SEE YOU IN HELL: The Revolutionary Sexuality of Lil Nas X's Montero
"In life, we hide the parts of ourselves we don’t want the world to see. We lock them away. We tell them no. We banish them. But here, we don’t. Welcome to Montero."
Emily Oliver
21 July 2021
21 July 2021
The music video of Lil Nas X’s groundbreaking new song ‘Montero’ has been met with a wave of controversy; you either hate it or you bow down to worship. Many conservative Christians are unable to see past ‘Satan’ and ‘lap dance’ in the same context, but how can they tell Lil Nas to burn in hell when he already has?
Lil Nas adopts what has historically been the maximum sentence for queer people. The promise of eternal pain and suffering in the afterlife as if the fight in this life wasn’t enough. He takes the idea that any deviation from the heteronormative ideal is grounds for burning in hell, and then he twists it, makes it his own and enjoys the hell out of it. His resurrection of ‘satanic panic’ has allowed him to weaponize the inevitable controversy coming out of the video to elevate his song to the zeitgeist and propound the very message his opposition tries to suppress. As they condemn him, his representation of gay sexuality is evangelicalized. The court scene allows Nas to outwardly take on this role of the queer provocatuer. His identity politics are bared for us to see. We are given the chance to see the stones being thrown at him before he picks one up and throws it back. As a black queer artist Lil Nas’ very existence is political, his body becomes a warground for society’s views. Watching that same body dance down a pole to hell is an empowering experience for all, both a select and repressed few.
‘Montero’ is no more sexual than the decades worth of heternormative music videos we have been flooded with from a young age. If people are worried about ‘Montero’ turning their kids gay, let them be comforted in the fact that despite the explicitly heterosexual nature of the music videos, songs, movies, books and advertisements our queer generation grew up with, we still weren’t turned straight. It is incredibly refreshing to hear gay sexuality discussed in the same detail and terms that straight sexuality is continually permitted. This huge leap in representation within popular culture is revolutionary, Lil Nas has broken down a boundary that has rarely been crossed and carved out a space in pop music for LGBT+ artists to reside.
Popular music has seen several recent revolutionary surges such as ‘Montero’. ‘WAP’ by Cardi B and Meghan Thee Stallion speaks of female sexuality in gratitous terms historically reserved for depictions of heteronormative male pleasure. Within the lyrics, the male presence is continually sidelined, the female experience is established as the uncontested centrepiece of the song. This ability to turn established styles on their heads to discuss and represent previously marginalized points of view allows their insertion into the mainstream. Previously, songs such as Christina Auigela’s ‘Genie in a Bottle’ have had to hide behind allusion, metaphor and innuendo in order to discuss female pleasure. It is something to be celebrated that two incredible women can hump on a giant bed at the Grammys singing about having a wet ass pussy.
‘Montero’ heralds an even more imporant new beginning for both mainstream and queer culture. Previously, gay music icons have been those such as Lady Gaga, Ariana Grande and Madonna. Empowerment has been found within their songs through the celebration of femininity, categorized under the blanket identity of the ‘pop diva’. Uncompromising, unapologetic, and unmale. Is this a result of gay sexuality remaining taboo and unspoken? Did gay men have to celebrate their own attachment to the cisgender female identity in order to connect with their own sexuality in music? Lil Nas marks the end of this necessity in pop music and is the beginning of a new movement of representation. He celebrates queer sexuality for what it is. Queer and sexy.
Ultimately, what has been done by Lil Nas X and his team in the ‘Montero’ music video is a pivotal leap for queer representation in mass media. However, it is merely the beginning, it cannot be seen as enough. Systems founded on repression must be abolished, there is only so far they can evolve. For what is the purpose of cultural phenomena such as ‘WAP’ or ‘Montero’ than to start the conversation? Lil Nas has broken down a barrier for LGBT+ artists and given us some of the most important representation in contemporary pop music. He has carved out a place for this representation in the preexisting system. But how long before this system is dismantled? For the sexuality of ‘Montero’ is revolutionary, and how long before this revolution can’t be ignored any longer?
