Harry Styles wore a dress on the cover of Vogue - and US rightwingers lost it
The magazine made history by featuring the musician as its first-ever male cover star – but prominent conservatives voiced disapproval over what he was wearinghttps://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2020/nov/16/harry-styles-vogue-cover-dress
On Friday, storied fashion publication US Vogue made history by featuring British pop singer (and former One Direction heartthrob) Harry Styles as its first-ever male cover star. The cover immediately sparked passionate conversations around masculinity and gendered dressing: Styles dons a voluminous periwinkle blue gown paired with a black tuxedo jacket (both designed by Gucci). The image felt representative of a growing exploration of gender-fluidity and non-binary dressing taking place, popular among the very millennial and Gen-Z shoppers Vogue is targeted towards. However, prominent conservatives – from Candice Owens to Ben Shapiro – voiced disapproval of Styles wearing dresses. Owens wrote on her Twitter page Friday evening: “Bring back manly men.”
Link to tweet
Link to tweet
“There is no society that can survive without strong men,” Owens, a rightwing media powerhouse, said. “The East knows this. In the west, the steady feminization of our men at the same time that Marxism is being taught to our children is not a coincidence. It is an outright attack.” [sic] Ben Shapiro, a conservative pundit, appeared to agree with Owens’ attacks. He shared her tweet and added: “Anyone who pretends this is not a referendum on masculinity for men to don floofy dresses is treating you like a full-on idiot.”
Link to tweet
These comments fit in with how contested and divisive debates around gender expression have become in the US, even when a massively popular musician such as Styles, who identifies as cisgender, engages in progressive developments. This is not the first time Styles has played around with fashion in bold ways. The singer wore a black dress by the Japanese brand Commes Des Garçons on the cover of the Guardian Weekend and defended the queer aesthetics of his visual work. “I’m not just sprinkling in sexual ambiguity to be interesting,” he said. “I want things to look a certain way. Not because it makes me look gay, or it makes me look straight, or it makes me look bisexual, but because I think it looks cool.”
Fellow Hollywood stars were quick to come to Styles’ defence. Olivia Wilde, who is currently directing a Styles-led film, replied to Owens’ tweets with: “You’re pathetic.” And The Good Place actress Jameela Jamil tweeted out in Styles’ defence: “Manly is whatever you want it to be.” Meanwhile, others have argued Styles cover may not be enough for increasing acceptance towards non-binary expression and identities. “Harry Styles’ Vogue cover may be historic, but it isn’t radical,” the Daily Beast declared in a headline. If this is the furore a white, cis man wearing a dress on Vogue breeds, it is hard to imagine what a model from a marginalized background – say, a trans woman of colour (which Vogue has yet to feature on its cover) – would face.
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= new reply since forum marked as read
the fact that 1) Vogue and 2) Ben Fucking Shapiro give a shit what he's wearing make me say:
"Nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope"
No click. No read. No care. No want to know. (Dammit I clicked on this thread, didn't I?)
Bad internet! Bad!!! 
Maybe you need spanking internet 
of King James I in the early 1600s. Quite the fashion queen and commissioned her beloved version of the Bible.
I want to see him gain some weight so he can model some maternity fashions. Just thinking about that makes me want to grab him by the asshole! 
... his publicist and staff should get a BIG bonus. It's difficult to do something outrageous in today's outrageous Media and get noticed- this is all over social media. Congratulations to the Styles publicity dept!
hated when women first wore pants. Or shirts, vests, belts, sensible shoes, drove, worked at a profession, traveled, voted.
They got used to women wearing male garb because they indulged women as pretenders to male power. But men doing the same -- as taboo as controlling men's private parts and sexuality.
We've gone through 100 years of Ben Shapiro's masculinized idiocy:
“Anyone who pretends this is not a referendum[public agreement] on masculinity [femininity] for men[women] to don floofy dresses[gangster garb] is treating you like a full-on idiot.”
Kanye, Vin Diesel
Yeah, I don’t think he looks good in that dress, but I don’t think he looks good in the suit picture either. 
Why would right-wing nutjobs even care what a man wears on a fashion magazine photo shoot? They clearly need to find something to keep themselves occupied.
Maybe go deer hunting or something.
Bowie, 1971
Nobody should listen to his crap. 
"We, acting in tandem, vehemently oppose any male celebrity from crossdressing in any shape or form. It is not becoming of American society and should be condemned at once."
Sincerely,
Milton Berle
Flip Wilson
wonder if Candace wants to see his other 'hog' (probably more of a piglet)
