#queer botany

Violets have symbolized sapphic love since the 7th century BCE. They continue to be a discreet symbol of queer affection, hence my enthusiasm for a story called 'The Violet Hour' starring our favorite sapphic duo here. More below the line:

x

for @mc5ftjillo, who inspired this post

so, as many may have noticed, our two favorite queers have been in the habit of showing off the flowers they really like. most significantly, we have louis putting flowers on his chest with his very own fashion line, 28 programme, and harry wearing a pair of coats in the late night talking mv where the boutonnières almost cover their entire fronts. this is - obviously - not random, but it really holds more significance than i even realised at first glance. 

from the expo at the V&A museum: fashioning masculinities

history of the boutonnière

boutonnière, or flowers in the lapel of a suit/coat jacket

origin: (probably, likely) the war on roses: two neighboring houses in the north of england, fighting for the throne - wearing a red (house of lancaster) or white (house of york) rose on their chest to show off which house they belonged to

prince albert supposedly started the modern trend of the lapel flower, after queen victoria offered him flowers on their first wedding anniversary, which he subsequently put on display in his jacket. since there were photos made of the event, which was a rarity back then, the gesture spread as a trend

from then on, and especially through the years, it was a sign of a dressed-up gent. formal, masculine, and a show of love - wiki: symbol of good breeding, elegance, and sophistication

green carnation, oscar wilde: 

oscar wilde, a famously queer writer, made a statement by wearing a green carnation in his lapel at the premiere of his play, Lady Windermere’s Fan, in 1892, urging his friends to do the same. it instantly became a symbol for solidarity among queer men, for men who loved other men

‘unnatural’ color for a flower:

“Blooming Haus speculates this may have been Oscar Wilde's way of poking fun at the authorities, using an unnatural green flower to mock the idea that, at the time, love between two men was seen as "unnatural.”

queerness of flowers, flowers symbolising queerness 

flowers have borrowed their names and meanings to the queer community, for all sorts of nicknames or secret codes. like the slang ‘pansy’ for a gay man, which is just a little flower, or how a violet is an ancient lesbian symbol. (or how “evening botanist” is an old school term for a gay man which i think is just the funniest thing ever)

rose

love, esp love between gay men in japan

key part of identity! f.e. Pokémon character James is often shown carrying a rose, which is an established symbol in anime to signify a character is gay

lily

in japan, a popular genre of manga is known as yuri, revolving around romantic relationships between women

depictions of female genitalia

“Both the Greeks and Romans held the Lily in very high regard, including it in dozens of their religious myths and breeding the plants extensively. Alchemists considered it a lunar plant with feminine qualities, while the Lily is in high demand in China for weddings because its name sounds like the start of a phrase wishing the couple a happy union for a century.”

AND THEN WE COMBINE WHAT WE HAVE LEARNED

louis came on stage at the afhf last summer with a custom-made jersey, designed by the man himself, which was pretty much covered in flowers. a flower on his right pec, a bouquet on his left.

source

NOW what’s super interesting here, is that louis is channelling the origins of the boutonnière with the abstract flower symbol he’s adopted as the 28 official programme logo!! it’s a yorkshire rose, the emblem of his home county. AND THEN on the OTHER SIDE he’s got ROSES, a whole bouquet of them, a universal symbol of romance, as well as that of a gay man. with the added fuck-me-up detail that the fabric of the jersey is green, the typical color of a certain someone we know, making the flowers green. just like the green coronation. ok. ok.

then we have harry, who has used lilies before, in the photo shoot for the fine line cover art and booklet, where it was used to symbolise rebirth and femininity. now, in the late night talking mv, he wore the lilies on his chest, first in the museum scene, which flows into the date scene, as well as at the end, where he officiates a wedding and then falls from the sky.

it’s completely meant to fit into the tradition of the boutonnière. harry is conveying the message: i am queer, and i am wearing it proudly on my chest. it’s not subtle, is it? it’s meant as a clear symbol for those who understand, just like oscar wilde and his friends wore the green carnation. it’s so beautiful that it’s the lily on his chest, causing the flower to be a theme in his art, of rebirth and femininity. 

