Whether you know her for her music or acting career, Hayley Kiyoko is certainly A Belle to Remember. Hayley is a Japanese-American and at 25 has released two EPs, her most recent being This Side of Paradise. Her experience in the film/TV industry includes Disney’s Wizards of Waverly Place and Lemonade Mouth, Cartoon Network’s Scooby Doo! movies, and Jem and the Holograms. Her third EP, Citrine, is set to be released this coming fall.
Within the LGBTQ+ community, she is notorious for her song Girls Like Girls and its accompanying music video, which has over 40 million views on YouTube. This music video tells the story of a girl, Coley (Stefanie Scott), in love with her best friend, Sonya (Kelsey Chow). It is formatted as a short film, complete with a title shot and final credits. It begins as a montage of their friendship, including flirtatious moments that are often interrupted by Sonya’s abusive boyfriend Trenton (Hayden Thompson). The turning point of the video occurs when Coley and Sonya finally kiss, confirming their mutual attraction. When Trenton discovers this, he becomes jealous and violent towards both girls. Coley becomes the hero when she fights back and protects Sonya from his abusive behavior. She told Us Weekly that she wanted to mimic the story of a guy stealing another guy’s girl, but instead a girl stealing another guy’s girl.
She struck a chord with LGBTQ+ fans once more with her Cliff’s Edge video, which focuses on the emotional roller-coaster of a relationship, which happens to be between Hayley herself and another female character. In an interview with Fader, Kiyoko described the story as “a tumultuous love that constantly twists and turns, when each person feels pushed to an emotional cliff’s edge.” The video is a love-story first, and the LGBTQ+ nature of it is second-thought.
Kiyoko’s most recent single, Gravel to Tempo, was released with the music video on August 5, 2016. The song focuses on Kiyoko’s high school experience, constantly seeking the approval of the girls she had crushes on. It tells the story of her embracing her own uniqueness and independence. She realizes she doesn’t need to meet anyone else’s standards, she has the power and freedom to grant herself happiness.
When a boy wears a skirt, calling attention to the fact that he’s “breaking gender roles” in some revolutionary way, is actually regressive in that it makes it difficult for boys wearing skirts to become a normal component of society. In the same way, presenting LGBTQ+ relationships as nothing more than a typical relationship is the only way to normalize homosexuality and queerness. Yes, celebrating diversity is important. Yes, Pride parades are important to show strength against adversity. However, in a heteronormative society, equality requires casual representation of all sexualities to the point that queer relationships are no longer seen as abnormal.
Hayley Kiyoko’s music presents many kinds of representation in many different scenarios. Each one helps to normalize LGBTQ+ relationships, even if that’s not the goal. She simply expresses herself through her music and her videos. Each one has an artistic vision, and some have political or social goals as well. Hayley Kiyoko’s career and contributions to the music industry have helped increase diversity, LGBTQ+ representation, and the acceptance of queer relationships as any other normal, healthy relationship.
Comments are closed.