Harry Styles + banging tune + 80s vibes + consent. It’s the music video that’s got me drooling everyone really applauding the former One Direction boy, and man oh man did the Watermelon Sugar video really deliver.
Drenched in sun-kissed visuals, your favourite sexuality-embracing lad oozes confidence as he swings between chomping down on watermelon and having general good times with the gang.
The Watermelon Sugar music vid almost definitely confirms that the sultry track is indeed a classy description of going downtown, but it was those female models in the video who really confirmed what a gentleman Harry was on set.
In a video dedicated to “touching” (and a not-so-subtle nod to the COVID world we live in), one of the women in the video mentioned how Styles asked them for consent each time they filmed.
During an Instagram live from one of the models, Ephrata, she explains how Styles earned the “consent king” title.
💬| “The people were telling him to touch my hair & play with it & he was like ‘wait pause can i touch your hair’ & I was like yeah that’s really nice of you. Then everyone was like ‘consent king, consent king!’”
-Ephrata, one of the girls in the #WatermelonSugar MV about Harry pic.twitter.com/nncTBJd7kH
— Louis & Harry Updates (@LTHSUpdates) May 18, 2020
when the director told the girls to kiss harry or for him to touch them he would ask for consent from them every time 🥺 CONSENT KING #WatermelonSugar pic.twitter.com/5G0ERrty4t
— shelly★ kinda ia (@ntltcIit) May 18, 2020
Between his constant wearing of nail polish, the way he shutdowns misogynistic men like Kyle Sandilands, or wearing a combo of fishnets and Gucci lipstick – Harry’s been an ace for sexuality. And embracing who you are.
So it doesn’t necessarily come as a shock that he was careful before touching the models during the shoot. But it didn’t stop Twitter from going into absolute meltdown as a result.
the models from the Watermelon Sugar mv called Harry Styles “consent king,” because he asked every time if it was okay to touch them and THAT my friend is how it’s fucking done.
— Rachel 🦋 (@rachel_lee2) May 18, 2020
the fact that the description of #WatermelonSugar says its “dedicated to touching” and the crew is talking about how harry constantly made sure everyone was okay with touching, even with their hair.. this is a strong message guys. such a strong message about consent and touching.
— mia 🍉 (@onlythhebrave) May 18, 2020
the models in the #WatermelonSugar music video said that harry asked for consent before touching them everytime and i just appreciate him yuknow? #WatermelonSugarHigh #HarryStyles
— liz. (@LizLou72) May 18, 2020
Omg I’m crying, one of the awesome models said that Harry always asked for consent before doing anything. #consentking #WatermelonSugar
— ĖŁ🍉 (@erodaswalls28) May 18, 2020
CONSENT QUEEN. CONSENT KING. UGHVWJSDX
— WATERMELON SUGAR VIDEO LOCKDOWN FR (@harrysvIog) May 19, 2020
Please the models called him “consent king” bc he kept asking them if they were comfortable and likewise he called them “consent queen” I’m gon shed some tears he is so kind and nice why don’t we have more men like him brb #WatermelonSugar pic.twitter.com/vKtw9nhd9D
— ~𝑺𝒌𝒊𝒆𝒔~🍉 (@btdaddyilovehim) May 18, 2020
And honestly, same.
You can say what you want – that he’s a celeb, likely has a PR team, manager and the rest. But the film crew were telling him what to do to make the video more engaging, and the fact he still went about asking for consent – even just to touch one of the model’s hair – says a lot.
Although the song is probably oral-sex related, between this music video, his general interviews recently, and now these comments on consent – Harry feels like someone who embraces femininity in all facets.