Harry Styles and the myths of masculinity and "virile men" in America

The world changes for the best.

Yes, we have a long way to go and sometimes we have the impression of taking a step forward while taking two steps back, but as the philosopher Théodore Parker said, the Arc of the Universe seemsbend to justice.

As proof, all you have to do is transform your television into any large network and you will see a wide variety of breeds, genres and sexualities represented in television programs and advertising.

This may be why it was so shocking when Candace Owens tried to shame Harry Styles for wearing a Gucci ball dress on the blanket of December Voguenuméro.It was as if she had come out of a time machine.

She shared her photo with the legend "bring back the virile men" and Twitter broke out - on both sides.Surprisingly, it seemed that many people agreed with her.

A few days later, Styles shared another photo of himself, this time dressed in a creup light blue suit with long fluid sleeves.In the photo, he suggests a banana.

His legend?"Bring the virile men back.»»

If you do not know it, Candace Owens is a right expert best known to bend at the crowd of Fox News.

She clearly tried to embarrass or shame styles, but all it did was to prepare it for the perfect answer.After all, the best way to manage an intimidator is to show how disturbed you are.

Styles has no reason to be disturbed by anyone, really.

It has been famous since the age of 16, when it appeared on the British version of factor X and was placed in the One Direction group in 2010.He is loved by millions of fervent fans and had two best -selling solo albums which were very respected by musical criticism.

He is also used to what people question his sexuality, facing rumors that he is bi or pan-sexual throughout his career. Il s’est penché sur l’ambiguïté ces dernières années, s’habillant parfois avec des vêtements féminins et même en écrivant une chanson,"" Medicine»», que de nombreux fans croient être sa façon de devenir bisexuel.

But Styles is far from being the first pop star to kiss his feminine side and let people guess his sexuality.

David Bowie wore a dress for a photo session with the Daily Mirror in 1971 and often wore female clothes after that.The superstar icon of pop and rock, prince, pushed fashion to the feminine when he wore ruffled collar shirts and lace gloves in the 1980s (as well as many high purple and short).

Rapper Young Thug made the headlines in 2016 for wearing a ruffled Pervenche dress in the cover of his mixtape, no, my name is Jeffery.A detailed article in Magazine Complex explains the whole story behind this dress, by sharing this, "Trincone has designed the dress with several of the same ideologies in which Thug believes [sic], in particular androgyny and identity without sex restriction.""

Iggy Pop –"" le parrain du punk»» qui est connu pour porter des robes – a déclaré:"" Je n’ai pas honte de m’habiller»» comme une femme"" parce que je ne pense pas que ce soit honteux d’être une femme.»»

And, of course, men of many cultures carry what we consider as skirts or dresses (and this for centuries), and it is considered perfectly virile.

So what is the problem with Harry Styles wearing a dress or filthy dress?

S’agit-il d’une simple homophobie ou y a-t-il quelque chose de plus profond dans ce qui semble être une obsession de droite pour les""hommes virils»?

Opposing the change in gender standards is nothing new for the conservatives.

After all, they were against the right to vote for women, their right to request divorce, the right to make medical decisions for their own bodies and the right to equality of remuneration.

They were even against women and girls wearing pants to go to school and work, and were irritated by Mary Tyler Moore's Capri pants on the Dick Van Dyke Show.

It is the nature of the conservatives to be afraid of change and to fight against progress - even when progress seems inevitable.This is inherent in conservatism and is part of the drawing of the post.

All the changes surrounding marriage in this country, as well as the acceptance of lifestyles that do not reflect the traditional nuclear family, scare people who have not known or loved someone who does not correspond to the traditional model.

Candace Owens, as the foundation of her career, draws from this fear and exploits it.

While legal protections for the LGBTQ + community in the United States are higher than ever, in certain demographic data, the acceptance of queer people at a personal level is decreasing.

Homosexual marriage is legal throughout the country, and 23 states have complete or partial laws preventing employment discrimination against LGBTQ + persons. Et pourtant, une enquête a révélé un nombre croissant de jeunes qui avouent être""mal à l’aise» avec les personnes LGBTQ + dans leur vie.

Until 2017, young Americans were the group most likely to accept homosexuals in their lives, so it was a shocking discovery.

Perhaps coinciding with the Trump administration and an increased exposure to the propagada of the alternative right via advertisements and videos with automatic reading on YouTube and social media, young people seem to share conservative and even Nazi ideals more than theyhave not done so for decades.Hate crimes are increasing, including those against the LGBTQ + community.

Ainsi, alors que certains disent que nous devrions ignorer Owens, le renforcement de l’homophobie a des conséquences réelles dans le monde entier – même lorsque des gens comme elle essaient de déguiser leur sectarisme comme étant des""valeurs familiales traditionnelles».

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As a high progressive in a liberal family, attacks like this by Owens are bizarre and fascinating.No part of me can understand why someone would care what someone else door.

Je veux juste crier:"" Arrête d’être si délicat!»» mais je sais qu’il se passe quelque chose de plus profond ici.It’s not really Harry Styles.

