On September 23, the never-ending JoJo Siwa discourse intensified upon her appearance on the Ladygunn Magazine cover. The 21-year-old’s outfit, designed by Phil Gomez, caught the public eye for reasons beyond its usual JoJo-esque glam factor. Siwa posed in a squatting position to show off her vibrant makeup (done by Danielle Davy) and her getup of a nude top with built-on nipples and abs and a bulge (both bedazzled, of course).
Earlier this year, Siwa got widely clowned on for comparing herself to Miley Cyrus. Siwa admired Cyrus for her iconic Bangerz rebrand and hoped to also shake her child star reputation with her new single, “Karma.” JoJo Siwa became an internet meme instantly for hyping up her “Karma” music video—with goofy makeup, awkward dance moves, and the censored lyric of “I should have never effed around”—to represent her pivot into more serious, edgy music.
The recent Ladygunn cover, however, did far more for JoJo’s rebrand than her efforts earlier this year. Siwa, who is openly lesbian and the self-claimed inventor of gay pop (another thing she got made fun of, although she later clarified what she meant), challenged gender expression conformities through her embodiment of generally considered “male” body features.
Drag is a mode of exaggerated gender performance usually associated with the LGBTQ+ community, and is often presented through cross-dressing. It has grown more public acceptance through media representation, such as RuPaul’s Drag Race, but there’s little mainstream representation of women dressing in drag as men. JoJo Siwa’s viral bulge (a phrase we never thought we’d type) certainly is a more serious way of rebranding—she’s unapologetically pushing the boundaries of gender expression in ways we rarely see.
However, the public’s reaction didn’t view it that way. Some people called her crazy and were weirded out by it:
Others saw it as a cringey attention grab:
the way her only way to remain relevant is by shock value and making ppl talk about her negatively
— eri˚❀*·ꕤ. (@eternalcumslime) September 23, 2024
However, some of the pushback had nothing to do with the outfit itself—it was about who was wearing it:
Because of JoJo Siwa’s image of being a cringey person on the internet, people were quick to laugh at her photoshoot and file it away with other memed-on moments. If another celebrity sported that same look, the reception would probably be more positive.
Our take? JoJo absolutely killed it. She made a statement—one that was unfortunately clouded by her reputation—and got people talking, which is an art she has mastered.
At the end of the day, JoJo Siwa is still pretty young, and especially after gaining her fame as a child star, figuring out her identity in the public eye is bound to be rocky. While some of her attempts at rebranding have admittedly been cringey, we have to understand that she is a real person trying to establish who she is with a million eyes watching. We should give her a little bit of grace and not write her off completely. It’s admirable that Siwa is willing to put herself out there and explore her gender expression and sexuality. That’s pretty damn ballsy—no pun intended.
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