Billy Porter hits out at Vogue

[Fanta 5,019]

1 hour ago, SwissMonster said:

I am conflicted, I love Billy and there is „some“ truth to what he said and I also do think that Harry is in fact using the LGBTQ+ Community to some extend but why can‘t a straight white men wear a dress? I don‘t know why he is focusing on the queer aspect of it. That doesn’t help the issue but rather creates/adds to the conflict. I might understand him wrong but I don‘t get what his message is by this statement? Only queer people are allowed to wear dresses? Hmmm

Because queer people deserve to be celebrated first for what they have been ridiculed, dragged and KILLED for. Queer people and queer people of color deserve their flowers first before any straight individual gets to usurp the creative and visual freedom/representation they fought for. This instance is a perfect representation of white privilege. A white, masc-presenting (as far as we're aware straight) man in a dress gets the cover over the queer black man who's BEEN wearing dresses to red carpets and making headlines.

[MACATL 834]

What if it had been a black straight man? If one is gender neutral, what does their sexuality have to do with it?  Also, what’s gender neutral bout wearing a dress rather than pants?  Seems to be chasing a feminine label awfully hard to be neutral.  

[js4754394o9823 6,882]

13 hours ago, Teletubby said:

I created the conversation [about non-binary fashion] and yet Vogue still put Harry Styles, a straight white man, in a dress on their cover for the first time.

'I’m not dragging Harry Styles, but he is the one you’re going to try and use to represent this new conversation?

the conversation is not new and you didn't create it lmao

[Micmaky 694]

Ugh hate it when people make everything about race. Harry is one of if not the biggest male pop star in the world, obviously he makes a better Vogue cover star than Amazon prime movie cameo actor. Lil Nas will similarly come out with an amazing magazine cover soon enough and that will be well deserved. But attacking someone for wearing a dress if actually the opposite of breaking down gender norms. Harry’s cover sold out twice so obviously it creates a bigger discussion than anything Porter would have done. 

[enissa11 2,984]

10 hours ago, Reality said:

But who are you, or anyone else for that matter, to say whether or not he should come out if he is in fact queer? We need more representation in media, absolutely, but coming out is also a deeply personal choice that someone choose to make. So what about all the non-famous people out there in the world that are queer but have not come out yet? Are they "benefitting" from straight priviledge? No. They just have not chosen to come out yet for personal reasons. Just because Harry is a celebrity doesn't change the fact that he still needs to come out when he feels like he's ready (IF he is queer).

i never said wether he should or not come out. I haven't come out yet because i live in a extremely conservative environment, and i've witnessed openly queer ppl being mocked and judged on the streets, and i know ppl who have been beaten up and others that loose their family's support because of their sexuality, of course none of that erase my trauma as a queer individual too, but i would never be the one to represent queer ppl in my town, i'm still in the closet because i don't feel secure yet, but i once put some make up on and i felt the judgmental eye all around me in the streets, ppl looking at me like i was a freak, imagine the queer ppl who experience this on a daily basis, that's the straight privilege and i'm for sure benefiting from it for security reasons. what i face in the streets is nothing compared to what they face, and i'm not sure i can handle it.

 

10 hours ago, Reality said:

At the end of the day though, Harry still represents the shifting gender norms in society. He's certainly not the ONLY person to do that (hell, Bowie did that in the 70s and 80s), but it's not like that's inherently a bad thing. Billy Porter can (and should) be more recognized as well. It's not an either/or scenario. You can highlight both people. 

I also have the problem with the statement, "...the ones that really have the courage to live their truth in this judgemental and discriminatory social system." Being LGBTQ, in general, is a personal journey that people take on their own time and in their own set of circumstances. Pain and trauma are relative and I have a big problem with people thinking that one kind of experience is "worse" than another. We shouldn't be analyzing different people's personal experiences and saying, "well, this person had more courage and actually dealt with real stuff while that person's experiences aren't as traumatic, so it's whatever."

See, you're giving him a title other ppl deserve much more when it comes to who represents the shift for non-binary and queer fashion, he just put on a dress once, paint his nails and shake the rainbow flag in pride month, ppl like Billy Porter or Lil Nas X are much more committed in all senses, even David Bowie, whose androgynous image for the regular eye was sometimes so confusing that it was hard to even tell if he was a men or a woman, not only wearing a dress, and he stated clearly he was bisexual, or Lady Gaga whose queerness led ppl to think she was a hermaphrodite and was also always consistent with her bisexuality and fight for queer rights...

I never implied that facing some things mean you're gonna have more trauma, of course my trauma can be bigger to someone who lives as queer openly or viceversa, but because of my trauma i don't have the courage to face the things other queer ppl face, that's why i admire them, it doesn't mean their experience is "worse" than mine, as you said is a personal journey to everyone, but it just mean that they are ones on the forefront of the battle for me and that of course they have the courage to face things i can't for a number of reasons and that should be celebrated.

