Zara Larsson tells gay men to stop falsely accusing women of homophobia for laughs

Swedish musician Zara Larsson clapped back at a TikTok influencer who jokingly accused her of homophobia as part of a longstanding social media trend.

Ryan Crouse posted a video to his 1.5 million followers joking that Larsson once pulled him onstage at a concert but then pushed him off and called him a “flaming f**king f*g.”

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Crouse’s false claims of homophobia join a years-long series of similar gags against celebrities, most notably Stranger Things actress Millie Bobby Brown.

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In 2018, when Brown was just 14 years old, she quit Twitter after becoming the target of memes falsely accusing her of violent homophobia. The memes were meant to be outlandish and unbelievable, but many criticized them for their unnecessary cruelty.

Some people have argued that these memes are just harmless fun because they’re “clearly fake,” and that this is part of why it’s funny. Incredible absurdity is one facet of humor, and it is admittedly quite absurd for a meme to portray a harmless young girl as a raging, potty-mouthed bigot.

However, critics have pointed out that this meme uses homophobic language in a crude, insulting way that hardly feels like “reclaiming slurs.” It’s also raised serious questions about whether it’s possible to reclaim these slurs at all and how empowering this can be when it comes at the expense of bullying a teenager. Brown never did return to Twitter.

@ryanthetwat

allegedly

♬ original sound – ryan crouse

Larsson made similar points in a video response to Crouse’s “joke.”

“I get that it’s a joke, but we need to make a study on what it is that makes white gay men feel like making a woman look homophobic is the funniest joke ever,” she said. “I thought that was a little played out. It’s 2023, why are you still trying to Millie Bobby Brown people? I don’t get it.”

“I get that it’s some sort of self-deprecating humor, I guess, but it’s always on the expense of the girlies, and I don’t like that. Because everybody who knows me knows that I am an ally. I’ve always been. I will always be.”

She continued, “But also to the people who don’t know me and who don’t get that it’s a joke, let’s think, let’s be realistic. Would it make sense for me to stand on a stage and say a slur to an audience, to a crowd, with live people? Would it make sense for me to jeopardize my career…come on guys! I believe in you, use your brains.”

“I don’t want to be negative Nancy…but at the end of the day it’s like what’s so funny about this?”

She also said something similar happened to her a few months ago, but more people thought it was real and so it became a more widespread controversy.

“It just makes me sad, and it just hurts me because that is just so far from my character and what I would do.”

She then ended by joking that she was going to sue Crouse.

@zaralarsson

#stitch with @ryan crouse see you in court Ryan

♬ original sound – Zara Larsson

Crouse responded in another video, stating “I think I’ve caused a bigger stir than I meant to…I felt kinda bad. I was like wait, I thought literally everybody knew that this was gonna be satire.”

Crouse said he was hoping Larsson would “continue the bit” by making up things about him in response. “But I do understand that if it’s not very obviously satire, which I thought it was but I guess not, then it’s gonna come off differently,” he said.

“I never went to her concert, that never happened. So I can clear that up right now.”

He admitted at the end, “I got ate up by Zara Larsson.”

@ryanthetwat

@Zara Larsson 💟

♬ original sound – ryan crouse