In 2019, Sam Smith, the master of writing sad love songs, told Jameela Jamil the only thing that truly upsets them is their weight.

"[It's] literally the only thing I've ever been truly sad about," the singer said on Jamil's I Weigh video show.

"I get very, very dark and very sad."

Smith, who's non-binary and uses the pronouns they/them, is entering a new era.

Releasing their fourth album,Gloria, last Friday, the British singer has moved on from wearing dark suits and singing about heartache to embracing themselves and all facets of that.

Take their most recent music video for instance.

On the same day their album dropped, Smith released the video for their disco hook-up anthem, 'I'm Not Here to Make Friends'.

In it, the 30-year-old performer wears various outfits, including mountains of pink tulle, patent stilettos, feathers and a corset with nipple tassels.

The outfits are pretty tame - musicians have worn less in music videos for decades - but people can't handle Smith being the one wearing them and embracing their femininity.

Commentators are calling the video "pornographic", asking for it to have an age restriction in order to watch it and going as far as labelling Smith a "groomer", all while commenting on the way they look in the clothes and misgendering them.

Because these days, it's perfectly fine to be a straight or skinny pop star (bonus points if both), queer or curvy.

But you can't be both.

Sex has always been a running theme in modern pop music, and music videos often flaunt it. But Sam Smith has made the criminal offence of being a) queer and b) not skinny, and in an increasingly anti-LGBTQ culture, that can’t be tolerated.

— Owen Jones (@OwenJones84)

I was going to ask “what has sam smith done to deserve this amount of hate directed at them” but it’s quite literally that they’re queer and fat isn’t it. that’s what it comes down to

— das 🌿 (@das_penman)

The backlash against Sam Smith is absolutely about people not wanting people to be overtly sexual unless they’re skinny

— marcus 🇧🇧🏳️‍🌈 (@marcusjdl)

In 2019, Smith came out as non-binary. The same year, they shared a shirtless photo and wrote about their self-love journey.

"In the past if I have ever done a photo shoot with so much as a t-shirt on, I have starved myself for weeks in advance and then picked and prodded at every picture and then normally taken the picture down," they wrote.

"Yesterday I decided to fight the f**k back. Reclaim my body and stop trying to change this chest and these hips and these curves that my mum and dad made and love so unconditionally.

"Some may take this as narcissistic and showing off but if you knew how much courage it took to do this and the body trauma I have experienced as a kid you wouldn’t think those things."