Billy Porter Criticizes Harry Styles Once Again for Wearing Gender Fluid Attire for Vogue Cover in 2020
Harry Styles made history when he appeared on the cover of the most coveted fashion magazine - Vogue for the December 2020 issue. He became the first male model to grace the cover solo in 127 years wearing a gender-fluid outfit - a lace-trimmed Gucci dress. The One Direction alum had told Vogue back then - "I find myself looking at women’s clothes, thinking they’re amazing." Now once again Billy Porter has expressed his disdain over the history-making cover, in an exclusive interview with The Telegraph, he said that the Watermelon Sugar hitmaker landed the cover because he is "white and straight." Talking about Styles' fashion choices, Porter said - “It doesn’t feel good to me. You’re using my community — or your people are using my community — to elevate you. You haven’t had to sacrifice anything."
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“It’s not Harry Styles’ fault that he happens to be white and cute and straight and fit into the infrastructure that way,” Porter continued. “I call out the gatekeepers. Non-binary blah blah blah blah. No. You haven’t had to sacrifice anything." Going into a retrospective mode Porter called out the editor-in-chief of Vogue, Anna Wintour a b****, he revealed that right before the cover came out he had the chance to sit down with the elite fashion editor and discuss experimental fashion. "That b**** said to me at the end, ‘How can we do better?’ And I was so taken off guard that I didn’t say what I should have said,” he recalled. Porter recalled that he should have told Wintour, "Use your power as Vogue to uplift the voices of the leaders of this de-gendering of fashion movement." "Six months later, Harry Styles is the first man on the cover,” he added.
In 2021 too, the Our Son actor had thrown subtle shade over Styles' being chosen for the Vogue cover, he had told The Sunday Times back then - "I feel like the fashion industry has accepted me because they have to. I created the conversation about nonbinary fashion and yet Vogue still put Harry Styles, a straight white man, in a dress on their cover for the first time." He had added - "I was the first one doing it and now everybody is doing it," Porter added. "I'm not dragging Harry Styles, but… He doesn't care, he's just doing it because it's the thing to do. This is politics for me. This is my life. I had to fight my entire life to get to the place where I could wear a dress to the Oscars and not be gunned down. All he has to do is be white and straight.”
The Emmy winner continued - “I changed the whole game. And that is not ego, that is just fact. I was the first one doing it and now everybody is doing it. I feel like the fashion industry has accepted me because they have to. I’m not necessarily convinced, and here is why: I created the conversation, and yet Vogue still put Harry Styles, a straight white man, in a dress on their cover for the first time.” After receiving severe backlash for his comments, Porter issued an apology on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert saying - “Harry Styles, I apologize to you for having your name in my mouth. It’s not about you. The conversation is not about you. The conversation is actually deeper than that. It is about the systems of oppression and erasure of people of color who contribute to the culture.”
References:
https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz/13189725/harry-styles-vogue-dress-one-direction-cover-star/
https://www.vogue.com/article/harry-styles-cover-december-2020
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/interviews/billy-porter-interview-harry-styles-vogue/
