More celebrities have stepped up to support Harry Styles’ Vogue shot — a historic first in which the skirt-wearing Styles became the first solo man to appear on the cover in the magazine’s 127-year run — saying any questions about his “manliness” say more about the questioner than Harry.
“One of the ‘manliest’ (barf) men I know said, ‘if Harry Styles in a dress scares you, it’s more about you than about him’… my kind of ‘man,’” tweeted Sara Bareilles.
The comment about the gender-blending shoot came in response to Trump-supporting conservative commentator Candace Owens’ retrograde screed against the Vogue spread, saying “bring back manly men” and calling Styles’ looks in the photo shoot the “steady feminization of our men.”
Actress/director Olivia Wilde, who is currently directing Styles, 26, in his second film, Don’t Worry, Darling, snapped back hard at Owens, writing, “Idk about you but i think that there is nothing more manly then a man being so secure with his masculinity that he can wear a dress.”
YouTuber Logan Paul stepped up as well, saying in the latest episode of his Impaulsive podcast that, “What is manly to you? What does it mean? Is manly like being comfortable in your own skin and being comfortable with who you are? Regardless of what people think about what you’re wearing?” Actor Elijah Wood also commented on Owens’ thread, writing, “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.”
Zach Braff was on the same page, too, offering, “Our whole lives boys and men are told we need to be manly. Life is short. Be whatever the f–k you want to be.” Harry’s mom, Anne Twist, also hopped to her boy’s defense, telling ITV’s Lorraine that she thought maybe she had something to do with the singer’s willingness to blur the lines.
“I was always a big fan of doing fancy dress with the kids when they were smaller, which his sister hated but Harry always embraced. But who doesn’t love doing a bit of dress up?” she said.
In the article, Styles concurs, describing how as a child he loved dressing up, declaring, “you can never be overdressed. There’s no such thing. 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 fact, when he goes shopping, Harry said he’ll sometimes find himself marveling while browsing the women’s section and realizing that the walls we’ve built up are mostly in our mind. “Anytime you’re putting barriers up in your own life, you’re just limiting yourself,” he said. “There’s so much joy to be had in playing with clothes. I’ve never really thought too much about what it means—it just becomes this extended part of creating something.”
Check out the reactions below.
