The Spectrum: I Don’t Care that Harry Styles Wears Skirts

[Coder]

https://ndsuspectrum.com/i-dont-care-th ... rs-skirts/

Subheading: I Care That he Wears Ugly Skirts

I'll be honest, the title of this intrigued me and the subtitle reeled me in. The first 3/4 of the article covers complaints LGBT+ have complained about famous straight men wearing skirts. I'm not going to wade into that issue as I don't have any skin in the game. I'm really just wanting to be - as the author writes "A man wearing a skirt once to be photographed for – and I cannot emphasize this enough – Vogue magazine, and a man wearing a skirt to the convenience store, because that’s the way he wants to dress, are totally different."

The requisite section from the article - which finally - finally someone has articulated my thoughts re: Harry Styles:

Dear reader, I now beg your one last indulgence. Because I have one more point I’d like to make about Harry Styles, and it’s not very consequential. It’s actually pretty petty. It’s nowhere near as important as the harm he is doing to real marginalized groups, and I recognize this, but I’ve been dying to say this somewhere. And is it not my right as a gay person to complain about fashion? If Harry Styles is going to stereotype me, then a stereotype I shall be.

Here’s the thing: his clothes are ugly as sin. To be clear, this is my subjective opinion. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and, unlike the other things I discussed here, this has no moral component and is simply a matter of taste. But holy ****, dude. Maybe I’d care less that he was making such a big deal out of wearing a dress if he were capable of matching two garments together, but he’s not. And don’t even get me started on his weird little boob-window lederhosen sequined pantsuits that he seems so fond of.

They’re just…ugly. It looks bad. Honestly, if there’s any indication to me that this man is straight, it’s the way he dresses. He chooses clothes like someone who has done a whole bunch of reading on camp and can recite whole paragraphs but still hasn’t grasped the fundamental idea of camp in a way that he can enact. He lacks imagination, maybe. I don’t know. Whatever it is, he knows how to be queer on paper only, and when he brings his studies out into the real world, it looks tacky and performative.

[Barleymower]

Harry Styles has moved from one manufactured boy band to another manufactured persona "Harry styles". If his look is performative it's probably because he's a performer. If he's struggling to be camp enough is it because he's straight?

Essentially I don't blame Harry Styles for his outfits. I think he needs new stylist.

[Coder]

Harry Styles has moved from one manufactured boy band to another manufactured persona "Harry styles". If his look is performative it's probably because he's a performer. If he's struggling to be camp enough is it because he's straight?

Essentially I don't blame Harry Styles for his outfits. I think he needs new stylist.

I don't follow music closely enough - or really at all - to know. I agree with getting a new stylist, but doesn't he have anything to be blamed for the styles he goes with? Like, doesn't he have some autonomy in it? I agree with your assessment - some of the complaints LGBTQ persons have had against Harry and other MIS seem to focus too much on appearance = identity. I read a comment somewhere on Reddit where some folk were saying how to "look" queer or queer up one's appearance.

And I'm being serious here - as a straight white male I've never had an issue because I'm perceived who I am simply by the default appearance people like me dress like (or rather, the way I sometimes dress like), but I come at things from a fashion freedom aspect and I argue that your character/being/etc... isn't tied to appearance, and we need to drop that whole line of thinking. But... this too is because I'm a bit biased towards said outcome. Maybe people want to reinforce clothes = character, and people like me are just unwanted clothing anarchists.

[Modoc]

I don't think Harry Styles, or anyone else for that matter, has any obligation to be "stylish". Too much attentin is paid to what celebrities wear and do. "Style" itself is so subjective and vague that it's pretty much meaningless.

[Barleymower]

Coder, no I don't blame him for his look and of course he has a say over what he wears. There's more too it though, he represents a large investment and he like them doesn't want to risk failure. I suspect the awfulness of his edgy look is carefully agreed upon.

Much to my surprise,.I don't think anyone has ever looked at me in any of the skirts I wear and judged me as gay (and I don't go for manly skirts eg kilts etc). It should not come as a surprise because I have always relationships girls becuase i liked them, not because they were wearing a dress.

A small addition:
People do equate your look with who you are are. It's hard for me to define what it is but they know I'm not gay. I think maybe, they think, I'm letting the side down. Unless of course they are thick then they probably do think I'm gay. Anyway who cares?

[Coder]

Anyway who cares?

