Babygate

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Fan Theory
Fan Theory: Babygate
Synonyms: Baby Gate, BG. *** **, end it
Origin:
Fandom(s): One Direction
Dates: (July 2015 -)
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Babygate is a term used by One Direction fans to describe the events, fan theories and controversies relating to Louis Tomlinson and Briana Jungwirth having a son together.

People who believe Babygate is a conspiracy, usually because they believe Larry is Real, dispute one or several of the following aspects: that Louis is the boy's father, that Briana is the boy's mother, that Briana and Louis ever had sex, or that Briana was ever pregnant.

History

In July 2015, the news broke via an unnamed source in People Magazine that Louis Tomlinson was expecting a child with Briana Jungwirth, a relative unknown in the fandom.[1][2]

The lack of immediate official confirmation from the band or its entourage left a vacuum for fans to fill with theories.

On July 19, Simon Cowell confirmed the news to The Sun.[3]

On August 4, 2015, Louis officially confirmed the news during a Good Morning America live interview.

The child was born in January 2016.[4]

Fan Reaction

The article announcing the pregnancy was a cause of outrage among Larries who viewed it as a ploy by Management to disprove and/or cover up the Larry Is Real theory. Those fans came up with a multitude of theories to show that the baby was not Louis', for example the fact that the article came out before the end of the mother's first trimester, as if the two had chosen to announce the news themselves.[5]

Numerous pieces were written in mainstream media outlets about the outcry and ensuing conspiracy theories.[6][7]

Before the news was confirmed, some Larry tinhats declared their intention to unstan if the baby was real.[note 1] However, the nature of tinhatting means that all confirmations - Louis' own confirmation, Simon Cowell's confirmation, pictures of the pregnant mother etc. - can be dismissed as "not real enough" by a motivated-enough believer, allowing them to safely continue believing:

Anonymous asked: Are u gonna unstan if Simon "confirms"

No. I said I would unstan and let Louis have the privacy of his chosen closet if LOUIS HIMSELF stopped actively shading stunts and acting out against his closet indicating that he wanted it.

Tweeting lyrics from the Dirty Dancing soundtrack (a film depicting a pregnancy where everyone assumes one guy is the father when HE’S NOT) AND tossing a baby doll whilst saying “It’s not real” isn’t exactly him complying with his closet. In fact, I’d call that the exact opposite. [...]

diggingandfluff, July 18, 2015[8]

Once the baby was born, some Larries became determined to prove by any means necessary that Babygate was manufactured. One such fan posted a copy of the baby's birth certificate on her tumblr and described driving three hours to get it from the county clerk's office.[9]

Non-Larry fans were critical of these actions:

Imagine driving long distances in order to obtain this copy. Imagine posting it online and prefacing with “I am a pretty lowkey Larrie”. Imagine the reach and desperation that takes to do that. That isn’t lowkey. That is sad and frankly frightening. That’s called stalking. I’m not a parent so I can’t purport to understand, but I think if I did have a child and someone decided that it was okay to obtain my child’s records and post it online for the world to speculate over and laugh at and ridicule, I’d be pissed off and scared. There is absolutely no reason for anyone to seek this information out. People who do ought to be ashamed of themselves.[10]

Other Larries launched a smear campaign against Briana that included claiming she appeared in a sex tape and then tweeting one of Louis' younger sisters with screenshots of the porn in question.[11]

Larries didn’t just tweet Louis’s 15 year old sister about a porn tape they wished belonged to Briana, they even sent her screencaps of this tape. Sending minors sexual images is a sex crime. I’ve reported the specific tweets to twitter, but if anyone knows if there are other possible authorities this can be reported to, please share.[11]

Some Larries accepted the fact that Louis had a baby,[12] but plenty more came up with alternate theories as to how the baby and pregnancy could be a PR stunt.[13] Many tinhats say that until Louis takes a paternity test they refuse to believe Louis is the father.

