Larry Stylinson

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Pairing
Pairing: Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson
Alternative name(s): Larry, Lourry, Houis, HL, Hario & Louigi, Oops/Hi[1][2], Larents[3]
Gender category: m/m
Fandom: One Direction
Canonical?: No
Prevalence: popular
Archives:
Other:
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This page is dedicated to shipping practices, popularity, tropes and fanworks about the pairing. For information about theories and debates regarding the reality of the pairing, see: Larry is Real.

Larry Stylinson, a portmanteau of Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson, is the pairing name for the most popular ship in One Direction fandom. This ship is notorious even outside of 1D fandom for the large number of Larry shippers who believe that Harry and Louis are secret boyfriends in real life. However, the portmanteau itself is notorious for confusing non-1D fans into thinking that "Larry Stylinson" is one of the members of the band.

Fandom

Ship Appeal

Harry/Louis has been the most popular ship in 1D fanworks on the Archive of Our Own. Of note, a July 2014 analysis showed that it was the fourth most popular ship on the archive overall.[1]
My first real crush was Louis Tomlinson. It's mutual, we've discussed it. Popular gif of a popular video clip

Like the other slash pairings within the band, the canon basis for Larry is the camaraderie and physical affection that Harry and Louis displayed in public, often captured in photos and videos. Given that Harry is the fan favorite, it was inevitable that the most popular pairing would involve him.

Since November 2010 Harry and Louis were also aware that fans were shipping them together[2][3] and may have played up their friendship in the early years. (See Fanservice.) Harry said things like "My first real crush was Louis Tomlinson".[4] At a fan event Harry appeared to nod and smile when a fan asked him if he and Louis were dating.[5] Harry and Louis also lived together at some point in 2011-2012 and would tweet to and about each other; see for example Louis' Always In My Heart tweet. (According to bulletprooflarry, they lived together from July 2011 until at least September 2012.[6])

1D fans have commented that at that time they appeared to be the closest and most affectionate of the band members:

Harry and Louis were the only ones to move in together after forming the band, and they tweeted about being domestic together and cuddling up in bed watching TV or whatever, and their moms and other people talked about how inseparable they were. Of the possible pairs they seemed especially snuggly and close. Also, there's no graceful way to say this, but, well, I think Louis pings quite a few people as gay (or he fits some of the stereotypes). Harry struck a lot of people as potentially gay or bi because he seemed to go out of his way to use gender-neutral pronouns when the group got asked the typical boy band questions, like "What do you look for in a girl?" and he comes across as pretty laid-back about sexuality in general.[7]

For larries, who believe that Harry and Louis really are dating, the appeal of the ship is that it's a canon "forbidden gay romance in a multi-million dollar pop band".[8] In addition to the canon material--photos, videos, tweets, etc.--larries' own theories have become part of their Larry canon and thus part of its appeal. For example, they find the theorized "couple tattoos" to be cute and shippy. See Larry_Is_Real/Theories#Tattoos for more details.

Separation of H/L

However, at some point in late 2012, fans noticed that slashy canon moments between the two had decreased compared to the others. By the time of Bullshit 1.0 in September, fans were already saying they missed Harry and Louis's friendship.[9]

A conversation in December on the one_direction livejournal community:

is it true that they can't act like this any longer because the fans took it so seriously and became psychotic (for lack of a better word) over it? Because if that's true and that puts an odd pressure on their friendship now, I feel so bad for them :(

We can't know for sure, but I do think it's likely that either they're not allowed to act so touchy feely with one another now or they feel awkward doing so.[10]

Many fans speculated that management was to blame; other fans argued that this was the fault of fans who made too big a deal of their friendship. In an interview with the Sun in 2017, Louis explained that the shipping "took away the vibe [...] I think on both fences, a little bit more unapproachable."[11] (See Larry is real.) In fact, Harry and Louis were very rarely seen to touch each other (or even stand next to each other) until 2015 when fans started reporting excitedly that they seemed to have relaxed slightly.[12] But the disappearance of canon support never affected the popularity of the ship; Larry remains the most popular ship in the fandom, slash or otherwise.

"Larry is real"

Main article: Larry Is Real

Some Larry shippers, later known as Larries, believe that "Larry is real". Larries have developed the theory that One Direction's management company (Modest! Management) has pressured them to remain closeted because gay bandmembers would bring down the monetary value of a boyband in a homophobic industry. In the early years, when Louis' dating life wasn't newsworthy and fans may not have known who his girlfriends were, thinking they were in a relationship did not contradict what little fandom knew about them. But as more counter-evidence appeared, the secret-boyfriends theory became increasingly elaborate. The similarities between the relationship narrative constructed by these fans and the story promulgated by the Domlijah tinhats in Lotrips fandom in the early 2000s have led to these Larry shippers being called tinhats by other fans.[13]

Tropes in Fanworks

  • Roommates AU - Harry and Louis were roommates in 2011-2012, so many fics focus on them as roommates or living together.
  • Punk/Flower Child - Punk!Louis was a popular trope to go alongside Flower Crown!Harry in 2013 and 2014.
  • Soulmate AU - Fans sometimes write their tattoos, some of which appear complementary, as soulmate marks.
  • Soccer AU - Louis is an avid soccer player and some of the most popular Harry/Louis fics are soccer AUs.
  • X-Factor Era - Many fics take place during the first year of One Direction, focusing on Harry/Louis developing feelings for each other while on The X Factor.
  • Fake Dating - Escapade, one of the most popular 1D fics, inspired many fake-dating AUs.
  • A/B/O - Where either Harry or Louis is an Alpha or Omega. Not many seem to be written where one is a Beta though.

