Assignment Cover Sheet for Online Submission

Student Surname Bidwell

First Names Sinead Rose

Student Number 97109121

Course Name and short code Digital Marketing, DGM

Academic year 21-22

Unit Title Themes in Contemporary Culture

Unit Code C18101

Year, Term Year 1, Terms 2 & 3

Please provide the following:

Gender, Sexuality, Music,
Keywords Masculinity,
(separated by commas) Expression, Representation

How Does The Album Weird! By

Assignment Title Yungblud Explore Ideas About
Gender Expression and Sexuality?

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How Does The Album Weird! By Yungblud
Explore Ideas About Gender Expression and
Sexuality?

Sinead Bidwell

BA / BSc (Hons) Digital Marketing

2022
List of Illustrations:

Fig. 1 – The album cover for weird from Yungblud’s website

Fig. 2 – A collection of stills from the music video for Mars from Genius Lyrics
Fig. 3 – Yungblud kissing his guitarist from an article on Popbuzz
This essay will be an evaluation of Yungblud’s album Weird! and how it explores ideas
of gender expression and sexuality. Throughout the essay I will look at how he
combats ‘gender norms’, ‘toxic masculinity’ and how his presentation of self-
expression has helped him accept himself as well as how it has helped his fans. I will
reference medical articles and interviews to support my analysis of the album. I chose
this topic as I am a member of the LGBTQ+ community and have previously struggled
with coming out. Dominic Harrison, also known as Yungblud, has always been an
artist I find comforting, and his message of self-acceptance is something that has
helped me through harder times. I want to show that Yungblud is more than a punk
with an attitude and that the community he has built has helped many young people
accept their identity to become proud of who they are.

(Fig. 1) (Album cover for Weird!)

“Seven different outfits. Seven different people.”

Fig 1 is the artwork for the Yungblud album Weird! which depicts him as seven people,
including two females. Yungblud is known for having an “expressive dress sense”
(Lovatt, 2021) as well as being open about his ideas of “gender-fluidity and being your
authentic self” (Lovatt, 2021) so it was no surprise when this image was released as
the official artwork. I interpreted the artwork as showing how people always have
multiple traits, multiple sides to them but it doesn’t make us less whole. Each character
makes up one individual and we should accept each part of ourselves. Yungblud often
wears makeup and skirts on stage which lead him to receive comments such as him
being a ‘try hard’, ‘super cringe’ and even homophobic comments. This is where toxic
masculinity, “the idea that men should reject anything that is considered to be
feminine” (Morin, 2020), plays a part in society and how people react to seeing men
acting ‘girly’ or dressing girly’. Toxic masculinity has various definitions including the
idea mean should be “physically strong, emotionally callous and behaviourally
aggressive” (Morin, 2020) and that they must have a high-power status to earn
respect. Men are being discouraged from getting mental health treatment as they are
pressured to feel and act in certain ways that can be more harmful mentally to them.
Over the past five years, searches on Google for “mental health in men” has steadily
increased whilst “depression in men” is steadily declining. This could be because we
are removing factors such as toxic masculinity meaning there is less of a social barrier
for men to get help instead of self-diagnosing or ignoring it. Relating back to the
artwork, Yungblud is combatting toxic masculinity by wearing typically feminine
clothing and makeup and presenting female characters instead of having a completely
tough, typically male looking row of personas.

