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The Larries are a group of shipping conspiracy theorist fans, centered around the idea that two members of the boy band One Direction, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson, have some sort of secret romantic relationship. A fundamental part of this idea is that the two, name blended as "Larry Stylinson" ("Larry" for short), have been closeted by homophobic corporate interests. Vox wrote in 2016 that this "ship" is "one of the largest elements of the One Direction fandom, which itself is one of the largest fandoms on the internet" and that "it often dwarfs other branches of the One Direction community." General One Direction fans are called "Directioners".

One Direction formed in 2010 and the self-called Larries formed soon after, inspired by the pair's close and public friendship. Creating desired couples is a basic element of real person slash fiction, but many Larries believe "Larry" is real.

Academics Clare Southerton and Hannah McCann connects the fan-group to phenomena like queer reading and queerbaiting. While noting the conspiracy theory and "hysterical fangirl" aspects of the Larries, they say that "While accusations of fake news focus on a concern for the real, what we are proposing here is that the real may be beside the point. In this way, whether fans really believe that Larry is real or pretend for pleasure is moot: what is at stake is how Larry fan practices work in queer ways."

The fandom exists on social media like Instagram, Tumblr, Twitter and TikTok. Larries have bullied and harassed Styles' and Tomlinson's girlfriends and, according to Tomlinson, hurt his and Styles' friendship. The harassment extended to include the mother of Tomlinson's child, the family of one of his girlfriends, as well as an unrelated family with the same surname. Author Kaitlyn Tiffany states that "... would often kind of accuse other fans of being homophobic if they didn’t support Larry Stylinson. ... Anti-Larries would often dwell on Larries and try to pick apart their logic and shout them down in a way that was maybe unnecessary. It became a huge distraction."

Further reading

• Tiffany, Kaitlyn (2022). Everything I need I get from you: how fangirls created the Internet as we know it. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 978-0-374-53918-4. OCLC 1264273710.

See also

• Stan Twitter, Twitter-based celebrity fan-community

References

1. ^ McCann, Hannah; Southerton, Clare (1 March 2019). "Repetitions of Desire: Queering the One Direction Fangirl". Girlhood Studies. 12 (1): 49–65. doi:10.3167/ghs.2019.120106.
2. ^ Romano, Aja (2016-04-18). "Larry Stylinson, the One Direction conspiracy theory that rules the internet, explained". Vox. Retrieved 2022-06-11.
3. Tiffany, Kaitlyn (8 April 2016). "Who decided that Louis Tomlinson's baby is fake, why, and is he?". The Verge. Retrieved 18 June 2022.
4. ^ Southerton, Clare; McCann, Hannah (2019). "Queerbaiting and Real Person Slash: The Case of Larry Stylinson". In Brennan, Joseph (ed.). Queerbaiting and fandom: teasing fans through homoerotic possibilities. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press. pp. 161–163. ISBN 9781609386726.
5. Lucas, Jessica (2022-05-10). "Meet the TikTokers obsessed with Harry Styles' 'secret' love life". Input. Retrieved 2022-06-11.
6. ^ Bryant, Kenzi (15 June 2022). "Love the Internet? Hate It? Thank a Fan". Vanity Fair. Retrieved 18 June 2022.
7. Baker-Whitelaw, Gavia (13 May 2013). "One Direction fandom adds billionaire record exec to conspiracy theory". The Daily Dot. Retrieved 18 June 2022.

• Celebrity fandom
• One Direction
• Harry Styles
• LGBT culture
• 2010s in Internet culture