US Vogue December 2020 : Harry Styles by Tyler Mitchell

[dior_couture1245]

Maybe he’s never been on the cover of Vogue because he’s extremely tacky, has absolutely zero sense of style (wearing something over the top is not stylish or iconic in and of itself, contrary to his thoughts on the matter), and to boot, he’s not attractive! He’s practically crosseyed!

I simply cannot overstate how UNSTYLISH Billy Porter is. Only someone as delusional as he is would think he deserves a Vogue cover.

 

[KoV]

I think his issue is the idea that it takes a white, cisgender, or straight male (in this case, we presume all 3) to create acceptance of something when Black or queer or trans people have been pushing envelopes long before.

Does it, though? Look at the cultural impact of RuPaul, for example. He has enjoyed decades of fame and success as a gay black drag queen. Look at the attention, the praise, the press, and the career boost Billy himself has received as a result of embracing flamboyant womenswear-inspired red-carpet looks. Among the examples already listed in this thread of people who have explored this in the public eye, there are plenty of queen people, POC, women, etc. Just because they didn't happen to get a Vogue cover doesn't mean they weren't accepted or celebrated, popular or successful. Harry himself spent the better part of a decade embracing androgynous style before he got a cover.

While I think Billy is a bit short sighted in not recognizing the VAST number of cis men who came before him, I think it's easy to understand his frustration when put into greater context. David Bowie (whom I love) and et al weren't pushing the envelope on their own; they were influenced by queer people around them. What I do appreciate is his issue isn't with Styles, per se; it is with entertainment and fashion in general. Styles isn't at fault here; he's expressing himself as he knows how, and his stardom affords him greater fashion/better stylists to work with than someone in Porter's position.

Part of the issue for me is the hypocrisy on display. In his mad rush to jump on the "straight white men ugh!!!" train, he is completely ignoring and attempting to erase the rich history of queer and/or black and/or not-male people who have helped pave the way for him. Instead of acknowledging and celebrating them, he reveals that this is not about equality or promoting marginalized people, it's simply a self-serving grab at attention. A massively delusional ego trip. His statements would have come across in a completely different way if he wasn't asserting that he had started the movement or that he risked being "gunned down" for doing so.

 

[KoV]

"queen people" lol... Freudian slip? Meant to say queer people.

 

[Xone]

I didn't know about that BP interview, but Jesus....he said it's not ego? yeah right....Valid then the real icons like all the musicians mentioned above and there are more examples of people who really had the guts to do whatever they felt right in a very different time, and really push the boundaries without owning explanation, the originals basically. This person is just an example of a certain kind of people just because he belongs to a certain community he should be praised,etc. It happens also in photography, designing, styling, modeling,etc...

Read a book, watch a documentary...make peace with a reality, call your friends and not the ones who kiss your *ss. He sounds as obnoxious as his character in Pose. And ignorant.

Sad because you think a mature man will handle fame better but he showed that not necessarily and the bitterness is palpable.

 

[MulletProof]

Only someone as delusional as he is would think he deserves a Vogue cover.

Also this.. this little psychotic and extremely popular misconception bothers me to no end. It's not the Medal of Freedom or Légion D'honneur, there's no merit or achievements element here, no one 'deserves' to be advertising chips or detergent, that's not how it works. With Vogue, you're basically the spokesperson, for a month, of a product, in the shape of a magazine, that needs to sell.. why would a highly commercial publication that rides on hype and 'moments' of pop culture pick a quasi famous 52 year-old man just because he's *gasp* worn a skirt? if they're going to be "bold" and put a man on a women's magazine then yes, most likely it will be the extremely conventional, easily digestible, boy band heartthrob cause you know.. m-o-n-e-y, boo hoo, it's not a jehovah witness pamphlet with dubious content that you hand out for free.

I think it's great when anyone (famous or not) wants.. a new and improved world lol, but the way some people go about it is so vapid and severely crippled by their individualist mindset that they demand depth out of a nail polish, scream when fiction is not a documentary (‘a non-bipolar actor playing a bipolar character when there are so many bipolar actors whose dream is to land.. the role of a bipolar person!?!! F*CK HOLLYWOOD!’), expect history to come from a fashion magazine... it's like.. yes, I know you want people to be more educated but why don't you start with yourself..

 

[ivano]

He screw himself, because after this declaration he has less or no chance to be on the cover of Vogue. If someone of the Vogue office reads TFS, RuPaul is a nice option for the cover and not this guy who thinks that discovered America in 2021.

 

[Legolas]

I expected a few right wing trolls to go after it, but I also didn’t anticipate *everyone* having so much to say. Have these people never heard of Bowie, Prince, etc.? Not saying Harry is their equal, but the womenswear inspired looks shouldn’t be *this* controversial. Just more evidence of the regression taking place outside the liberal bubble, I guess.

Amen. The main reason Harry will never be comparable to them when it comes to fashion, is that Bowie and Prince became queer fashion icons because their music and aesthetic alone were enough. There was a before and after in the industry thanks to their art, no need of social media to stay relevant or teenage girls as their target. Without those 2 ingredients, despite all his efforts to be edgy and his contracts, Harry would be 100% irrelevant for any fashion magazine. Vogue is doing terrible and needs an easy target to recover.

Having his moment in this era is the only factor that made this happen, if he had to compete solo back then during Bowie's and Prince's era, absolutely nobody would recall him by now, since:

1) He would probably wouldn't be changing the music industry as he isn't doing now, and...
2) Style-wise, there's nothing truly iconic about him.

You can make an emoji out of Bowie and Prince and people would recognize them, that's just how iconic their style is... if you try to make a Harry emoji, I would probably confuse it with a hipster-themed one. It's a cliché from the news to analyze everything teenagers follow. That's the only reason you'll see a boomer reporter talking about himself in a kilt in such a cringy show like Good Morning Britain.

 

[SLFC]

Young Thug did it first, and better. Like this is okay
but
this is way better.