Kristen Stewart, constant target of the paparazzi, may have a new girlfriend. At the very least, she has been photographed, videotaped, and otherwise documented spending time with french singer SoKo, which has included being "caught" kissing in public in Paris, France. Nylon magazine has reported on the story not once, but twice, tracking the so-called budding romance. Numerous paparazzi YouTube accounts have posted videos following the pair around both Paris and Los Angeles, capturing them mostly just walking around but occasionally holding hands. Self proclaimed "Girl-on-Girl" hub Autostraddle brought attention to the latest dating rumor. And even Vogue Magazine posted an article discussing how Stewart's new love could be the reason for her more-disheveled-than-usual beauty look.
All of this commotion has led to a Tumblr-post frenzy and a revival of the Twitter hashtag #gaystew, which popped up prominently in the summer of 2015 when rumors about Stewart's sexual orientation were a popular subject in tabloids and op-eds. At the time, the obsession was based around an alleged romantic relationship between Stewart and Alicia Cargile. The supposed couple were the subject of constant debate with some news outlets sharing photos of the two consistently referring to them as good friends, or the popular cover-up term "gal pals," and other outlets and fans on the internet fighting, against what they felt was a blind overlook of something obvious, by declaring that the two were for-sure lovers.
Stewart herself indirectly addressed the rumors in her September 2015 Nylon cover story. To quote the magazine:
"Is she ready right now to make any big pronouncements about her sexuality?
Yes...
“Google me, I’m not hiding.”
...And no: “If you feel like you really want to define yourself, and you have the ability to articulate those parameters and that in itself defines you, then do it. But I am an actress, man. I live in the fucking ambiguity of this life and I love it. I don’t feel like it would be true for me to be like, ‘I’m coming out!’ No, I do a job. Until I decide that I’m starting a foundation or that I have some perspective or opinion that other people should be receiving…I don’t. I’m just a kid making movies.”"
So, at long last, we had Stewart's own take on the situation. But, while the "Google me" quote may lead many to believe that Stewart isn't concerned about the public eye's fascination with her love life, just that she doesn't want to talk about it, is it time we looked at our obsession with the coming-out of celebrities and asked ourselves if it's really any of our business?
The lack of positive (or, even any) LGBT representation in the media is so harmful in a society where we're still far from tolerance and acceptance. But, without their storylines offered to us in our love songs and prime-time dramas, are we seeking out this representation by digging into the private lives of potential same-sex celebrity couples--real, or completely imagined?
It's this frenzy that created a rumor that Selena Gomez and Cara Delevingne were an item when photos were snapped of the two being touchy on a yacht in St. Tropez, France. Or the reason why a video of Taylor Swift and model-BFF Karlie Kloss leaning close to one another at a concert for The 1975 was reported as a shared kiss. Or why during the press junket for "Carol," Cate Blanchett was misquoted in an attempt to seem like the lesbian relationship depicted in the film was something Blanchett had experienced in her own life. The three approached the situation in different ways. Gomez laughed it off and expressed how she "loved" the rumors. Swift adamantly denied and seemed annoyed by the allegation. Blanchett used the misquote as an opportunity to draw attention to the ridiculousness of the questioning in 2015. But, was it unfair that they each had to address anything at all?
I'm no innocent party in this debate. As a long-time K. Stew fan from before her "Twilight" days, when I saw the PDA pictures on Tumblr I didn't hesitate to take an instant screenshot and fire off a text to my best friend. "#CONFIRMED," it read. And last year, when the Kaylor rumor took off, I sat in my school's dining hall squealing that 1989's "Wonderland" was 100 percent about Karlie Kloss, and coined the term "gal-pal-zone" with my table of friends. At the time, each of these moments felt harmless, and silly--like watching "Fashion Police" after an award show and saying casually mean things about an actress' designer gown. What could it hurt?
But there's a dehumanization in the stalking we do of the celebrities we decide are importance enough to track their every move. And there's a distinct air of fetishizing in the way we seem to hunt for these unsolicited opportunities to have celebrities come-out publicly.
Maybe it's time we left singers and actors and top-models alone; time we turned off "E! News" for good and stopped clicking on those paparazzi YouTube videos until they stopped existing altogether. But that's a lot to ask for from a society that sold trading cards of popular theatre performers before television or the internet even existed. So maybe the baby-step we can all take, together, is to be conscious of what it is we're doing when we hold a magnifying glass up to the lives of people we truly do not know, especially when we're so desperate to have them look a certain way.
