This is the Sunday Edition of Paging Dr. Lesbian. If you like this type of thing, subscribe! A request this week: if everyone could share this newsletter with two friends, that would be a great help to me.

According to one user on Urban Dictionary, the definition of “fruity” is “when someone acts or does something gay.” Another user defines the term as “the new, non-insulting way of calling things ‘gay,’” and another definition reads “someone acting a little sus.” The word “fruit” as it relates to queer people seems to date back to 19th century Britain when it emerged as a Polari¹ word that queer men would use to good-naturedly poke fun at each other. In the 20th century, the word traveled to the United States where it became a slur in the form of “fruitcake.” 

I bring up this idea of fruitiness because I think it illustrates an interesting concept within the queer community – the notion that actions or behaviors can code someone as gay. Coming from queer people themselves, this idea certainly has different connotations than it does when lobbied at queer people from the straight community.

All of this leads me to today's fascinating topic of discussion: YouTube videos that compile the “gayest” moments of various celebrities. For the most part, the women (and men) featured in these videos have never publicly stated that they are queer. Instead, these fans have read queerness into their behavior. Many videos use the word “gay” in the title, while a few use the word “fruity” – chloe lukasiak BEING FRUITY for 4 and a half minutes! – in the way I’ve just highlighted above. 

Let me give you some examples. One of the most popular celebrities given this treatment is Anna Kendrick. One video, entitled Anna Kendrick Gay Moments again but more | So Many Gay moments u cant keep up, is the second video in a series of Anna Kendrick videos, and at this moment has over 3.2 million views. Taylor Swift also features heavily in this genre, with Taylor Swift - Gayest Moments and Taylor Swift flirting with women (part 2) being two popular examples. In a large part because of her role on Dickinson, Hailee Steinfeld has also gotten this treatment in videos like hailee steinfeld being gay for a minute and a half straight. 

Partially as a result of her association with Taylor Swift, Diana Agron (dianna agron being a fruitbowl for 2 minutes “straight”) has been included in this trend, as has Camila Cabello² (Camila Cabello gay moments). The most-watched video I could find featuring this trend is one about Gal Gadot entitled IS GAL GADOT GAY OR WHAT?!, which has over 6.7 million views. K-Pop groups like TWICE (TWICE GAY MOMENTS FOR YOUR VACCINE) and BLACKPINK (random videos of blackpink being fruity af) have also been featured. 

The aforementioned videos generally depict the titular women saying things or behaving in such a way that could be read as gay – or at the very least, “fruity.” This could be anything from facial expressions, language, physical contact, and, most importantly, interactions with other women. 

Though really any celebrity is liable to receive this treatment, apart from the K-Pop groups the majority of these videos depict white, feminine women. In many ways, this focus seems to illustrate the continued centrality (or at least the heightened visibility, which is kind of the same thing) of white women within sapphic fandom more broadly. (If you can think of any exceptions to this trend, I would love to hear them. My research on the topic was not exhaustive.) That’s not to say that if more women of color were featured in these videos that it would mean “equality” has been reached, but rather it's illustrative of a common criticism about the overwhelming whiteness of queer digital spaces.

Now that we’ve briefly examined this phenomenon, let’s dive a little deeper. As Caleb Gallo once asked, what does it all mean? Surely there’s something we can learn here about what the text of these videos are saying about contemporary queerness. To start, let’s tackle the central assumption of these videos, which is the idea that there is such a thing as a “gay moment.” The content of these videos gives us a sense of how this term is being defined. 

In many videos, there is an emphasis on the ostensibly flirty behavior of our titular celebs. There are several different videos entirely composed of moments where Taylor Swift appears to be flirting with women interviewers or other women around her. (In one video she tells a female interviewer: “you’re so gorgeous it’s hard to talk to you.) The A Simple Favor press tour features heavily in the Anna Kendrick videos because Kendrick and Blake Lively spent most of the press tour flirting with one another. In a similar vein, such fans also pay close attention to physical contact between women. For example, Gal Gadot is a famously touchy person, and her “gay moments” video features a lot of footage of her putting her hands on other women.

Another huge piece of evidence for these video creators is the use of pronouns. This idea is relied upon heavily in both the Taylor Swift and Camila Cabello videos. Firstly, Cabello and Swift’s frequent use of gender-neutral pronouns or words (saying “someone” when speaking about an imagined future partner, for example) is a key indicator for these fans that something fruity is going on. Viewers of these videos often find this to be a compelling – or at least humorous – piece of evidence. One viewer of a Camila Cabello video commented “take a shot every time camila says ‘somebody.’” 

Another facet of this for Taylor Swift is the pronouns she uses in songs. Some fans are particularly enamored with the times when she has sung songs originally written by men (such as in “Riptide” when she sings “I was scared of pretty girls and starting conversations”), or the I Heart Radio performance where she changed the pronouns in “I Knew You Were Trouble.” 

How these celebrities talk about other women is also a key feature of these videos. There are always supercuts of Rachel Weisz talking about how much she loves women floating around, and other celebs have also been clocked for saying similar things. Then there are the moments in these videos that are more oblique and up for interpretation. For example, one Diana Agron video includes a clip of her saying “I love graveyards” as an example of her fruitiness, while the Hailee Steinfeld video ends with a clip of her skateboarding. (I’ll give them that one.) 

That last account might give you a sense of the tone of some of these videos. In many cases, it’s clear that these videos are meant to be humorous and not taken too seriously. Many of the videos are edited in a similar fashion to comical ones known as “CRACK” videos wherein random clips are edited together so as to produce the funniest outcome. (See: Hayley Kiyoko gay moments | CRACK |.) The editing in such videos is often fast-paced and includes many transition frames like static screens. 

