In the column Straight Nonsense, columnist Moises Mendez II takes a queer eye to the insanity of straight culture.Earlier this week, Netflix announced that it is bringing back Star Search, the talent competition that launched the careers of artists like Beyonc, Christina Aguilera, and Britney Spears. Anthony Anderson is set to host the show, and I enjoyed the idea of a new competition show when, all of a sudden, I heard an agitating, grating voice that belonged to none other than Simon Cowell. He became known as the man who made a career out of taking credit from women of color for building two of the most successful music groups of the last 10 years: One Direction and Little Mix. See on Instagram "When you're putting a band together, it's like mining for diamonds," Cowell says in the video that Netflix shared to promote the new show. "As much as I love my job on TV, I miss where I started, signing artists and working with bands." He goes on to say that his goal is to "find a new boy band." The video, which Netflix uploaded across social media on Monday, was inundated with comments from people saying things like "Who did he create because he didn't create any of the biggest bands like 1D and Little Mix? He took credit from women." And there's video proof to show that this is true,In 2022, The X Factor UK's official YouTube page uploaded never-before-seen footage from the season in which One Direction competed. In it, we learn that former Pussycat Doll-turned-Tony Award-winning actress Nicole Scherzinger was the mastermind behind the creation of the wildly successful boy band. She saw the vision and executed the formation, where Cowell sat to the side and agreed with all of her decisions but took the credit, even after the group ended up in third place. - YouTube www.youtube.com He still signed them to his record label, SyCo Music, which has since been the subject of several controversial allegations. Many acts over the years have come forward saying that the relationship between them and the label hasn't always been positive. We saw it with One Direction, when the late Liam Payne stopped by Jessie Ware's podcast, he spoke about being overworked and coping with alcohol. "I needed to stop, definitely," he said at the time. "It would have killed me. One hundred percent."Little Mix is another SyCo signee formed by an X Factor judge who wasn't Cowell. The show's official YouTube page also shared a video of former Destiny's Child member Kelly Rowland putting the four girls together Cowell wasn't even in the room! After becoming the first group to win X Factor, their success was focused mainly in the UK, and they were never allowed to tour in the States, even after selling millions of records and having a dedicated fanbase overseas. - YouTube www.youtube.com After seven years working together, the group had a public falling-out with the record label in 2018 after a significant dispute over the band's lead single for their fifth studio album, LM5. But this disagreement seemed to be the tip of the iceberg for the group and proved to be a larger hurdle than intended, with one of the group's members, Jade Thirlwall, saying, "We did a little bit, but we had a switch of labels during the LM5 process, and that really fucked us over," she told POPline. The women then went on to hint at their negative relationship with the label and Cowell over the years. In 2020, when they released their last album as a group (for now), they had a song called "Not a Pop Song," where they sing, "I don't do what Simon says/Get the message 'cause it's read."But after Little Mix officially went on hiatus, Thirlwall released her debut solo single called "Angel of My Dreams," in which she sings, "Sellin' my soul to a psycho/They say I'm so lucky/Better act like you're lucky, honey." Her clever wordplay was an apparent reference to SyCo, and she told me during an interview we published earlier this year, in which we talked about her debut album, that she was nervous about putting the song out because she didn't want to come off as "ungrateful." - YouTube www.youtube.com These two acts aren't the only ones to speak out against Cowell and the record label. Steve Brookstein, the first-ever winner of X Factor, publicly denounced Cowell in a book, saying that the experience was "the stuff dreams were made of," but "it became the ultimate nightmare." Cher Lloyd, known for her hit "Want U Back," also left the label, hinting at mistreatment but not outright saying so. After leaving, she appeared on Larry King's talk show, where she spoke about Cowell, saying, "We all have a specific thing in life that we want to get to, and I don't deal very well with people having [control]." She continued, "I think he found me I wouldn't say disobedient but a little bit [difficult]."Apparently, a man who has caused turmoil in the careers of multiple acts is being heralded as the "boy band whisperer" and given a platform to try to find the "next big thing." It's been a while since a group act has achieved the same level of world domination as One Direction, Little Mix, or Fifth Harmony but we're getting closer than ever with acts like FLO, Katseye, BTS, BLACKPINK, Stray Kids, and the comeback of 5 Seconds of Summer. Until then, let's stop allowing Cowell to harness the powers of talented young people, drain them of all their power, and discard them when he's done with them. There's more than enough Ursulas in the music industry; we don't need another one.Moises Mendez II is a staff writer at Out magazine. Follow him on Instagram @moisesfenty.Voices is dedicated to featuring a wide range of inspiring personal stories and impactful opinions from the LGBTQ+ community and its allies. Visit out.com/submit to learn more about submission guidelines. We welcome your thoughts and feedback on any of our stories. Email us at voices@equalpride.com. Views expressed in Voices stories are those of the guest writers, columnists, and editors, and do not directly represent the views of Out or our parent company, equalpride.