Harry Styles, a very well known British singer/songwriter, recently had a Vogue shoot where he is seen wearing a variety of dresses and skirts, but the cover of the Vogue issue he is featured in displays him wearing a long layered dress.
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When I woke up and saw these glamour shots of Harry Styles from Vogue, it truly took my breath away, and I applaud Harry Styles for not caring about the traditional gender norms that have been automatically assigned to men and women. This has been a part of Harry Styles that I have always loved. I have been a fan of his music for quite a while now, but I am also a fan of how he’s not afraid to wear whatever he wants. However, a conservative woman named Candace Owens seemed to have a problem with this. She went on a very long, unnecessary rant on her social media about how men wearing dresses is not manly; she stated on Twitter “There is no society that can survive without strong men.” She went on to say, “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.” This is such outdated thinking.
We have to consider what makes a man “manly?” I don’t believe that the clothes a man wears or how they look threatens their masculinity in any shape or form. If anything, men feeling comfortable enough to wear whatever they want and not judging other people for wearing what they want makes them more manly than if they didn’t wear a dress. If gender stereotypes were still enforced, then women wouldn’t be allowed to wear jeans or dress “masculine” because that would threaten their “femininity.” Candace Owens characterized the feminization of men as an “outright attack.” I’m just wondering who is exactly bothered by men wearing dresses, or Harry Styles, in particular, wearing a dress on the cover of Vogue. The answer is no one. Society is still the same whether men wear dresses or not, and who is Candace Owens to tell men how they should dress or look?
Men feeling comfortable enough to break the long imposed gender stereotypes should be normalized and should not be judged. Owens’s idea of manliness is simply based on expectations created throughout history, and it does not define masculinity. Masculinity does not have a one-way definition, and it can be whatever a man wants it to be. Feminism has been fighting for women to be awarded the same opportunities as men, and feminists strive for equality between men and women. Should men not have that same right? Should men not be allowed to dress however they want just like women who fight for that right? Owens also believes that women should be feminine, and she says she likes cooking for and taking care of her husband. There is nothing wrong with that if that’s what she enjoys doing, but she also possesses characteristics that don’t fall under the umbrella of what makes a woman feminine. I’m sure Owens has desires and goals beyond taking care of her husband, so shouldn’t she allow men to also do whatever they want beyond the traditional definition of masculinity? A man is not someone who blindly follows what society tells them to do, but who instead does whatever makes them happy which is a right every human being should be afforded.