In case you haven’t heard, Aaron Carter is back in the closet. Or perhaps he was never in nor out of it to begin with. It’s unclear.
After coming out as bisexual last year, the 30-year-old pop star said this week that his comments were “misconstrued” and that, actually, on second thought, he’s really only interested in women. Psyche!
Speaking to Hollywood Life, Carter said:
Yeah, no. It was more so just a story that happened when I was like 17 with somebody, and I can find men and women attractive, but when it comes down to it, I think it was a little misconstrued. I see myself being with a woman and having kids. I want to have a family. I keep telling people that. I don’t want it to be misconstrued too much just because I was open about a story.
That’s quite a reversal from last August, when he said:
How about we take this to the next level?
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This doesn’t bring me shame, just a weight and burden I have held onto for a long time that I would like lifted off me. I grew up in this entertainment industry at a very young age and when I was around 13-years-old I started to find boys and girls attractive. There were years that went by that I thought about, but it wasn’t until I was 17-years-old, after a few relationships with girls, I had an experience with a male that I had an attraction to who I also worked with and grew up with.
Or even what he said just a few months ago, when he told the LGBTQ&A podcast:
I definitely embrace my bisexuality and, you know, it’s still new to me. I just started talking about it, really. I have my confusions and I’m still learning about the community.Who knows what the future has to bring, whether it’s a relationship with a guy, I don’t have a problem with that.
People on Twitter aren’t pleased with Carter for what many now feel was just a publicity stunt:
https://twitter.com/LostInSpace562/status/978573898865303552
https://twitter.com/colinjmurphy_/status/978620025245454337
https://twitter.com/Seyinoir/status/978482457770119168
Aaron carter is an idiot for pissing off the gays with his “lol I’m not actually bi even tho I pushed hard to get gay fans” thing cause boi what was left of your career is now over.
— Ya Boix (@migguzi) March 26, 2018
Lewis Oakley, an opinion writer for Pink News, calls the situation “problematic” and says Carter is “portraying the worst assumptions people already have about bisexuals”–that they’re indecisive, wishy-washy, dishonest, etc.–but, he adds, it could very well be that Carter is just struggling to figure out his sexuality.
He writes:
This issue isn’t uncommon in the heads of bisexuals, not knowing the gender of the person you will end up with is unnerving – you actually can’t plan for the future.
I dare say many bisexuals try to make a ‘decision’ about gender but in time come to see that they don’t have that control.
Perhaps this is a rite of passage for bisexuals. You have to come to terms with the fact that until you put a ring on it, you won’t know the gender of the person you’re going to spend your life with.
Related: Aaron Carter says he isn’t actually bisexual, that whole coming out thing was “misconstrued”
Ummmm Yeah
Well maybe it’s your fault for reporting what drug addicts with mental health problems say to begin with.
chris33133
Got that right on the head.
bushwickfreddy
EXACTLY!!! HAHAHAHA!!
tr6886
There is another strike for bisexuality. Being a loyal team player is much more important than who you are.
jd.cali
Stop writing stories about this whacko. That’s what he wants.
zealot
Here’s the subtest of that “bi” retraction: No one cared that I liked men enough to buy my sh**.
zealot
Sorry…”subtext”.
ChrisK
If he was smart he would’ve made time at the gym and got himself built up. Gay men also like that I hear.
JerseyMike
This guy has such a YUCK factor that it doesn’t even matter what he is…
DarthKitsune
I guess since the whole coming out thing didn’t boost his career and open up opportunities like he thought it would, he says it’s not what he meant when he said and confirmed his bisexuality. It’s okay Aaron,, it’s not like you queer-baited the whole community in an attempt to fleece us. P.S. Bisexuals can marry women and have kids and still be bisexuals, gay dudes did it a lot.
Cylest Brooks
This reminds me of Miley Cyrus’s musical career. LOL.
Kieran
Once a male admits having sex with other males, people are going to see him as gay. Nothing “misconstrued” about it.
Donston
He actually said that he only had one sexual experience with a dude 10 plus years ago and has hinted from the jump that he never really had much or any romantic or sexual interests in dudes. There’s been plenty of famous, semi famous and wannabe famous dudes who have said that they have attractions beyond cis women or have had sexual experiences beyond cis women and everyone didn’t assume they gay.
rbernard
Aaron Carter is attention seeking mess, too mental, and inconsistent – it is time to ignore him.
scotty
way past time
Greg
“I see myself being with a woman and having kids. I want to have a family.”
Women beware! He wants to have kids? Who’s going to raise them? Him?
DarkZephyr
Aaron Carter can do whatever the hell he wants with whoever he wants. I don’t care if he is bisexual or not. But his reasoning for it is what kind of annoys me. He “sees himself as being with a woman” because he wants to have kids and raise a family as if same sex couples can’t do that or their families are fake or something. Ugh.
Donston
This is why we need to stop making such a big deal about “labels”. If we just embrace the reality that the spectrum is real and most people are not completely, fully conventionally straight or gay it means that straight, straight-leaning and hetero-dominant leeches won’t be able to jump on the lgbtq train. And it also means that homo-dominant, gay-leaning and trans-leaning people won’t be as obsessed with retaining a sense of hetero-normalcy.