 

10 hours ago, Reality said:

Harry just doesn't strike me as someone who's trying to maliciously use the LGBTQ community in order to profit off of it. He may or may not be queer himself, so who's to say he's appropraiting queer culture?  

Besides, isn't the whole point of "genderfluid", androgynous fashion the fact that anyone could wear it? The appeal of gender-defying fashion is to inform people that at the end of the day, these are just pieces of fabric. A boy can wear a dress if he wants to and it shouldn't matter because they're just clothes. That's part of changing into a more progressive society. 

Again with the "no bad intentions" excuse....  he's profiting off it anyway, and he has said he does it just because he thinks is cool.
No one is here saying he cant wear non-binary fashion, that wasn't Billy's point either, of course he can, but straight ppl shouldn't be taking the very few important places queer ppl have when there's a edition dedicated to non-binary and queer fashion, it wasn't that much about harry but vogue really. If he likes it so much why he don't do it on the streets? on his shows? in public appearances? etc, he just does very secure and masculine things when it comes to fashion in other places.

[BornAsUnic0rn 1,854]

4 hours ago, Fanta said:

Didn't St*les refuse to even acknowledge his sexuality?

How can anyone in their right mind make this argument? When did our own sexuality become something we HAVE TO acknowledge and disclose? 

 

Also correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t our goal to break the binary system down because gendering clothing and assigning appearance to sexuality is outright stupid?

[BornAsUnic0rn 1,854]

I will keep praising Billy for all he’s doing in regards to visibility and perseverance. He is a queer icon.

But this is plain arrogance and bitterness speaking. And he does that so well. I wish I could be half as entitled and cocky. Acting like something was taken especially from me, that never was meant to me. 

He is not wrong with some points, but gatekeeping non-binary clothing (if you even want to call that) for certain gender-identities, sexualities and ethnicities is going so far against what that movement actually tries to stand for and to be honest, it completely sucks out the freedom and joy it’s meant to bring. 

[TSUNAMI 20,182]

I'm siding with Billy. 

Everyone saying that he's bitter and what not is right, he is bitter. He has every right to be. He even wrote down reasons why. And has EVERY ****ING RIGHT TO DO SO. 

 

Being queer is not easy and rarely str8 people will know the struggle of being a part of the LGBTQ no matter how much you want to stretch that spectrum. It's a disrespect FOR ALL of the LGBTQ people who sacrificed their lives for us to be where we are today. At least put a queer person on the cover and not some watered down version. 

[Bat 6,161]

Im a bit shocked about some of the reactions against Billy in this topic. We don't need basic christians to tear us down and make us feel guilty about ourselves, I can already see that we do it perfectly within our own community...

[Wolf 1,328]

Billy is entitled to what he feels, as a black queer icon who has fought hard to get a seat at the table all his life, only to see someone who is privileged as Harry Styles to be handed this opportunity easily.

And the nerve of everyone in this thread to reduce this issue to "just a magazine cover" and that he should basically get over it. This is more than a magazine cover, and this representation would've mattered for that one kid out there.

[beaublue 3,865]

We’ve seen gay men in dresses, ffs Billy goes to every red carpet in one. We KNOW gay men are comfortable expressing their femininity. What we DONT have are STRAIGHT males expressing & fully diving into their femininity so no Billy, you wouldn’t be the right choice because seeing you in a dress does nothing political, it just gets your name mentioned again for best dress.

[Queen Gloria 3,353]

Catty old queen behavior. He did not 'create' non-binary dressing. He's been a male who consistently wears expensive designer gowns at red carpets, which in itself yes, is pretty iconic, but that doesn't mean it's 'his thing' that he can claim considering the countless other non-binary and trans people who have been doing it for much longer than even Porter himself has been alive. Sure, in this generation, he's known as the glamorous gay guy at Hollywood events, but with all due respect, that doesn't give him the right to act like an authority on males wearing dresses. He's bitter because Harry is young and white. I'm gay and poc, and I do not agree with Billy, sorry. It reads very jealous/immature. I empathize with the point he's making, he feels entitled, but it's just a magazine cover that's going to be forgotten in a couple of weeks. He shouldn't feel that his legacy is threatened by one photo. 

 

[Bella Goth 1,144]

it's like stop toxic masculinity but when straight or whatever men embracing it y'all mad. so what battle are we fighting on here?

[HuffsAhoy 7,433]

Another day another gay upset over nothing. 

[Meruk Holland 1,988]

All I'm gonna say is that I wasn't paying close enough attention, and thought this entire thread was about Billy Eichner calling out Harry for being a white cis man