As narryhadalittleliam put it:

Babygate is the last desperate attempt by Larries to hold onto over five years worth of conspiracy theories, because they have a driving need to keep the faith, lest they admit that they’ve spent over half a decade stalking, harassing, and abusing dozens of people in the name of something that turned out to never have been real in the first place. It would mean that they’re the villains, not Modest!, and they don’t want to face that fact.[14]

As of Oct 2021, a search for "Babygate" on Twitter yielded recent results from people who still believed that Louis' child wasn't his.[15]

larrystylinsonreceipts

larrystylinsonreceipts was a popular Larrie Tumblr blog run by Jennfur, stylesforstiles and others that was started in early 2016 to "debunk babygate" and prove that they "weren't crazy".[16] The blog shared various anonymous testimonials, some of which garnered thousands of notes and were still circulating on Tumblr years later.[17] In late February (February 22?[18]) larrystylinsonreceipts deactivated after making a goodbye post (with only 170 notes as of 2024) explaining that they had been harassed after being falsely accused of hacking Louis's friend Oli's Facebook account. According to larrystylinsonreceipts, someone else (a friend of theirs) had done it and sent them a collection of screenshots. larrystylinsonreceipts did not want to reveal the name of the hacker due to the likelihood of their being harassed as well.

We were going to share the information, but everyone has been so unbelievably nasty and it’s 1. not ours and 2. it’s not “omg larry is real you guys” so we were debating what to do with it. Like I said, we naively thought we could help out but whatever, it’s not on us now.

Anyways, believe I’m a Louis hater. I don’t care. What I am now is a person who dislikes this toxic fandom.

Leave us alone. We’re all done with Larry and the fandom. You won. Go buy some real baby dolls or whatever to make your bullying okay.[16]

According to anti-larries, the screenshots larrystylinsonreceipts received proved that Louis was, in fact, a father, and that larrystylinsonreceipts discovering that Larry wasn't real after all was what caused them to be immediately ostracized from the fandom.[19][20]

In 2024, direct evidence of the backlash against larrystylinsonreceipts has become difficult to find, but a few critical tweets from other Larries can still be found. After the blog was deleted, someone else acquired the URL and used it to express their feelings about two of the former admins: The blog is now titled "Jen and Robyn can go fuck themselves" with subtitle "fake asses louis hater Jennfur and Stylesforstiles".[21] bulletprooflarry, a big larrie, posted a rant about how suspicious it was that "The only people who manage to 'hack' Louis confirm public narratives" and called out Jennfur as a Louis hater.[22] In addition to being accused of being Louis haters and Gryles supporters[23][24][25], larrystylinsonreceipts was accused of having become anti-larries or having been anti-larries in disguise all along[26][27]. Meanwhile, Tumblr anti-larries were annoyed that the larrystylinsonreceipts admins apparently did not stop believing that Larry was real, despite the evidence they uncovered.

For some anti-larries, the backlash against larrystylinsonreceipts was evidence of Larries being in a cult:

That's how you know larrie is a cult, because they turn on their own so quickly. The belief is the most important thing, not the real people behind the belief. If a larrie that has been here for years, stylesforstiles, can be called an anti and shunned from the fandom, when larries go after someone who's mother died just bc she stopped believing, what does it say about them.

Yes, Stylesforstiles and the other girl who I forget now but I followed both when I first became a Larrie as they were both Big Larries at the time.

It really does show it’s a cult because if you decide to stop being a Larrie at any time they can claim you were never really one to begin with, as though it’s something only the cult leaders can credit you with being. Like it’s some religious purist thing.[28]

Babygate Theories

For those who believe part or all of the story to be fake, there are many variations on the Babygate theory, such as:

  • The pregnancy was entirely faked as a PR stunt[29]
  • Briana was pregnant but someone other than Louis was the father[citation needed]
  • Briana is a gold-digger[citation needed] (a theory which calls to mind the frequent Character Bashing of women in fandom)
  • Louis and Harry had a child with Briana as a surrogate[citation needed]
  • Louis was the victim of a PR stunt to cover up his sexuality[citation needed]
  • Louis was the victim of a PR stunt to "raise his profile" as a precursor to the reveal of Larry being real, a theory that involved Management creating and spreading mpreg manips of Harry to seed the idea of Larry[30]
  • the baby in photos was a silicone Reborn doll.[31]
  • pictures of the baby with Louis were photoshopped.[32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40]
  • the baby was a child actor hired by Modest, the band's management company[citation needed]
  • Brianna's cousin Tammi was the real mother and Tammi's husband Brett the real father[citation needed]
  • the baby's birth certificate was a fake[citation needed]

Arguments

To support these various theories, arguments analysed the content of social media posts by the band, Briana and her family and various people who worked for the band,[41] the behaviour of the band on stage during concerts,[42][43] the costumes of Rainbow Bondage Bear, the length of Louis' hair in pictures,[44] and much more.

