In early August, pop star Demi Lovato announced that she was starting to feel feminine and intended to start using the pronouns “she/her” again. This came after more than a year of demanding that the entire world should awkwardly refer to the singer as “they/them.”
“Yeah, so, they/them is, um, I’ve actually adopted the pronouns of she/her again\,” the “Heart Attack” singer said during an appearance on the Spout Podcast.
“So for me, I’m such a fluid person that I don’t really… I don’t find that I am… I felt like, especially last year, my energy was balanced in my masculine and feminine energy, so that when I was faced with the choice of walking into a bathroom and it said women and men, I didn’t feel like there was a bathroom for me, because I didn’t feel necessarily like a woman. I didn’t feel like a man,” Lovato continued. “I just felt like a human. And that’s what they/them is about for me. It’s just about like feeling human at your core.”
“Recently I’ve been feeling more feminine, and so I’ve adopted she/her again,” she said. “But I think what’s important is, like, nobody’s perfect. Everyone messes up pronouns at some point, and especially when people are learning, it’s just all about respect.”
It was a real eye roll moment for conservatives. Lovato’s pronoun swapping is just another example of narcissistic celebrities going down an endless road of professed self-discovery and insisting they are more special and interesting than the rest of the world. However, for the former child star, these linguistic gymnastics are almost certain to cause harm for young fans.
Critics point out how even though Lovato’s statements make it sound like pronouns are really no big deal and are infinitely fluid, the media take a very different approach. The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh pointed out how anyone caught misgendering the singer – just one day before she decided to incorporate “she/her” back into her identity – would face serious consequences.
“Yesterday you would have been banned on every social media platform for calling Demi ‘she.’ And now you’ll be banned if you don’t. That’s how this works,” Walsh said on his show.
He’s not wrong. In May, a Wisconsin school district opened a Title IX sexual harassment investigation against 8th graders when they called a fellow student “her” instead of “them.” This is just one real-life example of how serious the pronoun police are about everyone affirming an individual’s declared identity. Yet those individuals are granted all the space in the world to adjust their self-perception whenever they feel like it.
Despite the gravity of getting pronouns correct, the media is completely on board with Lovato changing her mind and mood when it suits her. TV host Tamara Dhia put out an urgent plea for other media members, warning them to accurately represent Lovato’s statements.
“For the record: Demi Lovato did NOT say she is abandoning they/them as her pronouns, she simply said she is adding she/her. Please listen to the entire clip. Media friends, it’s important to get this right,” she tweeted.
The rules are clear: the “Confident” singer can identify however she wants, for as long as she wants, and the rest of the world must affirm that identity and alter their approach, daily if necessary. Articles about Lovato may only use “she/her” when the singer feels “feminine.” To do so at any other time would be violent and harmful to her.
It all began in May 2021 when Lovato came out as non-binary.
“Over the past year-and-a-half, I’ve been doing some healing and self-reflective work. And through this work, I’ve had the revelation that I identify as non-binary. With that said, I’ll be officially changing my pronouns to they/them,” she explained.
“I feel that this best represents the fluidity I feel in my gender expression and allows me to feel most authentic and true to the person I both know I am, and am still discovering.”
“If you misgender me, that’s okay. I accidentally misgender myself sometimes! It’s a huge transition to change the pronouns I’ve used for myself my entire life. And it’s difficult to remember sometimes,” she said.
“As long as you keep trying to respect my truth and as long as I remember my truth, the shift will come naturally,” she continued. “I’m just grateful for your effort in trying to remember what means so much to my healing process.”
Pandering to a self-absorbed celebrity is annoying enough, but Lovato’s latest claims highlight actual dangers with this type of approach. Her pronoun swap comes right at a moment when the battle over “gender reassignment surgeries” for minors is heating up. This matters because many of Lovato’s fans are young and impressionable. They see their favorite pop singer constantly changing her gender expression, making it more likely they will emulate that same behavior simply because they look up to her, and they may not understand the consequences. A recent report found that the number of teens who identify as transgender has almost doubled since 2017.
Lovato’s attitude is similar to the lie being sold by proponents of these gender affirming surgeries. So many activists swear that hormone treatments are “completely reversible.” Even the current president, Joe Biden, advised parents that early surgeries, hormone treatments, and gender affirmation are “safe and healthy” for children who believe themselves to be transgender.
These officials insist on the safety of “gender affirming care,” which has led doctors to perform mastectomies on girls as young as 13 and castrate teen boys. There has been an enormous increase in prescriptions for serious drugs that hinder the normal puberty process. Side effects for these include infertility, sexual dysfunction, osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease, and in some cases, emotional distress, The Daily Wire originally reported. Contrary to what advocates say, the harm being done can be permanently damaging.
Gender dysphoria is not new, but it has exploded in popularity recently. This is due in part to celebrities like Lovato glamorizing the concept of being unique in this way. The pop star adjusting pronouns like getting a new hairstyle is representative of how shallow and vapid the movement truly is. Because even though Lovato can move from “they” to “she” and back again at will, her young fans may not be so lucky.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.