Stumping in Style

Harry Styles Gets Political, Barely

Britain’s hot new solo act explains how he’ll be voting in June, using beauty-pageant-quality answers.
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By Jonathan Brady/PA Images/Getty Images.

It’s the eternal question regarding celebrities: are they, in fact, just like us? Relatedly, and more important now than ever: how much stock should we put in celebrity political opinions? Sure, celebrities have a “platform.” Sure, they often have a bunch of money that can drive a wedge between their reality and the reality of the majority of their countrymen. But when asked the detailed questions, they can hedge and feign ignorance the same way the rest of us do. Just look at hot new solo artist and political opinion-haver, Harry Styles.

Regarding who he planned to vote for in Britain’s general election in early June, Styles told the Sunday Times, “Honestly, I’m probably going to vote for whoever is against Brexit.”

He added:

I’m not educated enough on the subject to really go toe-to-toe with someone about it, but disregarding the economic stuff and all of that, I think what it symbolizes is the opposite of the world I would like to be in. I think the world should be more about being together and being better together and joining together, and I think it’s the opposite of that.

That counts as an opinion, probably. It’s at least inching toward one. He’s circling an opinion while regarding it sideways from a slight distance. Nods at “being better together” and “joining together” would make a decent beauty pageant word salad (better than some!), and when you’re used to answering questions and questions and questions about which woman this song is about and which woman that line is about, a voting query can really throw a person off.

And he’s busy, remember. He doesn’t even have time for dating, according to several interviews that he‘s done including this one in the Sunday Times! He’s shilling his solo album; and then also there’s also his film debut in Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk, which he’ll probably have to help promote; and, again, he’s been answering all those questions about relationships. But everyone with a busy schedule can take heart. He’s making time to vote. If Harry Styles can eke out a moment for realizing we're “better together” and then find time to vote, so can all of us.

The fact that he explains exactly how he’ll be voting is notable, too. Our guy has likely been in media training since he was just a young boy in short pants, as the article’s author points out. Who, besides Katy Perry, Kanye West, John Legend, Lady Gaga, Beyoncé, Bruce Springsteen, Kendrick Lamar, Miley Cyrus, Madonna, Lauryn Hill, Bono, Green Day, Barbra Streisand, and Harry Styles in 2013, would even go out on a limb and share their preferences on matters political?

It’s only right that national treasures should take stock in their nation’s future, really. Maybe one day the woman his song is about will be Theresa May. But for now, we’ll have to be sated with “whatever is the opposite of Brexit, I’m for.” It’s almost, very nearly catchy.