Many masterposts were compiled.[45][46]

Retrospectives

In 2022, twopoppies, a larrie, contrasted her current views on Babygate with what larries believed in 2015/2016. Twopoppies assumes that Babygate is a PR stunt and that Louis is not the father:

When it very first started, it seemed as though Harry (and Louis) had been on the verge of coming out. At the time, many people assumed the “scandal” would be short-lived and was to raise Louis’ profile in the press for when that happened. In retrospect, that was clearly wrong. Something along those lines might have been what Louis was told in order for him to agree to it, though. There was never meant to be any benefit to him, though. IMO, it was always meant as a punishment and as a method of breaking the fandom (and breaking Harry and Louis).[47]

Notes and References

Notes

  1. ^ For many in the fandom, the use of the phrase "tinhat" in references to Larries is considered objectionable. See Fandom and abelist language, Archived version and the counter-responses Tinhat is not abelist, Archived version and The only people saying it’s ableist are Larries, Archived version

References

  1. ^ Louis Tomlinson Is Going to Be a Dad! One Direction Star Expecting Baby with Briana Jungwirth, People Magazine, July 14, 2015
  2. ^ Who is Briana Jungwirth? 5 Things to Know About the Mother of Louis Tomlinson's Baby! Posted 14 Jul 2015. Accessed 11 Nov 2019.
  3. ^ The Sun Simon Cowell Interview, July 19, 2015
  4. ^ Louis Tomlinson confirms that he has become a dad, BBC.com, January 23, 2016
  5. ^ champagneboyband-blog tumblr post, July 14, 2015
  6. ^ Louis Tomlinson Is Going To Be A Dad And The Larry Shippers Are Freaking Out, posted on mtv.com on July 14, 2015.
  7. ^ Are Louis Tomlinson Baby Rumors Fake? 1D Fans On Twitter Are Pretty Certain That’s The Case, posted on bustle.com on July 14, 2015.
  8. ^ Response to Anonymous ask (archived), published by diggingandfluff on July 18, 2015, 788 notes as of Jan 14, 2016.
  9. ^ untitled tumblr post by blisseau, Archived version, 17 Feb 2016. 1948 notes as of 21 Feb 2016.
  10. ^ untitled tumblr post by savage-styles, Archived version, 18 Feb 2016.
  11. ^ a b untitled tumblr post by thelarrative, Archived version, 18 Feb 2016.
  12. ^ See post-birth anon asks from former Larries on exlarriesupportgroup and confessionsofexlarries.
  13. ^ BABYGATE MASTERPOST: IMPORTANT EVIDENCE YOU MAY HAVE MISSED…, Archived version by thetruthaboutonedirection on Tumblr, 10 April 2016. As of 6 July 2023, this tumblr post has 4,574 notes.
  14. ^ Omg what is this baby gate stuff I went off line for a bit and now everything is on fire, Archived version, anon ask answered by narryhadalittleliam, posted February 24, 2016.
  15. ^ Twitter Search for "Babygate". Accessed 11 Nov 2019.
  16. ^ a b This is goodbye, Archived version, posted by larrystylinsonreceipts in February 2016, reblogged by back-to-louis. As of 17 March 2024, this Tumblr post has 170 notes.
  17. ^ For example: anon ask submitted to larrystylinsonreceipts, reblogged by ificouldflymp3, Archived version, 25 January 2016. Reblogged by lighthouselou, 23 December 2023. As of 16 March 2024, this Tumblr post has 3270 notes.
  18. ^ anon ask answered by larryreceiptsproof, Archived version, 22 February 2016. As of 17 March 2024, this tumblr post has 11 notes.
  19. ^ tumblr thread reblogged by thelarrative, Archived version, 22 February 2016.
  20. ^ anon ask answered by thelarrative-blog, Archived version, 9 June 2017. As of 17 March 2024, this tumblr post has 12 notes.
  21. ^ larrystylinsonreceipts Tumblr, Archived version (Accessed 17 March 2024.)
  22. ^ Just wondering..., Archived version by bulletprooflarry, 23 February 2016. As of 17 March 2024, this tumblr post has 409 notes.
  23. ^ Wow, apparently larrystylinsonreceipts is Louis hater, ex larrie(?), & believes babygate? What's the point of whole time we got HL stuff? 😳😡, Archived version, tweet by LarryEvakAsFk, 22 February 2016.
