In a stunning rebuke to a GLAAD report attesting that social media platforms fail the LGBTQ+ community, celesbian drama TikTok has giving back to its people for a solid 24 hours, this time in the form of niche gossip regarding a new single forthcoming from queer musician Fletcher in which she name-drops her ex Shannon Beveridge’s now-girlfriend, Becky.

Circa last Tuesday, I didn’t know much about any of this, but TikTok was determined to ensure I knew as much as possible about this, and eventually I realized that I had no choice but to do the right thing and educate myself to fill in my knowledge gaps and then share that knowledge with you. Let’s begin!

Who is Shannon Beveridge?

Shannon Beveridge is a 30-year-old actress / photographer / YouTuber with ageless skin. Shannon and her ex-girlfriend Cammie were huge during the Lesbian YouTuber Couples Era, a time period in which funny, relatable and photogenic lesbian couples were developing enormous YouTube followings for letting fans into their courtships and lives. Then, in the mid-2010s, these couples began breaking up at alarming rates, blowing apart the community perception that they’d been as thriving and happy as their edits suggested. Shannon and Cammie were amongst those breakups, although they remained friends. A few of the couples who emerged during this Lesbian YouTuber Couple Era, like Rose and Rosie, outlasted the Breakup Season and continue to grow their following on multiple platforms.

Cammie started her own YouTube channel, still running to this day, and Shannon continued posting on nowthisisliving. She was keeping her dating life private, including apparently that she and Fletcher began dating around, I guess, 2017? A 2020 Teen Vogue piece about Shannon and Fletcher notes that, “though the duo are each famous in their own right and have built their careers on being open with fans about their identities as queer people and creators, they never confirmed or denied their status to fans while their relationship was still intact.”

Who is Fletcher?

MANCHESTER, TENNESSEE – JUNE 19: Fletcher performs at the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival on June 18, 2022 in Manchester, Tennessee. (Photo by Josh Brasted/WireImage)

Cari Fletcher, who goes by “Fletcher” is a 28-year-old queer pop musician you’ve probably heard of! She got her start when she competed on the first-ever season of The X Factor in 2011. Her single “War Paint” was the most viral song on Spotify upon its release in 2015. She released her debut EP Finding Fletcher in September 2016, was signed to Capital Records in August 2018, and broke out into the big time in 2019 with “Undrunk,” which became the fastest-rising song on pop radio for a new artist since 2014. It appeared on the You Ruined New York For Me EP. Her follow-up album, The S[ex] Tapes, dropped in September 2020, and last December she released “Cherry” with Hayley Kiyoko, which also had a gay music video everybody enjoyed quite a bit.

Fletcher and Shannon Beveridge’s Relationship

Apparently Fletcher and Shannon’s breakup coincided with the pandemic, and Shannon ended up quarantining with Fletcher and her family, collaborating on music videos for “The [S]ex Tapes,” which was entirely about their breakup. They told Teen Vogue that “the two talked a lot about the feelings and experiences that inspired The S(ex) Tapes” and about how to make something beautiful out of the pain of their separation.

According to a 2020 feature in Lady Gunn, “Throughout the past year and a half, FLETCHER has been moving through the process of finding herself at the end of a four year relationship, getting to know who she is now, and working on her art throughout it all.”

What Is “Becky’s So Hot” About?

Yesterday, Fletcher posted a clip from a new song on TikTok, imploring her fans to “pre-save if you want to hear the full song next week and pre-order girl of my dreams if you want this shirt.” The song seems to be about how Fletcher thinks Shannon’s new girlfriend, Becky, is hot. To be fair, Becky is hot. The lyrics to “Becky’s So Hot” include:

Are you in love like we were?
If I were you, I’d probably keep her
Makes me wanna hit her when I see her
‘Cause Becky’s so hot in your vintage t-shirt

Apparently, “I kinda wanna hit her” is meant to mean “hit on her,” not like, physically hit her.

Comments on the video include reactions like “FLETCHER IS SO UNHINGED FOR THIS OMG” and “this is a perfect example of how healing is not linear.”

According to my #1 source for Younger Millennial / Gen Z celesbian gossip, @kaelee on TikTok, following this release, Shannon unfollowed Fletcher on instagram and twitter and “deleted what pictures she had left of Fletcher on her feed.”

“If I was Becky, I would be floored with the fact that somebody’s put so much time and energy into thinking about how great I am,” noted Kaelee, “I would post multiple videos using that sound, all with pictures of Shannon looking really good with the caption you wish bitch.”

People Are Responding to Fletcher’s New Single “Becky’s So Hot”

All relevant social media platforms lit up like a Christmas tree in response to this release.

Fletcher calling out her ex’s new girlfriend by name AND hitting on her in the same moment is just simultaneously the most unhinged villain era moment and the most stereotypically lesbian thing i’ve ever seen and i’m BEYOND here for it x https://t.co/lBho1rObi4

— Verity (@verity_w) July 12, 2022

This is where Fletcher learned how to be like this 😭 pic.twitter.com/VpxtECSbYl

— 🔻 fer (@wildestmelties) July 12, 2022

Last week, Shannon had simply this to say (it’s a reference to Fletcher being called “the empath” in V Magazine”)

an empath would never

— Shannon Beveridge (@nowthisisliving) July 12, 2022

And then, on Sunday July 17th, Shannon posted a Tiktok in which she said:

“There’s a lot that I want to say and I want to find a way to do it but I just think there’s some confusion that I would like to clear up personally right now. Number one being that his is not PR that I’m a part of. This is not a collaboration. Number two, no one asked permission. I just wanted people to hear that from me because there does seem to be confusion around if that’s the case, and it’s not.”

What Does It Mean For Us All?

One way to characterize the lesbian internet’s reaction to this event is to acknowledge that we are all mentally unwell at this time and voraciously seeking a distraction, but honestly, I suspect we’d be enraptured by this absolutely unhinged moment of gay relationship drama at any time in human history. In conclusion, did you see this really fantastic gallery of queer women and/or trans people in suits that I made last week? It’s really good.

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