It amazes me how even nowadays when some people try to explain their orientations they focus on lifestyle and sociology instead of focusing on their attractions, desires, passions, sexual satisfaction, romantic instincts, romantic satisfactions, etc. That focus on sociology and “lifestyle choice” usually hints towards insecurities, internalized phobia, self-ignorance or just plain general ignorance. But yes, the dude clearly has a bevy of issues and he constantly uses the sensational to keep his name out there. It’s time to just stop paying attention and stop reporting.
Jaxton
Well maybe he doesn’t wish to identify. All you identity queens out there need to understand that the vast majority of men have no desire to associate themselves with GLBT or LGBT or GLBTQI or any other trendy combination of letters.
I know tons of men with homosexual impulses who prefer to marry women and have a family. That is their right. What are you going to do? Force them to identify and thus abandon their preferred lifestyle in favor of flag-waving?
Donston
You never fail to miss the point. He identified himself as bi. He was the one who made a big deal about coming out, did tons of interviews post “coming out”, tried to get gigs at gay clubs based off of it, immediately used it to sell a new single and talked about being “open” to dating anyone. He didn’t merely talk about having dimensions in his orientation or dealing with certain internal struggles. He used it for self-promotion and he manipulated people. And once it didn’t work the way he wanted he quickly moved on.
Maybe if you weren’t so obsessed with straight and straight-leaning guys and gay and gay-leaning men exude self-resentment you’d get it. But those are the only types of people on the planet you seem to like.
tr6886
Which era did Jaxton and Donston come from ? 1980?
Donston
The way I speak about orientation and self-identity is the complete opposite of 40 years ago or even 5 years ago. I look at things from a very modern and nuanced perspective. But try again. Try another username as well.
Cylest Brooks
@Donston… I think the ‘1980’ reference is because of the way you write. True story: I admin a group of people who range in age from 18 to late 30’s on average. When I make comments that are nuanced and consider various perspectives or explain an idea in detail, I LITERALLY get made fun of for using “full paragraphs”.
Modern internet culture is all about short, over-generalized snippets of thought. (Thanks, Twitter.) You’re considered “old-fashioned” if you still prefer to write out coherent ideas. It’s an interesting phenomenon.
tr6886
I have deep sympathy for those who grew up in homophobic eras.
Donston
Cylest Brooks. I realized quite a while ago that the way I communicate here (and other places) is very different than many around my age, both in context and content.
Paco
The people that were desperate to believe it should be pissed at themselves.
Dwik27
It’s simple – He came out because he thought it would help his “career”. Then he realized that he has no “career” so he went back in.
Cylest Brooks
Simple. Accurate.
Paulie P
Aaron who?
MonkeyMan
I’m just waiting to see what kind of drama he’ll resort to for his next stunt. Will he come out as a victim of rape and do a whole “me2”-thing, or maybe he’ll have cancer for a couple of months?
He better be starting something because his stale af music definitely won’t go anywhere on its own without a couple of tricks.
Can Queerty stop writing about this random straight man who is neither sexy nor is popular among LGBT people? Thanks!
Kangol
When he goes back to being bi, he can hook up with that anti-gay gay/bi/whatever Tyler the Creator. They can even share their toxically masculine sex scenes on OnlyFans for those who want to know and see more. Until then, gurl bye!
Donston
I’m not certain bringing Tyler into this is fair. He’s made some mistakes. But he seems more like someone who’s trying to figure himself out and trying to find self-comfort and acceptance rather than a pure media whore and manipulator. Though the fusion of “confusion”, self-resentment, ego-mania, “toxic masculinity” and obsession with retaining a sense of hetero-normalcy can lead to some odd couplings and toxic relationship dynamics.
surreal33
As with most “celebrities”, Mr Carter panders to the gay community when it is beneficial to his agenda.
The problem is not with Mr Carter the problem is why time after time the gay community falls for this ruse.
DuMaurier
Of course it could be that he’s just ‘figuring it out’ and that’s perfectly OK and right. And I’m not going to bash him, but to the extent he’s getting grief for his kind of stream-of-conscious, seemingly contradictory comments, it’s because they’re all public, which by definition means he’s inviting us to evaluate them. I think it’s probably better to talk publicly about one’s doubts, confusions, etc, after they’ve been resolved, to avoid just this sort of exasperated, empathy-less reaction. But in our reality show/Internet world, the train has probably already left the station on that one.
Donston
I wouldn’t bash him because it’s pretty obvious the dude has been through some stuff and is likely still going through some stuff and will do practically anything for some notoriety. But it’s also pretty obvious that what he did wasn’t merely revealing ones doubts, confusions and/or frustrations. He/his team were pretty calculated from the jump. There was the perfectly vague and sentimental and lyrical “coming out” post, the subsequent interviews, the trying to get gigs at clubs immediately after, the dropping of a single and constant hyping of new music that would give “further insight”. No matter what his “confusions” may be or the dimensions of his orientation, he was looking to take advantage of the recent “bi guy” support and hype. There’s little doubt about that.
Donston
For some people having any type of attractions beyond one gender, ever having dated someone beyond one gender or having had any type of sexual contact beyond one gender means that you should be walking around talking about “bi pride”. However, if that were the case at least 75% of the population would be identifying as bi. For me, unless you know you can have romantic, sexual and emotional satisfaction or at least contentment with someone beyond one gender you should probably avoid a bi identity like the plague. Otherwise, you’ll likely get caught up in similar sh*t like Aaron and be seen as a user/manipulator/flake/narcissist. But as I mentioned, his whole motivation and supposed sense of self seemed suspect from the beginning and became even more so.