I don't. I do think a lot of other men do, who are too afraid to wear a skirt because of assumed associations.

[Coder]

I don't think Harry Styles, or anyone else for that matter, has any obligation to be "stylish".

Good point - the answer is no one has an obligation. You see a sort of admission of this from the author when they say they are being petty. That being said, we can still look on from the sidelines and critique outfits. Those opinions will be informed by current beauty & style standards, and are only a guide for putting outfits together.

Too much attentin is paid to what celebrities wear and do. "Style" itself is so subjective and vague that it's pretty much meaningless.

Agreed - but they are out there, people comment, and they drive some conversations.

[Myopic Bookworm]

still hasn’t grasped the fundamental idea of camp

There's the problem with the critique: the writer is assuming that a man in a skirt is trying to adopt or imitate the established conventions of camp, or queer fashion, or whatever, rather than stepping out of the conventions altogether. Society doesn't have established conventions for men in skirts, and to judge Harry Styles against gay expectations is no more reasonable than judging him against female style conventions. So he wears clashing stuff? Has this guy heard of Vivienne Westwood?

[crfriend]

The first 3/4 of the article covers complaints LGBT+ have complained about famous straight men wearing skirts. I'm not going to wade into that issue as I don't have any skin in the game.

Well, the problem is that you do -- as a straight guy that wears skirts by choice, and you attempt to do it well. Every time this damned old chestnut equating men and skirts with the LGBTQWTF "spectrum" we lose ground. Every damned time. It's time for it to stop. Long after time, in fact.

Styles has pulled off some interesting bits, but that's stage/performance wear, not something that somebody'd wear to the local pub. And it's important to recall those distinctions. It's like David Bowie and the infamous dress he wore for a portrait or perhaps an album cover.

If there is to be even a remote hope for straight guys being "allowed" to wear skirts that association needs to be smashed into the bits it sorely needs to be. Interestingly, the homosexual crowd is vastly closer to outright machismo than the average straight guy -- thus they'd never think of wearing skirts. So, "Why does the stereotype persist?" Even with outright CDs/TVs (which amounts to "performance art"), the overwhelming majority are straight.

I've had to inform my current lady-friend several times that, "If I was homosexual [0], I would not be here right now." And I'm thinking that if I have to do that so much as one more time I may just give up on the matter.

If the reader gets the impression that I'm not happy with the current situation, that's a very accurate read. Until we can get over this hill things will only continue to get worse as the world continues to "harden" its views. I'm not anti-homosexual; in fact I have a few friends who are -- and they absolutely deserve to be treated with the same dignity and respect as any other individual until proved unworthy on an individual basis.


[0] I absolutely refuse to use the term "gay" for that, and am also shying away from "queer" because that word, too, is a very useful one in the language when used properly.

[Grok]

To me, the outfit in the image definitely looks like a gimmick.

[timemeddler]

I wouldn't mind that kind of criticism, it's much more constructive than somebody bashing it on some imagined moral high ground accusing men of trying to look like women because it's not pants. I'd almost welcome some feedback on, that look screwy on you, or those don't look good together, even if it is a complaint.

[jamie001]

One of the problems is Hollywood perpetuating the stereotype that men skirts = gay. Unfortunately it works for them so they may never stop. Gender nonconforming != gay.

[FranTastic444]

From what I’ve seen, Harry Styles (and Sam Smith for that matter) tend to wear “designer” outfits - ie those typically worn by models on catwalks that rarely have any relevance to what is worn on the street. For this reason, they tend to give of an outlandish, look at me vibe. I can only recall one instance where Styles wrote something that I liked (and, even then, it was too outlandish to be something I would consider wearing).


Maybe they should follow the lead of someone in their industry like Will Young who at one time was wearing more traditional stuff that you could buy from the High St.

[Mouse]

I think that the more any man wears a skirt the better it is for us all. We all have different reasons for wearing what we are wearing. The main thrust for me is not to have any rules for what I go out in and only be limited by my own style rules which I make up as I go a long. The more other men wear crazy stuff the more I have space to expand my style.

[Modoc]

I think that the more any man wears a skirt the better it is for us all. We all have different reasons for wearing what we are wearing. The main thrust for me is not to have any rules for what I go out in and only be limited by my own style rules which I make up as I go a long. The more other men wear crazy stuff the more I have space to expand my style.

I tend to agree with You on this, Mouse.