  24. ^ THE FUCKKKKK THEY THINK HARRY AND NICK HAD A THING OMFG, THEY ARE NASTY AS FUCK, Archived version, tweet by louisismyson, 18 March 2016.
  25. ^ How are you going to run a Larry receipt account but have "receipts" on babygate plus you hate Louis, tweet by matchingtattlou, 22 February 2016.
  26. ^ they were just het harries/louis haters that made fun who found it funny to drive larries crazy with their stories, Archived version, 22 February 2016.
  27. ^ LA STYLESFORSTILES SE HA HECHO ANTI (STYLESFORSTILES HAS BECOME ANTI), Archived version, se notaba que odiaba a louis y difundía información falsa sobre él tampoco me esperaba menos de semejante personaje (It was obvious that he hated Louis and spread false information about him. I didn't expect anything less from such a character.), Archived version, tweets by tomlindrea (machine translated), 18 March 2016.
  28. ^ anon ask answered by thelarrative-blog, Archived version, 18 August 2016. As of 17 March 2024, this tumblr post has 41 notes.
  29. ^ Can you explain how you know the baby isn't real? I don't know who to believe, (deleted) Tumblr post by adifferentkindofson, posted April 15, 2016
  30. ^ a babygate theory, Archived version, posted to Tumblr by bethaboolou, 18 July 2015, with 4,506 notes as of Jan 14, 2016.
  31. ^ There’s A Wild Conspiracy Theory That Louis Tomlinson’s Baby Is Fake, Archived version by Ellie Woodward, Buzzfeed, 7 Apr 2016 accessed 2016-04-08
  32. ^ This is quite long, Archived version, tumblr post by lolthepicisfake, posted February 20, 2016
  33. ^ okay im sure weve all seen this photo by now, Archived version, tumblr post by mycitybythebay on louisshomesharry's blog, posted January 28, 2016
  34. ^ not to be a cult larrie tm but, Archived version, tumblr post by patrochilarry on alltheselights' blog, posted February 19, 2016
  35. ^ So… I did this on my phone just now, Archived version, tumblr post submitted by onmykneesforlarry to lhrry, posted January 28, 2016
  36. ^ hey idk if they already asked but what about the 28 tattoo on the fingers?, Archived version, tumblr post by yourssincerelylarry from alltheselights' blog, posted February 20, 2016
  37. ^ obviously i don’t want to be /that/ person but it’s clear to me this photo wasn’t edited (sarcastic), Archived version, tumblr post by yourssincerelylarry on alltheselights' blog, posted February 19, 2016
  38. ^ Ok so I was also having doubts that the photo was photoshopped, Archived version, tumblr post submitted by leaderlouis to larriesfc on louisshomesharry's blog, posted January 28, 2016
  39. ^ WAIT GUYS I NEED YOU TO LISTEN., Archived version, tumblr post by wubwubnparmaham on bulletprooflarry's blog, posted on February 19, 2016
  40. ^ part of the dagger is directly above the skull there’s no way it’s not visible from that angle i’m, tumblr post by whisperedlouis on alltheselights' blog, posted February 19, 2016
  41. ^ name a more iconic trio, Archived version Tumblr post by liloheart, 21 January 2017.
  42. ^ IT’S.NOT.REAL. (x3), Archived version, Tumblr post by loueii on sloumate's blog, posted July 18, 2015
  43. ^ i just wanted to ask you dont have to if youre, tumblr ask answered by birdcage-liner, reblogged by adifferentkindofson, Jan. 22 2016.
  44. ^ listen to me. here is a visual of what just happened., Archived version tumblr post by bananastagram, Jan 29, 2016. Reblogged by 1dstuntsarchive.
  45. ^ Babygate Analysis/Conclusions: A Non-Larry Perspective, Archived version by obviouslygenuinely, posted 23 January 2021. As of 6 July 2023, this tumblr post has 945 notes. Note that "non-larry perspective" means that they tried to avoid larry-related proofs as sources; obviouslygenuinely, as is clear to insiders from their username, is/was a larrie.
  46. ^ BABYGATE IN PICTURES by tellmethisisnotlove (date?)
  47. ^ anon ask answered by twopoppies, Archived version, posted 6 June 2022. As of 27 June 2022, this tumblr post has 24 notes.
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