(Fig. 2) (Collection of stills from the music video for Mars)

One of the songs on the album is called Mars and it was written after he met a trans
fan whilst in Maryland. The fan told Yungblud how her parents believed she was a girl
and supported her through her transition because they’d seen other trans kids in the
Yungblud community and the way the community looks out for each other. Yungblud
then wrote Mars to commemorate her experience but also shows how it isn’t always
that easy for people with lyrics such as “Why she couldn’t turn it off, become a better
man”. This line refers to the internal battle that trans people may face when trying to
come out to their family and when trying to get people to understand what it means.
For a heterosexual, cisgender person, there is no such thing as ‘coming out’, they
don’t have to try to convince people around them to accept them for who they are.
However, for many queer and trans people, this lack of acceptance or support can
lead to their mental health beginning to decline. According to one article, children who
have been rejected for being a part of the LGBTQ+ community are eight times more
likely to attempt suicide and almost six times more likely to have higher levels of
depression. For some people, coming out may even lead to feeling unsafe in their
own home. The song Mars questions ‘is there any life on mars?’ almost as if Yungblud
is questioning is there any hope for humanity? Other lines say, ‘do you feel like you’re
irrelevant?’. Whilst these lyrics seem to be negative, the song overall is showing how
alienated and isolated people feel when they don’t have the support around them to
show their gender expression or the sexuality.

Fig. 2 is an image made up of stills from the music video for Mars. The video has a
few people sitting centre screen barefaced and as the song plays, they then start
applying makeup. After the makeup has been applied, the individuals start being
physically hurt by people off screen with the viewer only seeing the hands. You see
the people trying to fight off the hands and try to break free from being held back. The
video is quite hard to watch as you feel like a bystander seeing these people getting
hurt for doing nothing. Unfortunately, this is representing the violence and
homophobia that many LGBTQ+ people still face. As of early April 2022, the UK
government decided to “exclude conversion therapy for transgender people in the
ban” (BBC News, 2022) after promising the ban conversion therapy. Conversion
therapy is when someone tries to change another person’s sexual orientation or
gender identity. The government originally had plans to fully ban conversion therapy
in the UK days before their Safe To Be Me conference but after their announcement
of the change, many participants have pulled out of the conference. Therefore, it is
important to have musicians like Yungblud who are openly advocating for trans rights
and LGBTQ+ rights to help support the people affected by conversion therapy,
homophobia, and other similar issues.

(Fig. 3) (Yungblud kissing his guitarist on stage)

Yungblud has spoken about sexuality as being about freedom and being able to “lose
yourself in other people of all genders, of all shapes and sizes to find yourself and
figure out who you truly are” (Yungblud, 2020). He has also said he wants his fans to
know it is okay to be who they are, and they can love who they want and have the
right to have that love returned. His own confrontation with sexuality and gender is
seen in the song Cotton Candy which he describes as being a ‘sexual liberation’. In
an interview with Attitude in 2020, Yungblud opened up about how talking to his fans
about their sexuality helped him understand where he fits in the spectrum. It is not
uncommon to assume that gender is a rigid structure that exists as a binary, either
male or female. However, it is now becoming more complex as gender is now seen
as a spectrum including intersex, non-binary, genderfluid and transgender. In 2014,
only 31% of non-binary people were confident to identify as NB which could be due to
not feeling valid, not having a support bubble or not have a safe place to come out. At
the moment, Yungblud goes by He/Him pronouns but has previously said that could
always change. When writing Weird!, Dom explained that he is a hypocrite in the
sense that he preaches the message of accepting yourself, not being too harsh, not
letting other people’s opinions affect you but he never listened to his own advice.
Weird! was his chance to finally take his own advice and be more open about his
gender, his sexuality, and his life. What I like about Dominic is that what you see is
what you get. Some people question whether ‘Yungblud’ is a persona just for stage
but in reality, Dom is very open with his fans about who he is. ‘The expression of your
gender through the way you behave, and dress is an important part of your self-
identity, and is central to your mental health and wellbeing. Many transgender people
hide their gender expression in public for fear of negative reactions, violence, or
discrimination.’ Each song from the album has an emotional topic attached to it for
example, Mars is about being trans, Cotton Candy is about sexuality, Love Song is
about mental health. I think it is important that when analysing the album, I analyse
the artist as well. Dominic was brought up in Doncaster where his parents used to
physically fight and argue a lot. For him, that was what he saw love to be growing up,
constant fighting. In his words he “met someone who completely changed his world”
and made him realised what it felt to be properly loved. He was taught to bottle his
emotions which have led to him creating an album full of 23 years’ worth of emotion.
He grew up in a place where boys had to be manly and girls had to be girly. Now, in
a world full of negativity he wanted to create “an album about life that tells the truth”

