Despite Taylor Swift’s best efforts, another star has stolen the hearts and pre-drinks playlists of the gay community this Pride season – and it doesn’t matter that she isn’t real.

Ashley O is a quintessentially 2019 product – an ironic, candyfloss-haired creation of the acclaimed TV show Black Mirror. In a recent episode, the preposterously perfect and wildly popular Ashley O (played with meta aplomb by Miley Cyrus) tries to break free from her carefully curated pop persona to fulfil her ambition of making “real music”. In true Black Mirror style, there are ominous undercurrents, which give the phrase “manufactured pop star” a rather more literal tone.

Since the episode aired, Ashley O has been shoring up her status as a gay icon. Two of her tracks appeared on Spotify, most notably On a Roll – a sultry, self-satisfied meditation on getting what you want, when you want it. Catchy and arrogant, it’s a pop-by-numbers example of exactly the sort of music that fills dance floors at pumping gay venues, and is already a regular feature on any self-respecting gay club’s playlist.

Inevitably, the character has also become a social media favourite, spawning a string of adoring posts from her gay fans and even a shining endorsement from gay dating app Grindr.

Grindr (@Grindr) Ashley O is the pop girl us gays DESERVE

Many, including RuPaul’s Drag Race winner Aquaria, have taken to recreating the Ashley O persona in real life. Jacob Thorpe, a 25-year-old Londoner, was one of a number of people who dressed as her at club night Sink the Pink’s London Pride party. “The dress code called for ‘icons’ and I frankly couldn’t think of anyone more iconic,” he said. “She’s instantly recognisable and quotable; she’s going down in history.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Jacob Thorpe, dressed as Ashley O for Pride 2019. Photograph: Harriet Hughes

He is not surprised gay fans have taken to her so strongly. “We’re living through something of a dark age of pop music,” he says. “We were crying out for a straight-up bubble-gum pop star and Ashley came to our gay rescue. Additionally, the gays live for a fantasy: be that drag acts, Disney princesses or pink-haired pop stars. We eat this stuff up.”

Ashley O’s rapid ascension to gay-icon status isn’t just down to a punchy pop track. One of On a Roll’s most memorable lyrics is: “I’m stoked on ambition and verve / I’m gonna get what I deserve”. Brimming with the kind of misguided confidence that is sure to send things crashing down around her at any second, she’s the embodiment of all things gay men inexplicably adore in their cultural heroes. The context – a fictional pop star created for a Netflix TV show, played by a real pop star who became famous for playing a fictional pop star – is absurd, hilarious and naff in equal measure. Those are three qualities that don’t just make you a star with the gay community – they make you an icon.