JoJo Siwa has consistently been a point of conversation in queer spaces online, which is typical for the former child celebrity who has been a loud and proud lesbian. However, her recent controversy stems from disowning her previous lesbian identity in favor of identifying as queer. This shift followed her guest appearance on Celebrity Big Brother UK and her coupling with another star, Chris Hughes. The news came as a shock to many who admired her outspoken queerness. The controversy surrounding her new relationship and identification has affected many fans, particularly lesbians, who feel she has both disregarded lesbian identity and betrayed her partner – compounded by the fact that Hughes is significantly older.
This whole situation is complicated to unpack due to a multitude of factors, which must be approached with an intersectional lens. Many lesbians online have expressed feeling hurt and abandoned by JoJo’s shift, as they once felt seen in her earlier claim of lesbianism. Yet, when considering Nash’s Rethinking Intersectionality, we are reminded that intersectionality must travel as a theory of complexity. That is, there are many methodological ways to assess JoJo’s changed identity: anti, intra, or intercategorical complexity (5). With anticategorical complexity, JoJo’s change in identities could be seen as a simple rejection of all notions of categorization. For her, identifying as queer could dismiss the idea that once you claim a label, you must adhere to it. When analyzing this decision with intracategorical complexity, her identities as both a lesbian and queer would be critiqued to help find tensions within her lived experiences as both. This could show her unique hardships as a lesbian that might’ve led to her to believe queer to be a better fit. Intercategorical complexity might zoom out and not just focus on her self-identification, but how sexuality interacts with other categories like age, race, and gender. With this method, JoJo dating an older man while moving from a lesbian to a queer identity raises questions about how gendered power dynamics might’ve played into both her personal choices and the public’s response.
As a whole, this situation is messy and layered. Because of this, it’s best to approach the situation while remembering the real lived experience JoJo has as a queer public figure. Intercategorical analysis seems to be the best methodology, in my opinion, as JoJo’s race and socio-economic status play a large part in her identity shift. I’m curious to see the long-term implications of her decision and how it might affect lesbian public figures in the future.
4 replies on “JoJo Siwa on ‘Celebrity Big Brother UK’”
This is a really thoughtful breakdown of a complex situation. I appreciate how you use Nash’s framework to avoid simplifying JoJo’s shift in identity. Your point about intercategorical complexity feels especially relevant—JoJo’s whiteness, wealth, and fame undeniably shape how her identity changes are received. Still, I think the disappointment some lesbians feel is valid, especially in a media landscape where lesbian representation is already marginalized. If queerness becomes a catch-all that absorbs and erases lesbian specificity, that’s worth critiquing. At the same time, we should also acknowledge that identity is fluid and that labels can evolve. JoJo navigating her identity publicly is messy, but that messiness doesn’t make her inherently disingenuous. The key is to balance empathy for individual change with accountability to the communities affected by it. Your post does a great job modeling that balance.
I find this post really interesting to engage with. I have been seeing this news pop up everywhere on my social media, and ran into a 40 minute YouTube video about it today. I think the questions raised are really interesting because it is not often such things are in the public eye. A key part of this situation for me is that all of last year JoJo Siwa has been making headlines for her comments on becoming a “gay icon” and a part of the “gay pop” community. Her entire rebrand has been about changing the significance of her rainbows to represent pride. Especially when it comes to the details of her relationship – cheating, and then realising she is straight because of her relationship with an older man. Your point about gender dynamics playing a role is well taken, especially when put into context of age, and public platform. I think it is perfectly normal for someone her (our) age to be experimenting with sexuality, but I wonder what the consequences are for someone to do it on such a big scale – not only for the star herself, but for her fans, and people who identify with her brand.
Ah, representation in living beings! They always evolve to be more than they were famous for! I still remember JoJo Siwa’s days as a young dancer and child star, to her “scandalous” rise as a person with a sexuality and free gender and sexual expression. I’m thinking of her music video for her song “Karma” where she spots a fake bulge. I recall so many fans being disappointed and media going crazy because of that! I also remember how she compared it Harry Styles wearing a dress. All that in mind, I wonder how that legacy has shaped her new makeover as queer instead of lesbian. It’s interesting re-taking a label like queer. It’s almost too elusive, and free to define in one’s own terms (because so many people use it in varied, multi-faceted, context-dependent ways). Perhaps, it’s another publicity stunt. Perhaps, disowning her lesbian identity is in line with her country’s current attacks on large swathes of LGBTQ+ people in the Unites States of America.
Chloe, I think this is a really great moment in popular culture to cover, and I especially appreciate the way you’ve incorporated Nash into this. I agree with you that an intercategorical analysis may help us best understand JoJo’s actions. I also want to add ANOTHER layer of complexity to this situation with the fact that in most interviews, since leaving Big Brother, JoJo has labeled her relationship with Chris as a “great little special friendship,” claiming that it is strictly platonic and not the cause of her breakup with her ex. So…what does this mean for JoJo’s “new” queerness? Is she fully embracing being queer, or does this sincere protest against the assumed romance of her kinship with Chris imply a different kind of identity…or a hesitancy to place herself in a box? While JoJo is an interesting figure in popular culture, overwhelmingly, she has been under incredible scrutiny as a former child star. I am eager to believe that such a history must impact her willingness to self-identify because of the attention she will inevitably attract. Maybe it is easier for her to keep things vague (and as Annanya commented above, especially in our current political climate), but I’m still not sure, and it’s definitely not for me to decide.