Overall, I think Yungblud is a good role model to members of the LGBTQ+ community
as well as allies. He uses his music to create awareness of gender and sexuality and
other issues that are prominent for Generation Z and other generations. His music
and this album, encourages young people to embrace every aspect of themselves
and to accept themselves and each other. As someone who feels they fit into that
community, I think it is brave to be so open about topic that some people deem
‘sensitive’ or ‘inappropriate’. However, I also admire his ability to stand up and be a
face for the community as well as being a voice that is heard. Yungblud has faced
many of his own battles with gender and sexuality but has always stayed true to
himself, showing that these ‘battles’ can be won. “Weird! is a testament to individuality”
(Ellertson, 2021) and I agree with this statement as Weird! is an album about self-love
and unity. The album is more than just music, for some people it is the thing that gets
them up each morning, it is the reason they feel accepted. In a world full of hate,
Weird! teaches people to be individual, to be themselves, to love who they love and
to not let anyone else stop them. Personally, Mars is the greatest song at supporting
Dominic’s message to his fans. The fact he’s used an actual interaction with a fan and
used to create a beautiful piece of music is, in my eyes, just incredible. It further
confirms his genuine support for gender expression, LGBTQ+ people and individuality
as he frequently references experiences his fans have had. He uses other people’s
life stories as well as his own to spread awareness and inform other people of how
important gender expression and acceptance is. If I was to compare Weird! to his
previous work, I would say the album has a stronger feeling of love. His past albums
were more doom and gloom, they pulled on the struggles he has had at home and the
relationship with his parents. In his own words, his last albums were showing his rage
to the world however, Weird! breaks that cycle. This album promotes love and shows
how he has developed as a person and an artist.

Bibliography:

- Aniftos, Rania (n/a) Weird! is more than an album. Available at:

https://www.billboard.com/music/rock/yungblud-weird-interview-9452885/
(Accessed: 12th April 2022)
- Ellertson, A. (2021) ‘Yungblud’s Weird! Is A Testament To Individuality’, The
B-side, (February)
- Genius (2020) Mars. [Online] Available at: https://genius.com/Yungblud-mars-
lyrics (Accessed: 12th April 2022)
- https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?geo=GB&q=depression%20in%20
men,mental%20health%20men (2022) (Accessed: 5th April 2022)
- Lovatt, Sam (2021) ‘Yungblud – Weird!’ Felix Online, 27th January 2021.
- Morin, Amy (2020) What Is Toxic Masculinity? Available at:
https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-toxic-masculinity-5075107#toc-what-
is-toxic-masculinity (Accessed: 5th April 2022)
- OptionB (n/a) ‘Why accepting your LGBTQ child matters and how to start’,
OptionB. Available at: https://optionb.org/articles/why-accepting-your-lgbtq-
child-matters-and-how-to-start (Accessed: 12th April)
- Yungblud (2020) Mars. Available at: https://youtu.be/BMA171qWYZk
(Accessed: 12th April 2022)

- https://www.nme.com/news/music/yungblud-cotton-candy-single-weird-
2777968 (Accessed: 20th April 2022)
- https://www.nme.com/news/music/yungblud-cotton-candy-single-weird-
2777968 (Accessed: 20th April 2022)
- https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60988210 (Accessed: 20th April 2022)
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2777968 (Accessed: 20th April 2022)
- https://attitude.co.uk/article/yungblud-now-considers-himself-a-part-of-the-
lgbtq-community-1/24103/ (Accessed: 20th April 2022)
- https://practicalandrogyny.com/2014/12/16/how-many-people-in-the-uk-are-
nonbinary/ (Accessed: 20th April 2022)
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