Christine and the Queens singer Chris has criticised Taylor Swift for appropriating queer culture to sell records.
The gender non-conforming French musician, real name Heloise Letissier, now goes by Chris to reflect her fluid identity.
However, she says she's "conflicted" about mainstream stars making their own statements about gay culture, singling out Swift's You Need to Calm Down video, which featured a host of LGBTQ stars, as an example of gay issues being commercialised by a straight artist.
"I guess somewhere, young gay men might watch that Taylor Swift video and feel a sense of relief," the 31-year-old tells Cosmopolitan magazine. "Five years on (since she entered the industry) and you can tell that being queer has been glossed out as this super-fancy accessory.
"You can tell that the queer aesthetic is being used to sell things. The mainstream needs that life because it's so vibrant. But I think the core of the queer aesthetic cannot be sold."
Chris went on to deny that her own focus on LGBQT issues is a commercial decision, saying she had been singing about the subject since she was an unknown.
"When I changed my name from Christine to Chris on the second album, some people said, 'That's a cool marketing thing you did,'" she explained. "It was so painful. I've been singing iT (an early song about wanting to be male to have an easier life) for the past five years.
"It's never been marketing for me. It's about jumping into the unknown and saying things loudly."