Media Depictions

An Argentina Coca-Cola commercial released in April 2015 depicted two actors who bore resemblance to (and was later confirmed to represent)Harry and Louis. It played over Clouds, a One Direction song that was considered by some fans to be related to Larry.

One fan tweeted:[14]

NOT TO LOOK A GIFT HORSE IN THE MOUTH BUT WHAT PROMPTED COKE TO MAKE SUCH A BEAUTIFUL LARRY HIGH SCHOOL AU COMMERCIAL @ZIAMIN18

Pepsi later released a commercial seemingly in response[15]:

I was just watching this commercial with two ladies, one was standing in front of a Pepsi vending machine and her friend was in front of a Coke vending machine. The announcer was talking about how you can win tickets to concerts of your choice, but only with Pepsi. The girl with the Pepsi bottle was happy, but her friend had a Coke bottle so she said at least it has your name on it. Coke girl replied “do I look like a Larry to you”. I laughed so hard there were tears in my eyes.

In 2019, the series Euphoria revealed that one of its characters was a Larry fanfiction writer, then proceeded show an animated scene from the fanfiction where Harry Styles gives Louis Tomlinson a blowjob backstage, giving rise to widespread backlash from fans. See One Direction Fanfiction Controversy.

Example Fanworks

Cover of the fanzine It's Okay; art by kotihiiri (2012)
digital art by Karukara (2014)

Fanart

Fanfic

Most Kudos'd Fanfic

The 10 fics under Louis Tomlinson/Harry Styles with the most Kudos on Archive of Our Own as of 3/5/2021 are:

Fanvids

Podfics

Fandom Resources

References

  1. ^ See this 14 July 2014 Tumblr post (archived) by centrumlumina. In August 2013, Larry was ranked seventh. See Stage 3: Making A List posted by centrumlumina to Tumblr 17 August 2013.
  2. ^ On the phone to my sister @GemmaAnneStyles :) she's telling me about 'Larry Stylinson' hahah!!, Archived version, tweet by Harry Styles, 22 November 2010.
  3. ^ Harry: The fans call me and Louis "Larry Stylinson", video uploaded to youtube by Larry Stylinson Moments, 4 April 2014. As of 5 December 2021, this video has 68,566 views. Original video date 2012?
  4. ^ Harry: "My first real crush was Louis Tomlinson", Archived version, video uploaded to youtube by Larry Stylinson Moments, 21 October 2013. As of 5 December 2021, the video has 1,907,925 views. The original footage may have been from 2011.
  5. ^ "Are you and Louis dating ?", video uploaded to youtube by Larry Stylinson Moments, 5 January 2014. As of 5 December 2021, this video has 68,244 views. Original video from 2012?
  6. ^ TIMELINE: Houses (2011-2015), Archived version, tumblr post by bulletprooflarry, 17 May 2018. As of 5 December 2021, this tumblr post has 1792 notes.
  7. ^ anonymous comment in Fail Fandomanon, 2013-08-07 10:24 pm (local). (Accessed 11 June 2014)
  8. ^ "i get sad when people say they stopped shipping Larry because it became too much of a 'conspiracy' for them. Like, it’s a forbidden gay romance in a multi-million dollar pop band, the fuck did you think you were getting into?". untitled tumblr post by becomingkait, Archived version, 15 October 2015.
  9. ^ anonymous comment, onedanon, 16 September 2012.
  10. ^ comments by kanyebest and fancydressmasks, Archived version, 27-30 December 2012. Accessed 13 February 2022.
  11. ^ The Sun. "It took away the vibe you get off anyone. It made everything, I think on both fences, a little bit more unapproachable" 21 Jul 2017 article.
  12. ^ 1Dreport. "It's a big deal when Harry and Louis interact as they haven't really since 2012, it's not even about larry, it's about their friendship" 14 May 2015 tweet.
  13. ^ For example, Aja, who wrote One Direction Fans have trouble separating their 'Larry Stylinson' fantasy from reality, The Daily Dot, posted August 22, 2012. See also Tumblr fan im-on-fire-now's post Pay attention, archived, posted June 14, 2013.
  14. ^ "NOT TO LOOK A GIFT HORSE IN THE MOUTH BUT", Archived version, tweet by CourtBeTweeting, Apr 9, 2015. Accessed 2 Sep 2019.
  15. ^ "Coke did a thing... Again", Archived version, tumblr post by unintentionalarry, reblogged by larrydagger, June 15, 2015. As of 22 December 2021, this tumblr post has 2017 notes.
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