Demi Lovato says haircut enabled her to break free of southern Christian ‘gender, sexuality norms’
Pop star Demi Lovato, who just last year said she was attending church again and then came out as a pansexual, has revealed that her short haircut is her way of breaking free of the “gender and sexuality norms” imposed on her by southern Christian culture.
Lovato shared her thoughts about hair and Christian culture in the South while on the “The Drew Barrymore Show."
She explained that she chose to cut her hair really short after she grew weary of trying to be the stereotypical “sexy feminine pop star” and the models she said were placed on her “as a Christian in the South.”
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“And when I cut my hair,” Lovato explained, “I felt so liberated because I wasn’t subscribing to an ideal or a belief placed upon me to be something that I’m not.”
The interview promoted Lovato’s new YouTube series and latest record, both titled “Dancing with the Devil.”
The expression is her description of her journey with and recovery from drug addiction.
“I was dancing with the devil, out of control / almost made it to heaven / it was closer than you know / playing with the enemy, gambling with my soul / it’s so hard to say ‘no’ / when you’re dancing with the devil,” the former Disney star sings in the chorus of the song. “Praying for better days to come and wash this pain away / Could you please forgive me? / Lord, I’m sorry for dancing with the devil.”
In the interview with Barrymore, Lovato revealed she was the “happiest” she has ever been.
“If you don’t like it, fine,” she maintained. “But if this provokes a conversation and raises awareness, takes away the stigma about the topics I’m talking about, then that’s what I want, is to just open people’s perspectives and to change the conversation around recovery, too.”
In early 2020, Lovato announced that she was attending church and growing her relationship with God since she nearly died from an overdose in July 2018.
The 28-year-old was also baptized in 2019 in the Jordan River and celebrated her experience on Instagram.
“There is something absolutely magical about Israel. I’ve never felt such a sense of spirituality or connection to God … something I’ve been missing for a few years now,” Lovato wrote. “To be baptized in the Jordan river — the same place Jesus was baptized — I’ve never felt more renewed in my life.”
In a recent appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast, she came out as a “pansexual” who is attracted to “anything, really." She said she hid this identity for many years because of her Christian upbringing.
“I felt a lot of shame because growing up in Texas as a Christian, that’s very frowned upon,” she said, referring to her sexual attraction to women. “Any attraction that I ever had toward a female at a young age, I shut it down before I even let myself process what I was feeling.”
Lovato, who broke off an engagement in 2020, told Rogan that she is now “too gay to marry a man” and is unsure “if that will change.”