In fact, the Hailee Steinfeld video I just mentioned has a message at the beginning that says: “psa: THIS IS A JOKE.” Similarly, the description for the Gal Gadot video reads “This video is just for fun :) Enjoy it!” From these descriptions, one also gets the sense that these creators are expecting some pushback and are thus preemptively reiterating the lighthearted intent of these videos. At the same time, their titles indicate that these creators at least see a small kernel of truth in the claims they are making.

While many of these videos have a playful tone about them, a few of them are slightly more serious. For example, Taylor Swift - Gayest Moments features different categories of evidence, such as “pronouns and gender neutrality” and “boyfriends?”, to compile an argument for her supposed queerness. The comments on this video – which tend to take this evidence at face value – also reflect its especially earnest nature. 

The relative seriousness of these videos aside, it’s also evident that they’re made from some combination of love and obsession. Some creators confess that they felt almost compelled to make these videos because their feelings about the topic at hand were so strong. See the intro (below) to an Anna Kendrick video in which the creator explains the necessity of making it. In a similar vein, the creator of the diana agron being a fruitbowl video (which was released in 2021, many years removed from Agron’s stint on Glee) explained that they “started making this video after reading the swiftgron³ masterdoc at 4am this morning.” The passions run strong.

Even when the intentions of these videos are made clear, the reactions from viewers can still vary. Some commenters respond with humor – “there is no heterosexual explanation for this,” “Taylor’s songs are like ‘I want to marry and kiss girls. -from a man’s perspective’” – reflecting the playful tone of many of these videos. Others express the joy these videos have brought them. For example, “this just cured my depression, anxiety, and everything else” and “I am saying this as a voice of everyone. We needed this very much” are both comments on the Hailee Steinfeld video. 

Some viewers use the comments section to declare how much they agree with the central premise of the video. “Don't mind Camilla Cabello she is just passing bi,” writes one commenter. “She looks like most of the time she's about to kiss every girl she talks to,” writes another. Several commentators on the more serious Taylor Swift video noted the perceived validity of the evidence on display, with one commenter who claims to be “a linguist who is fluent in 5 languages and understands about 12” suggesting that Swift is too good with words to be using these pronouns accidentally. 

Similarly, many commenters use this space to acknowledge that they relate to some of the behaviors displayed in the videos. Specifically, a number of (ostensibly queer) viewers noted that they also use gender-neutral pronouns when talking about a potential romantic partner, a connection that would seem to back up the claim that some of these women are queer themselves. 

But not everyone agrees with the assumptions these videos make, playful as they often are. Some viewers refute these claims, most prominently on the Gal Gadot video. (This makes sense – this video has by far the most views, and Gal Gadot has a much broader fandom than someone like Diana Agron or the show Dickinson.) A personal favorite of mine is this comment: “No, she is straight. She is just NOT from the united states, that's all.” Other viewers are less defensive about it, like the viewer on an Anna Kendrick video who commented “she is the absolute gayest straight girl I've ever seen ever and I love it.” 

Some viewers even strive to maintain neutrality about the topic at hand while still professing their love and support for the celebrity in question. “I'm pretty sure she may be bisexual but well that's not our business, i just hope she find someone amazing like her and be happy,” says a commenter on the Hailee Steinfeld video. Or, “I don't like to make assumptions about her sexuality but this video gives me life. We all love gaymila” on the Camila Cabello one. Commenters like these seem to feel slightly less comfortable making outright claims about these women’s sexuality while at the same time not feeling any guilt about watching these videos.

To bring it back to my original question, what does it all mean? What does this say about the meaning of queerness in today’s culture? There was a time not long ago when “that’s so gay” was an insult used as a synonym for words like silly or uncool. Obviously, homophobia still exists, but this type of language is far less prevalent than it once was. (We owe it all to Hilary Duff and her “that’s so gay” PSA, naturally.) 

The reason I began this piece with a discussion of the word “fruity” was to make this distinction about how such language is used today. Partially as a result of digital platforms like Tik Tok, there has been a reclamation of language that at certain points in time was derogatory to queer people. (Such reclamations have also occurred pre-social media, of course.) Indeed, the biggest difference here between calling someone gay as an insult and these videos, in which various celebrities are interpellated as gay, is that it is primarily queer people making and watching this content. These designations are not insults, but rather something humorous, lighthearted, and even affirming.

Certainly there is a bit of a feeling that these women are being made fun of, but it’s an “in-joke” – people recognizing themselves in this behavior and gleaning its entertainment value. One also gets the sense that certain creators are afraid they might get hate for these videos, hence the “this is just a joke!” PSAs. It’s understandable that one might be concerned here about the negative effect these videos could have – they are in some sense defining someone else’s behavior for them – but when they find their intended audiences, they are, for the most part, received quite well. 

If we’re to learn anything from this, perhaps it's the idea that the way we discuss sexual orientation has changed significantly over the last couple of decades. The idea that someone can act or be “a little fruity” without actually being gay is certainly an interesting idea that is brought up here, as is the notion that queerness can be seen, felt, and even captured in this way. It may be troubling for some that these creators are defining a person’s life using terms that they may not use to describe themselves, but, as with many fan creations, these videos are for the fans themselves, not the celebrities in question.

Is it a playful, harmless form of creative fan labor, or is it crossing the line? This is a question that’s difficult to answer one way or another, but perhaps the framing of the question is insightful in and of itself. It’s not as if these celebrity women are sitting down to watch YouTube videos about themselves every day, but these videos don’t exist in a vacuum either. If anything, every facet of digital culture of the past and present has led us to this point, and whether this development is a good thing or not is up to each viewer to decide for themselves.