Culture

Stars rally behind Harry Styles after US rightwingers attack Vogue cover

By Sam Damshenas

17th November 2020

Harry Styles is being targeted by conservative trolls over his Vogue cover.

On Friday, the British singer-songwriter made history as the first ever male to cover the US fashion publication, where he wore a ruffled floor-length Gucci dress and a sleek tuxedo jacket.

While the concept of a man wearing a dress isn’t anything new, the imagery immediately sparked a passionate conversation online around masculinity and gendered clothing.

To the shock of no-one, prominent right-winger trolls such as Candace Owens, Ben Shapiro and Donald Trump Jr. – we repeat, trolls – slammed Vogue and Harry for ‘attacking masculinity’.

Owens, who thinks the Black Lives Matter movement is a “terrorist” organisation, wrote on Twitter: “There is no society that can survive without strong men. 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. Bring back manly men.”

Shapiro, who believes transgender people suffer from a mental illness, responded to Owens: “Anyone who pretends that it is not a referendum on masculinity for men to don floofy dresses is treating you as a full-on idiot.

“Masculinity and femininity exist. Outward indicators of masculinity and femininity exist in nearly every human culture. Boys are taught to be more masculine in virtually every human culture because the role of men is not always the same as the role of women.”

Yawn. Their comments received widespread backlash, with fellow Hollywood stars jumping to Harry’s defence.

“You’re ignoring the fact that no society can survive without fem men, or masc women, or fem women, or people in between all of that,” wrote Bob the Drag Queen.

“It’s almost like no society is a monolith and that’s how societies thrive … through multiple contributions from various demographics.”

Elijah Wood tweeted Owens: “I think you’ve missed the definition of what a man is. Masculinity alone does not make a man. In fact, it’s got nothing to do with it.”

Jameela Jamil said: “Harry Styles is plenty manly, because manly is whatever you want it to be, not what some insecure, toxic, woman-hating, homophobic dickheads decided it was hundreds of years ago. He’s 104% perfect.”

Zach Braff also wrote: “Our whole lives boys and men are told we need to be manly. Life is short. Be whatever the fuck you want to be.”

Olivia Wilde said what we’re all thinking as she told Owens: “You’re pathetic.”

In his interview with Vogue, Styles said of his fashion choices: “Clothes are there to have fun with and experiment with and play with. What’s really exciting is that all of these lines are just kind of crumbling away.

“When you take away ‘There’s clothes for men and there’s clothes for women,’ once you remove any barriers obviously you open up the arena in which you can play.”

Check out Harry’s gorgeous ‘attack on masculinity’ below.