validated for exactly who they are. to feel safe strong and proud to breath in their own skin." Posted 6 August 2020.
4. ↑ milø loves dom -31 (@etereolwt) on Twitter — "y'all should learn all the ways to apologize. acknowledge your mistakes or the fact that u did something without intention of hurt anyone are ways to say sorry. acknowledge and accept your mistakes or the consequences of something u did, is an apology." Posted 6 October 2020.
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5. ↑ YUNGBLUD (@yungblud) on Twitter — "transgender people belong in the wizarding world no matter how ignorant the writer may be. you are real. you are heard. i will be by your side fighting with you every fuckin day. that was all i was saying. if anyone felt hurt i apologise. i love u." Posted 6 October 2020.
6. ↑ ☆andra☆ (@303PNK) on Twitter — "he knows we felt like he wasn’t listening but he is always, but sometimes so much noise just makes him concave. he said he never wants to silence fans but sometimes he just needs a break as the fandom is getting so much bigger. he talked about the tag that he used and why he-" Posted 20 August 2020.
7. ↑ ☆andra☆ (@303PNK) on Twitter — "interacted with people defending him. he was relieved that people were okay because it meant maybe he “wasn’t a piece of shit” but he also understands why we felt that way." Posted 20 August 2020.
8. ↑ LORD KSI (@ksi) on Twitter — "My bad for saying transgender slurs. Honestly didn’t even know they were slurs. I know now though" Posted 9 March 2021.