Harry Styles made Vogue history this week, rocking a skirt as the first solo man to appear on the cover in the magazine’s 127-year run.
“You can never be overdressed. There’s no such thing,” Styles shared in the article. “The people that I looked up to in music — Prince and David Bowie and Elvis and Freddie Mercury and Elton John — they’re such showmen. As a kid it was completely mind-blowing. Now I’ll put on something that feels really flamboyant, and I don’t feel crazy wearing it. I think if you get something that you feel amazing in, it’s like a superhero outfit. 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.”
In response to the stunning photos, conservative commentator Candace Owens shared her opinion via Twitter, demanding society to “bring back manly men” and calling Styles’ outfits “steady feminization of our men.”
Celebrities (and Harry’s mom!) quickly flooded social media with words of support for Styles, praising him for defying toxic masculinity and teaching his fans that gender is simply a social construct.
See below.
You’re pathetic.
— olivia wilde (@oliviawilde) November 16, 2020
i think you’ve missed the definition of what a man is. masculinity alone does not make a man
— Elijah Wood (@elijahwood) November 16, 2020