If you’ve been living under a rock or too busy having fun with Satan in hell, here is the music video for Lil Nas X’s ‘Montero’. Go. Watch. Be sexy and free:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6swmTBVI83k
Image Credits: Still from Lil Nas X, Montero (Call Me By Your Name) music video
Lil Nas adopts what has historically been the maximum sentence for queer people. The promise of eternal pain and suffering in the afterlife as if the fight in this life wasn’t enough. He takes the idea that any deviation from the heteronormative ideal is grounds for burning in hell, and then he twists it, makes it his own and enjoys the hell out of it. His resurrection of ‘satanic panic’ has allowed him to weaponize the inevitable controversy coming out of the video to elevate his song to the zeitgeist and propound the very message his opposition tries to suppress. As they condemn him, his representation of gay sexuality is evangelicalized. The court scene allows Nas to outwardly take on this role of the queer provocatuer. His identity politics are bared for us to see. We are given the chance to see the stones being thrown at him before he picks one up and throws it back. As a black queer artist Lil Nas’ very existence is political, his body becomes a warground for society’s views. Watching that same body dance down a pole to hell is an empowering experience for all, both a select and repressed few.
‘Montero’ is no more sexual than the decades worth of heternormative music videos we have been flooded with from a young age. If people are worried about ‘Montero’ turning their kids gay, let them be comforted in the fact that despite the explicitly heterosexual nature of the music videos, songs, movies, books and advertisements our queer generation grew up with, we still weren’t turned straight. It is incredibly refreshing to hear gay sexuality discussed in the same detail and terms that straight sexuality is continually permitted. This huge leap in representation within popular culture is revolutionary, Lil Nas has broken down a boundary that has rarely been crossed and carved out a space in pop music for LGBT+ artists to reside.
Popular music has seen several recent revolutionary surges such as ‘Montero’. ‘WAP’ by Cardi B and Meghan Thee Stallion speaks of female sexuality in gratitous terms historically reserved for depictions of heteronormative male pleasure. Within the lyrics, the male presence is continually sidelined, the female experience is established as the uncontested centrepiece of the song. This ability to turn established styles on their heads to discuss and represent previously marginalized points of view allows their insertion into the mainstream. Previously, songs such as Christina Auigela’s ‘Genie in a Bottle’ have had to hide behind allusion, metaphor and innuendo in order to discuss female pleasure. It is something to be celebrated that two incredible women can hump on a giant bed at the Grammys singing about having a wet ass pussy.
‘Montero’ heralds an even more imporant new beginning for both mainstream and queer culture. Previously, gay music icons have been those such as Lady Gaga, Ariana Grande and Madonna. Empowerment has been found within their songs through the celebration of femininity, categorized under the blanket identity of the ‘pop diva’. Uncompromising, unapologetic, and unmale. Is this a result of gay sexuality remaining taboo and unspoken? Did gay men have to celebrate their own attachment to the cisgender female identity in order to connect with their own sexuality in music? Lil Nas marks the end of this necessity in pop music and is the beginning of a new movement of representation. He celebrates queer sexuality for what it is. Queer and sexy.
Ultimately, what has been done by Lil Nas X and his team in the ‘Montero’ music video is a pivotal leap for queer representation in mass media. However, it is merely the beginning, it cannot be seen as enough. Systems founded on repression must be abolished, there is only so far they can evolve. For what is the purpose of cultural phenomena such as ‘WAP’ or ‘Montero’ than to start the conversation? Lil Nas has broken down a barrier for LGBT+ artists and given us some of the most important representation in contemporary pop music. He has carved out a place for this representation in the preexisting system. But how long before this system is dismantled? For the sexuality of ‘Montero’ is revolutionary, and how long before this revolution can’t be ignored any longer?
If you’ve been living under a rock or too busy having fun with Satan in hell, here is the music video for Lil Nas X’s ‘Montero’. Go. Watch. Be sexy and free:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6swmTBVI83k
Image Credits: Still from Lil Nas X, Montero (Call Me By Your Name) music video