As my research has progressed throughout this module I discovered gender as a subtheme more specifically, gender fluid fashion. While this did stem from research into a favourite music artist if mine, Harry Styles, I understand that he is by no means the first music artist to do this.
I found this really interesting article and wanted to reflect on the importance of what the article is saying. Reading that Harry Styles has never expressed gender fluidity within himself yet was immediately praised by mainstream media outlets for his ‘gender fluid’ vogue front cover makes me feel a sort of anger. It does boil down to the fact he’s a white male and that doesn’t sit right with me. As the article states, Alejandra Ghersi (Arca) is a non binary producer who has worn dresses on multiple occasions yet received nothing of the sort praise from mainstream media as Harry Styles has. I think the part that irritates me most is while it is of course good an individual with mass following challenges gender norms, he certainly isn’t the first person to do it. Also because he has never expressed his gender identity as gender fluid, I feel there is an element of exploitation in regards to the subject as gender identity is something many people struggle with deeply so for him to use his platform and status as a white heterosexual male to promote gender fluidity when he has no real relation to it other than the clothes he wears sometimes, sits wrong.
This part of the article summarises the feelings towards this nicely
“Ghersi, RuPaul, Vaid-Menon, and others like them aren’t palatable enough to society due to them being people of color and not being heterosexual. By contrast, Styles, a white man who has not adopted a gender-fluid identity, is celebrated. Is that Styles’ fault? No. It’s the fault of transphobia, homophobia, and racism.”