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In addition to the difficulties she faced to be black, Houston was harassed by the rumor that she was in love with her longtime best friend, Robyn Crawford, who later became her executive assistant . But the piety of the 80s – a decade of ambient and state-sanctioned homophobia – meant that many Americans seemed to disapprove of even the suggestion of queerness. In early interviews, Houston was often questioned about, and just as often dismissed, the speculation that she was other than straight. Still, fighting between Crawford and the rest of Houston's entourage to attract the singer's attention, as well as pressure on Houston to project a healthy image, eventually led to Crawford's resignation. In Whitney Houston's eldest half-brother, Gary Garland-Houston, told Crawford: "She was no one. […] I knew that she was something I did not want my sister to be involved with. "
It may be easy, in some ways, to see Houston's professional problems as a relic from another time.After all, Beyoncé and Kendrick Lamar have been hailed recently for putting forth a bold music to music. and clearly black, the latter having won a Pulitzer Prize earlier this year.And despite an administration that has proven successful in reducing hard-earned LGBTQ rights, openly queer musicians such as Sam Smith, Sia and Janelle Monáe regularly top the list. United States: For many, Houston endures itself a gay icon, like the above-mentioned sequence Love, Simon : In this film, the titular character glams his imaginary dormitory with a poster of the singer , nodding at her embrace of her own sexuality
Coming after Houston inherited some of the problems she struggled with in the late 80s and early 20s The 90s. After experiencing fame in the mid-to-late 90s, Lauryn Hill surprised listeners by disappearing from the public eye for years. In 2006, Hill told Essence : "[Audiences] must understand that the Lauryn Hill they were exposed to at the beginning was all that was allowed in that arena at that time." Hill, as Houston According to her, "a small space designed for the general public and dictated by very limited standards."
More recently, in a profile of New York Times Rihanna discussed the expectations of the industry. that there is a "good" way to be a black person. "When I started to feel the difference – or even to highlight my race – it was especially when I was doing business," Rihanna said. She added that she should be aware of the fact that people "judge you because you are excited in a certain way." Her observation – that all sorts of darkness is not perceived as desirable – corresponds to the Houston experience of minimizing certain expressions of his racial identity to achieve mass success.
Despite the cheers and fandom she's got, Beyoncé has been tossed by similar expectations. In 2008, L'Oréal Paris cosmetics company was outright criticized for allegations that it would have numerically lightened the skin of the megastar in an advertisement – a rather literal example of "whitening" in the US. optics to satisfy the tastes of the general public. And in April, after Beyoncé's performance of Beyoncé Coachella, her mother, Tina Knowles-Lawson, wrote on Instagram that she initially "was afraid that the mostly white audience at Coachella would be confused by all black culture and the black college. culture because it was something that they might not have. "
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