Peut-être qu’à un niveau plus profond, des gens comme Owens croient que ces""hommes virils» sauveront l’Amérique.Owens is far from being the first to involve this.She didn't even do it in a particularly unique way.

Un mois plus tôt, Gina Bontempo, qui est la manager de Candace Owens, a tweeté qu’elle utilisait un vélo Peloton dans une salle de gym de l’hôtel et je suis tombé sur un cours du très populaire instructeur Cody Rigsby, connu pour sa personnalité flamboyante, ses danses idiotes et ses""conversations entre filles» décontractées sur le vélo.

Elle a partagé une vidéo de lui dansant avec une légende qui comprenait:"" Qu’est-il arrivé aux hommes?»»

Yes, it's sectarian.Yes, it's homophobic.And yes, it's outdated.But that's the point, I think.

La critique de tout ce qui n’est pas considéré comme""viril» semble être simplement ce que le droit Est-ce que maintenant, et c’est dangereux.Not only for homosexuals, gender non-conformists and all those who want to do or be something that does not come under the relatively strict genre of our society, but also for society as a whole.

The traditional masculinity model has been fatal for generations.

Malgré la nostalgie de la droite pour les valeurs familiales traditionnelles, la véritable""famille nucléaire» n’a duré qu’une génération.Before that, families presented themselves in all kinds of ways and were often multi-generational.Companies were often owned by the family and managed by any fairly old family member, including women.

In families who had or worked farms, everyone participated in household chores, including women and girls.The strict gap between a working husband and a woman who only takes care of children is a manufactured story.It's an American fable.

After the peak of the nuclear family, the children who were raised in this model exploded it, flown at the divorce rate at around 5 in 1000 in the late 1970s and 1980s (after which hedeclined and continues to do so).

The nuclear family was a short -term phenomenon, but it is a model that Candace Owens and others still aspire, despite the fact that it is a lifestyle that would be almost impossible to maintain in this economy.

The problem is not masculinity - it is prescriptive masculinity.

La masculinité normative est un système dans lequel il n’y a qu’une seule façon d’être le""bon» genre d’homme.In the United States, this means that you must be stoic and impassive, heterosexual and hard.You should never need or ask for help, and you can never dwell on the things that have injured you in the past.

Cette forme de masculinité, souvent appelée""la boîte de l’homme», maintient les hommes piégés dans un ensemble rigide d’attentes qui ne peuvent tout simplement pas fonctionner pour tous les hommes et qui les oblige à fermer et à réprimer leurs émotions.

La masculinité traditionnelle exige également que la plupart des hommes (selon leur classe) servent d’outils pour l’économie, rouages ​​d’une machine.They are often expected to sacrifice their relationships with their family, their health, their security and even sometimes their lives for their work.

Pour les""hommes virils» que Candace Owens, Tomi Lahren, Gina Bontempo et d’autres idéalisent, être le soutien de famille est l’objectif, même si cet objectif est une mise en échec.

After all, the so-called traditional family requires that a man must be able to earn money to provide for his family without needing his wife's help (who should be at home for S 'occupy children).

Njamais the spirit the fact that this is almost impossible in the current economy where most families need two income to survive.

Society also says to men that they should be good fathers, but normative masculinity does not allow them to be the main guardian of their children, even if their wife is the one who has the greatest income potential and even ifIt is he who would prefer to be the main parent at home.

Performing this type of masculinity is not healthy for most men.

Without the possibility of asking for help when they need it, men have to face trauma, mental health problems or relational problems alone - often by transforming their feelings of fear and vulnerability angry or in rabies and/ or by transforming themselves into substances.-treat.

In the United States, men are more likely to commit murder while also being more likely to be victims of murder.If drug addiction is also a serious health problem for women, men are more likely to become drug addicts, to be hospitalized due to overdose and to die because of their drug addiction.

In addition to all this, men are more likely to end up in prison, more likely to become homeless and more likely to die by suicide than women in our society.

These statistics are simplified to the extreme (as are often health and crime statistics), but the trends reflected here are very real.

There is nothing wrong with being a traditionally male, hetero and cisgenre man.

If a man prefers jeans with dresses and wants to be the traditional support of his family, it is perfect for him.For many men, comply with the traditional expectations of men works well and seems natural - and it is wonderful for them.

But strengthening the traditional genres binary for others is ridiculous.It's ridiculous when you tweet a pop superstar, it's ridiculous when you raise children, and it's ridiculous to try to enforce in schools and workplaces.

There are many ways to be a good man, and masculinity is available in as many varieties as there are people who identify as male.

En vérité, être""viril» signifie simplement être""comme un homme» et une fois que nous avons abandonné notre besoin de garder la masculinité dans un espace aussi strict et confiné, la virilité peut prendre toutes sortes de choses.

You can be a guy who wears dresses and still has millions of women who love you, or you can be a guy who wears dresses and don't care if women love you at all. Vous pouvez être Prince ou Billy Porter ou David Bowie ou même Elliot Page et toujours correspondre parfaitement à la définition de""l’homme viril».

This is because all kinds of men are good.Masculinity itself is good and beautiful, in all its forms-as long as it is never used to harm or oppress others.