It appears that Halsey may be joining the ranks of musicians — which pretty much just boils down to Beyoncé — who opt out of doing press to promote their work. In now-deleted tweets (which were archived by PopCrave), Halsey wrote that she would not be doing press anymore after Allure Magazine failed to use their correct pronouns in its August cover story. Halsey also accused the magazine of taking their quotes out of context while promoting the feature.
“First your writer made a focal point in my cover story my pronouns and you guys deliberately disrespected them by not using them in the article,” Halsey wrote. (The pop performer announced last March that they would be using she/they pronouns going forward, then explaining that “the inclusion of ‘they,’ in addition to ‘she,’ feels most authentic to me.”)
Halsey reveals plans to stop doing press after being 'deliberately disrespected' in an interview released last week:
“First your writer made a focal point in my cover story my pronouns and you guys deliberately disrespected them by not using them in the article." pic.twitter.com/XvzUPwKibs
— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) July 22, 2021
Halsey, who is releasing their latest album, If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power, in August, continued, writing in a now-deleted Tweet: “Your admin bastardized a quote where I discuss the privilege of being the white child of a Black parent and intentionally used a portion that was the antithesis of the point I was trying to make.”
Upon further investigation, it appears that Allure shifted Halsey’s pronouns between July 14 and 15. A passage from a version of the page that was archived on July 14 (via the Internet Archive Wayback Machine) reads: “‘A lot of people try to write off a lot of my experiences because I present white,’ she says.” An archive from the 15th, meanwhile, features changes that remain in the current version of the post: “‘A lot of people try to write off a lot of my experiences because I present white,’ they say.”
Halsey also mentioned in the piece itself that they would not be doing press in the future, saying that they often end up feeling “exploited and misquoted” when the piece publishes. “I don’t do press anymore. I just don’t translate very well in print,” Halsey said. “Even saying this is going to get me in trouble. I already know that it is […] I think sometimes [with] women who are articulate, people read it as pretentious.”
If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power is out 8/27 via Capitol. Pre-order it here.
