“Wildly Invasive”: Troye Sivan Slams Interviewer For Asking If He Was A Top Or Bottom

Troye Sivan has called out the “wildly invasive, strange and inappropriate” questions he was asked by New Zealand’s Gay Nation, which included checking whether he’s a top or bottom.

The print interview was posted online by one of Sivan’s fans. Serving as promotion for Sivan’s upcoming NZ and Australian Bloom tour, the interview is pretty light; it begins with banter about the journalist’s accent, but soon moves onto ickier territory.

Before we end on the quick-fire ‘top or bottom’ question, they chat about Sivan’s crush on Shaun Mendes, and it’s clear that it’s a ruse to ask if things “got too steamy” when they first met. It’s an odd line of questioning, given the outstanding rumours about Mendes’ sexuality despite the singer’s many clarifications he’s straight. It lands like a nudge-nudge joke about something that Mendes says has made him deeply uncomfortable.

He also asks Sivan a line of questions that a well-meaning aunt would, such as whether he watches Will & Grace, and if his dog Nash is a ‘gayby’.

You sure you don’t wanna just ask if i have a gayby or if i like Will and Grace like the other guy??? https://t.co/Gi8JNCuJoK

— troye (@troyesivan) August 28, 2019

The rapid-fire questions are a little naff too, and show a general lack-of-research. He asks about whether Sivan ‘likes’ Trump (“absolutely not!”) and which friend he prefers out of Ariana Grande and Taylor Swift (“That I can’t answer. I’ll have to pass. It’s the impossible question!”).

Sivan’s a good sport, and opts to “definitely pass” on the top or bottom question; last year, he did his best through an equally cringe-worthy interview on The Project, but it’s much more disappointing that this has come from a queer publication.

Not only is such a rigid sexual binary pretty off for a queer magazine, but it also ignores that Sivan’s song ‘Bloom’ — you know, the one the album and tour’s named after — is a ‘bop about bottoming’. A lot has been written about how the song turns the traditional animalistic depiction of gay sex into something tender; reducing it back down to the binary is antithetical, as if the positions matter more to the listenership than the emotions behind them.

In a Tweet, Sivan said he almost wasn’t as composed in response. “I thought about asking the interviewer about his absolute fave sex position after that last question, but then I remembered how wildly invasive, strange and inappropriate that would be,” he wrote. “Didn’t stop him though!”

I thought about asking the interviewer about his absolute fave sex position after that last question, but then i remembered how wildly invasive, strange and innapropriate that would be. Didn’t stop him though! https://t.co/mo80DziQrH

— troye (@troyesivan) August 28, 2019

“Next time I’ll just do a Twitter Q&A,” he added.

Sivan’s Bloom tour hits Australia and New Zealand this September, with stops in Auckland, Perth, Adelaide, Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne.