. (tw heterosexuality)

Regarding Louis and seeming sexual: i got the impression that Louis was always supposed to seem asexual. While the other boys in 1d at some point grew up and became more sexual (to an extreme degree with Harry, less so with Niall) Louis was shown as the safe one. For the fans that didn't see him as gay, the rest saw him as having a long term girlfriend and being unavailable.

For the band i think it was critical to have a member like this, for the girls who didn't really want anything sexual to have a member to "crush" on. The same way many young girls will crush on people that are unavailable and safe, like a teacher.

Louis seems to be comfortable with this and just continued this image after 1d, dressing in baggy clothing and not going to the gym. Even if this role is probably not as effective for PR as a solo artist. The songs he writes have also become less sexual with time, but that could be a change in who he writes with.

What's especially interesting to me is that this has happened simultaneously as Harry has become more comfortable with being viewed as very sexual.

These are really interesting points anon.

I don't think 'asexual' is a particularly useful term to use as a substitute for not sharing anything about their sexuality, because I think it confuses things. But otherwise I think these are really good points.

In general, one of the functions of 1D was to be a safe space for girls to project and explore early sexual desires on. But obviously that came in a range and Louis was the most safe. And if someone told me that 80% of teenage girls who thought of themselves as Louis girls in 2012 had now realised they were not attracted to men I'd think 'sounds right'.

Harry I think is interesting - because I think there is a relationship between his queerness and why he was so successful as a fantasy boyfriend at such a young age. I think it's a real challenge for a teenage boy who is attracted to women to be seen as someone who can have any woman he wants, without some of the awkward, at times unappealing, at times too much reality of teenage boy's sexuality (let alone the many layers of grossness that they've learned from being in a misogynist society). It's actually one the reasons I think it's unlikely Harry is attracted to women, because he was so good at it. Someone who is not attracted to women, but very convincing at being attracted to women is basically the boyband bullseye.

I'm not sure we can be sure how Harry feels, but I agree his engagement with his sexuality in public has come and gone in waves. Initially he was doing whatever asked of him with silly X-factor skits where he dated multiple people or whatever. Then he actively withdrew from any sort of public engagement (with a side line in talking about being attracted to men in ways that people wouldn't take seriously). Then with his solo career he's actively portrayed attraction to women and having sex with women in his music - he restoked the fantasy boyfriend material. And in a light-handed/hearted way he does the same in person.

I was thinking about the different responses to being called 'Daddy'. Harry joked about it with one fan and put another fan in his instagram. Louis was like 'it's a bit weird, but each to their own'. What an astonishingly effective way of desexualising the situation. If he'd reacted with any sort of discomfort that would have acknowledged the sexuality of the situation and positioned him in relationship to it. Instead his response distances him entirely and doesn't draw him into the sexuality. I definitely agree that Louis hasn't engaged with sexuality as he's moved out of the band and that is different from all other members of 1D.

There's an interesting side note to this - and that's the music. Because in the middle of this general silence on sexuality - we have one song that is very explicitly about sexual desire, and was very well received by fandom, No Control. But that hasn't been a thread of his solo work at all. Kill My Mind is supposedly about sexual attraction, but for me it doesn't work and there's nothing sexy about the song. There is something sexy about Written All Over Your Face, but that's a layer of the song, not the explicit meaning. I do find the very limited ways that Louis has engage with sexual desire in his music very interesting, particularly in the context of choosing to make No Control, while he was still in 1D.