Shawn Mendes Exploited From The Media

IG: @shawnmendes

Shawn Mendes has been in the public eye since 2013, when he was 15 years old. Being young and reading all these news articles about yourself must be hard to cope with. There have always been media speculations since he was 15 years old about his sexuality, even when he has been out and captured on dates by the paparazzi. To even publicly dating Camila Cabello for a few years, making different songs, and discussing their relationship. Has the media been exploiting Shawn Mendes to help their news outlet gain traction on their pages?

Shawn Mendes recently dropped his fifth studio album. There is one song in particular that many people question. The Mountain is one of the songs from this album that has many people talking. Mendes has stated that this song is specifically about people speculating and commenting on his sexuality.  Shawn said: "There was a time when I was in LA, and I was very anti what anyone thought of me. I usually never get annoyed by this stuff, but I felt like I was always reading [false] about myself titles about added: "I was exploring. I was 25 years old for the first time in my life. I feel like everyone should explore if they can." The lyric from this song is, “You can say I like girls or boys, whatever fits your mold.”

Mendes finally came out and addressed some of these rumors and said, “Since I was young, there’s just been this thing about my sexuality, and people have been talking about it for so long, I think it’s kind of silly because I think sexuality is such a beautifully complex thing, and it’s so hard to just put into boxes.” It is sad that celebrities find things out about themselves and cant figure things out on their own because of what all of the media is saying about them.

When speaking with Zane Lowe on Apple Music, Mendes stated, “When you have hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people projecting their opinion of who they think you [are] and why they think you’re that onto you … the human brain is fragile.” Going as a regular teenager to having the media and thousands of people tell you what they think about you can be challenging. Now that he has finally addressed these rumors now, people are saying he is queerbaiting to gain more fans.

How has Shawn Mendes dealt with the media?

With Shawn Mendes's new album and the break he took, he came to terms with who he is in and out of the media. He has built a strong relationship within himself. He has even said, “I’m just speaking freely now because I just want to be able to be closer to everyone and just kind of be in my truth,” he said. “The real truth about my life and my sexuality is that, man, I’m just figuring it out like everyone. I don’t know sometimes, and I know other times.” It must be very difficult when a million people are telling you things about yourself that you never thought could be true.

It is tough to be in the spotlight and learn how to deal with all of the media. Mendes even said “If you’re an artist and you’re 15 years old and getting started right now, if there’s one thing I could tell you, it’s protect yourself from social media. Protect yourself from the masses and what they think about you.”

Mendes says all of the comments got to him and messed up his psyche a bit. Different people are on different sides. Some people say that since Mendes is in the public eye, he should accept that people are always going to make comments. But then some people argue that it's all of the media's fault. It makes you wonder if there was no social media today and all of these news outlets, how would the entertainment and music industry look?

Medias Obsession With Celebrities

All of these news outlets give celebrities zero privacy. It has gotten out of control to the point when even TMZ reported on Liam Payne’s death and included pictures of his dead body in its article. They then deleted those pictures and pretended they had never posted them. It makes it seem like outlets are just trying to get more clicks to make more money for their website and go viral.

With how invested everyone is in social media, what would these celebrities' lives be without it? There have been many instances where celebrities are put in uncomfortable situations because of the media. For example, Taylor Swift had to come out and endorse Kamala Harris because many of her fans were speculating she would vote for Trump just because she had hugged Brittany Mahomes and she supported Trump. The media ran with that and made it seem like she was endorsing Trump because of that hug. When in reality, it was unethical, and Swift is allowed to keep her political views quiet if she wants.

The media's obsession with celebrities has created a toxic culture. Especially when forcing a sexuality onto someone like Shawn Mendes. That is very challenging for someone to experience, especially being able to talk openly about it. While being a celebrity comes with being in the media and everyone talking about you. Many of these media outlets do not respect these people, and at the end of the day, they are just regular people like everyone else.