Harry Styles Doesn't Care About Your Idea of a "Manly Man"
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Much ado has been made about the ideals and pitfalls of masculinity since Harry Styles has dared to step beyond the boundaries of cuffed Dickies and crew necks, or whatever "manly men" are supposed to wear.
First, he made his 2019 Met Gala debut walking the pink steps wearing a sheer, high-neck Gucci blouse and a tantalizing pearl earring. Then, he shared his affinity for the louder elements of fashion, from brazenly patterned suits to flared bell-bottoms. And, lest we forget, he starred on a buzzy Vogue cover and dished about his lifetime interest in "fancy dress" while wearing, well, fancy dresses.
Styles is far from the first to reconfigure what it looks like to be a man, but the backlash from the old vanguard of tradition (a rather useful euphemism for repressed sexuality and homophobia) was immediate and fierce. “There is no society that can survive without strong men,” right-wing pundit Candace Owens tweeted. “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.”
For his part, Styles has remained mostly silent on the controversy regarding his wearing what he wants to wear. But now, after posting a photo on Instagram from his new Variety cover—on which he chomps on a banana while wearing a dusty-blue suit with white flared sleeves—the singer is at last making his position known.
“Bring back manly men,” he wrote in the caption.
Feminization and Marxism be damned.
He also referenced the unseemly criticism in the Variety interview, saying, “To not wear [something] because it’s females’ clothing, you shut out a whole world of great clothes. And I think what’s exciting about right now is you can wear what you like. It doesn’t have to be X or Y. Those lines are becoming more and more blurred.”
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