In the November of 2020, pictures of British popstar from the photoshoot for Vogue USA’s December 2020 edition caused a great uproar on the social medias; debates, criticisms, fury ruled the internet. The reason? It’s simple, Harry wore dresses. Yeah, the conventionally ‘female’ dresses. Candace Owens (whom Google describes as ‘an American conservative author, talk show host, political commentator, and activist) took it to twitter to express her worries about Harry posing in “feminine clothes”. She goes on to say that the society needs strong men to survive and that wearing a dress makes a man unmanly. “Bring back manly men,” she says.
It simply means that people are of the notion that gender is described by the attire; that a man, as long as he wears toned down colours, pants and suits, he is manly, strong and capable of protecting the
world; but the moment he wears makeup or jewellery or a dress, or anything pink, all of the proactive characteristics evaporate off of his body. This also implies that people are of the belief that women are utterly incapable of protecti
ng themselves or the society (unless they wear “manly” clothes of course, but wait, they can’t do that. That’s so unladylike!)
To address the sexism and queerphobia residing in this belief, an entire space needs to be dedicated only for them. However, here, the matter is going to be of logic and a little bit of history.
Though fashion is apt, it becomes necessary to draw lines, because come on, if manliness represents strength, ability to protect yourself and the society, all of us should be manly; all of us should protect the world together. Doesn’t everyone wish they had physical strength so they could defend themselves from predators? So, if wearing certain attire does provide us the power, then why do we not make use of it?
So, what is manly? Considering the backlash gender-fluid dressers, drag queens, men of the K-Pop world, E-Boys even get, we can make a rough sketch of it. Any sort of female clothing (such as skirts, gowns, sarees) are off the board, of course. What about jewellery? Rings are okay as long as they’re thick bands without much designing, earrings can be okay in certain contexts, but make sure it is a simple stud and not any form of hangings, one chain can be fine as long as you say it’s religious or it is a gift from mom. No pretty necklaces, no bangles and as less sparkles as possible.
Clothes, let’s talk about clothes. No skinny jeans because that’s feminine, not too baggy jeans because that’s mom jeans and that’s girly, no designs or prints please, manly people only rely on primary colours and plain design for pants; for shirts, plaid or checkers are fine- NO EMBROIDERY or anything glittery. (AVOID PINK AS MUCH AS YOU CAN, because it is scientifically proven that pink colour drains all the passion cells out of our body, right through your skin.) Make sure you’re not wearing bright colours as well.
Makeup and skincare is a huge NO unless your skin is absolutely chapped and broken, then you can use moisturizer (but make sure you’re in your room, alone. Nobody should know your skin is not natural). Because manly people only rely on water and manly soap, because manly skin is tough and nothing has the power to hurt it, except the sun; so do wear sunscreen when you go out in scorching heat.
We also need to make sure that our hair doesn’t go beyond our necks because long hair it too feminine and weakens you, which is exactly why Rapunzel had to chop it down; well unless of course you can play the guitar, but manly people aren’t interested in making music either, they only love racing and wars, so maybe not learn any instruments.
So, to be able to protect the world, we need to be manly and we can achieve that by wearing simple clothes, which of course are limited to pants without patterns, shirts and t-shirts of lower toned colours, as less accessory as possible, no makeup, hair as short as possible. Actually thinking of it, this is also cost effective. Being manly not only gives you the ability to protect your people but also protect the resources and the economy.
But, wait a minute. Wasn’t Achilles, the most reliable, the strongest and the deadliest warrior from the Greek Mythology known for his beautiful, luscious blonde locks? How could he do that? Perhaps he was an exception, we always have that. We have had womanly women such as Jhansi Rani Lakshmi Bai who have fought battles after all. But didn’t Henry VIII, another manly man who loved to battle wear a lot of beautiful jewellery, stockings and what could today be considered as miniskirts? Weren’t the first high heels invented in somewhere around tenth century for Persian army, which was filled with men?
Have you ever watched a historical fiction on television? Don’t historical men wear so much jewellery, have really long hair styled with perfection? Don’t they wear vibrant colours and embroidered shawls? Isn’t Lord Krishna particularly known for accessorizing a peacock feather on his beautiful long hair? Weren’t ancient women supposed to tie their hair modestly after marriage whereas men were allowed to style it however they wanted. Wasn’t Newton manly?
Wait, weren’t Viking women womanly? They had luscious long hair, feminine bodies and perhaps wore feminine clothes. But they were able to protect themselves and their people as well.
If clothes do define the manliness and the womanliness of the person wearing it, then what were all the men of the past, where men went to battles, died, killed, looted, colonized, protected, attacked, defended and did all the manly things even doing? How did they retain their masculinity when they so much so loved fashion and showing off their wealth through their attire? If clothes are a marker of gender, then why did people of the older generations consider it as a symbol of wealth and power?
What does masculinity have anything to do with something inanimate, something that’s made for the purpose of protection and for fashion as well? Why is masculinity something worth being glorified? If masculinity was all about being physically strong, tough and being capable of saving the world and that did attribute anything from the way someone dressed, this world would have been a completely different place. Alexander the Great wouldn’t have travelled the world, Jesus wouldn’t have established such a renowned religion, Cleopatra wouldn’t have been such an inspiration, women wouldn’t have been in athletics, men wouldn’t have been in art.
Harry Styles wearing a dress hasn’t made him any less or more manly, it has only made a statement, a powerful one at that. Your sex or your gender doesn’t depend on the way you dress. You dress to protect yourself from the atmosphere primarily, to cover yourself. Secondly, you dress to make yourself look good to yourself, to feel confident and stay comfortable. Wearing an expensive dress and being on the cover of Vogue only showed that he is super successful and that he made history by being the first man to appear solo on that magazine.
Author- Suhana Ahmed
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