The British actor recently became the first out gay man to be named People’s ‘Sexiest Man Alive’. Western media, meanwhile, have largely ignored this milestone. Why?
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You can simply scroll past — but please don’t overlook the importance of an independent queer press.
You can simply scroll past—but please don't overlook the importance of an independent queer press.
Time is now or never.
Queer voices disappear without independent journalism to amplify them.
We document what others won't touch.
We hold power to account when it threatens our communities.
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Donate over €25/month and receive our limited-edition tote bag — a badge of resistance, a statement that you stand for fearless journalism.
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The magnetic charm of Jonathan Bailey is something of a subjective fact by now. He’s toned without being overly hunky, charismatic without being standoffish, funny and startling without being offensive; he’s someone you could just as easily imagine bringing you breakfast in bed as you could imagine grabbing a beer with him. In any case, Bailey’s seemingly universal appeal makes him a model candidate for ‘Sexiest Man Alive’, which he was named earlier this month by People magazine. It’s an appeal that becomes fascinatingly complicated by his queerness.
Bailey, who came out as gay in 2018, has charted a relatively unprecedented career arc for a visible queer person. Typically, LGBTQ+ entertainers are directed to one of two exploitative routes: weaponise your sexuality so that it comes to define your career (for instance, only playing the stereotypically ‘traumatised’ queer character), or hide it at all costs. Bailey, on the other hand, has continued to champion queer rights (he founded his Shameless Fund last year, in aid of LGBTQ+ rights and organisations), remaining visibly gay himself while still securing mainstream success, starring in blockbusters like the two-part Wicked and this summer’s Jurassic World sequel.
It’s especially impressive that Bailey’s career has been illuminated by his queerness, but not defined by it. Sure, he’s played queer roles – notably, his Emmy-nominated turn as a closeted Congressional staffer in the devastating series Fellow Travellers – but is just as renowned for roles typically reserved for straight men. Take his breakout role in Bridgerton, where he played an eligible bachelor, Anthony, thirsting after Simone Ashley’s Kate. The chemistry between the two was such that many expressed surprise (and sometimes disappointment) that Bailey is gay – a testament to his ability to infiltrate and reclaim heteronormative spaces.
‘Sexiest Man Alive’, then, is another traditionally straight role Bailey has cinched, becoming the first out gay man to receive the title. The milestone is long overdue, it’s true; and if it’s taken until now to get a cis gay man as the ‘Sexiest Man Alive’, how long until a trans man might be eligible? What about a disabled candidate? (Such questions thus probe into our society’s deeply problematic relationship with what we find universally attractive, and would make for another article entirely.) The fact is that ‘Sexiest Man Alive’ is a historically un-diverse award, for example only having two Black recipients – Idris Elba in 2018, Michael B. Jordan in 2020 – so within this un-diverse context, Bailey’s win is a big moment.
It’s a confusing shame, then, that many news outlets haven’t treated the milestone as such – American publications like ABC News, CNN and Variety fail to mention Bailey’s queerness at all within their articles reporting his win. Gone are the headlines of Disney’s latest first gay character, it seems.
We might chalk it up to a number of factors. The milestone is so comically overdue that it does feel somewhat redundant to even call it a milestone. Bailey himself might also bristle against such a headline; in a 2021 profile for the Standard, he mentions a reluctance to discuss his sexuality “for the sake of it,” lest it become “a commodity and a currency.” It’s an understandable perspective. For far too long, queer people in the public eye have been defined by their queerness, which inevitably invites disturbing comments from trolls and prudish, invasive questions from the media.
But at a point in sociopolitical history where identity politics are coming to govern more and more of our lives, it’s crucial that marginalised groups continue to make themselves visible – especially when they have the privilege of someone at Bailey’s level. To quote him in that same Standard profile: “I knew that I wanted to be visible about my sexuality, because in all the territories that Netflix goes out in, there might be a boy somewhere that goes, “Wait, what?” Which is what I didn’t have when I was young.” In remaining visible and present, we continue to defy those who want to deny our right to exist.
The lack of clamour over Bailey’s milestone might, too, be a byproduct of the media’s ongoing lean toward the right, ostensibly as a move of capitulation to the tyrannical President Trump – who’s shown no hesitation to oppress or censor those who speak out against him. (Even Jimmy Kimmel, a cishet white man, was not immune.) For Trump and his administration, who’ve continually antagonised queer people while defending their own ‘traditional’ (read: antiquated and homophobic) values, ‘Sexiest Man Alive’ may well be a cultural institution they can claim has been ‘wokified’ – thus giving them more wood for their own fire.
Because as cringe as the maligned ‘Disney’s First Gay Character’-style headlines were, I had a soft spot for them. Even if they were more self-congratulatory in nature, the headlines themselves were baby steps toward a more inclusive media landscape. Those baby steps, small as they may be, are steps forward – else, we risk going backwards. “Jonathan Bailey Has Been Named the First Gay Sexiest Man Alive.” Now there’s a baby step.
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