when you look at when exactly harry is wearing the boutonnières in the mv, it’s just...?? in the museum, he’s the art exhibit. he’s wearing the lilies openly on his chest. then, he’s on a private date with a man. his napkin is even pushed to the side a little to show off the flowers in full. then, when he’s officiating a queer wedding, he’s wearing them, and then he seems to be shot from the sky by lightning, and he’s falling through the sky on his bed. WHAT DOES IT MEAN? harry’s gayness, or the way he’s shown it with messages, isn’t hidden. irl he walks around with a pride enamel pin. he’s being scrutinised, studied, and he’s still not hiding it. then he’s in private, celebrating love, and he shows it, loud and proud. it reminds me of how harry’s stated in the past that he has shown us who he is. that he’s said it in enough ways. he hides in plain sight, just like oscar wilde and his entourage. general society knew what the green flower meant, but it remained something unspoken. now, any casual observer could see that harry is at least not straight. and yet, still, you are deemed straight until stated otherwise. 

Hi love!

I talked a bit about it here because it was the first thing I noticed, of course, its just a queer reading but I found it quite interesting that he was wearing the big flowers in three scenes, the observed bed/ the date/ the wedding. so it made me think of Queer Botany and The aesthetic movement in Britain and how flowers were queer coded in what comes to art either writing (oscar wilde, virginia woolf..etc) or visualized like paintings (Van Gogh's sunflowers) and decoration. And besides Lavender and violets were and still representitive for lesbians and sapphic women, the Pansy Craze well for ''pansies'' and effeminate men, green carnation is famously worn by Oscar Wilde as a symbol of homosexuality and sunflower and the lily were also one of the most recognizable floral icons of the Aesthetic Movement and their significance has a queer connotation through this movement.

and recently the V&A Museum did an exhibition called Fashioning Masculinities: The Art of Menswear with Gucci as a partnership, and on the finale of the show they had the Gucci ball gown that was worn by Harry on the cover of Vogue to talk about  gender-blurring fashion X

they also have Harry as the background for the exhibition announcement on the website

he is was wearing one of the now exhibited suits

In the exhibition they also have a section called ''Queer Botany'' where they explain how flowers and botany, in general, was used to signal queer identities:

Oscar Wilde for example was famously known for wearing the green carnation during appearances ''the color green and the carnation flower were queered representations of the homosexual “underbelly” of the Aesthetic Movement'' X

and it makes you think of the big flowers or the lilies Harry was wearing in the music video with his date and on the wedding

not only the Green Carnation was a representation of the queer side of the aesthetic movement but also Lilies and sunflowers.

for example, these two teapots satirise, mocking with their big flowers (lily and sunflower) tucked in their buttonhole and their limp wrists the movement, these two teapots were actually a satire with a criticism underneath it towards the way the movement was defining gender and sexuality, under the teapots is written “Fearful consequences through the laws of Natural Selection and Evolution of Living up to one’s Teapot'' portraying ''fears circulating in the 1880s about the effects that effeminacy and the blurring of gender roles might have on the future British population'' X

the lily and sunflowers were sort of used to symbolize how queer people used them to reverse a heteronormative meanings of the flowers, and how they were used to gender bend what feminine and masculine means:

the sunflower and lily were typically ascribed to the male and female gender, deftly queers the sunflower motif as it also existed as an “emblem of aesthetic longing” related to both unconditional, yet unrequited love [...]

the sunflower and lily are symbols of aesthetic longing and purity, respectively (..) the sunflower speaks to unrequited love that “dares not speak its name” as Wilde is often quoted, or a love that could not find valid acceptance in nineteenth-century society. X

the lilies for example, through this aesthetic movement and the queerness that defined it, these flowers were queered enough to no longer mean traditional interpretations of purity but as a way to reevaluate the definition of purity and '' arguing for a perception of queer identity that isn’t considered “dirty”'' X

like the Lily, through this movement and the queerification of botany as aesthetic, ''the actions of queer couples could be and were viewed as natural and organic within this cultural subset. Natural, beautiful, and pure, the lily could thus be invoked as the apotheosis of the Aesthetic Movement, while simultaneously being a symbol and defense of homosexuality'' X