Billy Porter made headlines last month when he expressed his anger over Harry Styles‘ Vogue cover. He has now apologized to Styles and clarified where he was aiming his criticism.
The Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Award winner expressed how displeased he was with Vogue‘s decision to put the British singer on the cover. Styles was featured on the cover with the headline, “Harry Styles Makes His Own Rules.” In the issue, the “Watermelon Sugar” pop star talked about why he chose to start wearing dresses in public.
“Clothes are there to have fun with and experiment with and play with. What’s really exciting is that all of these lines are just kind of crumbling away,” Styles said during his Vogue interview. “When you take away ‘There’s clothes for men and there’s clothes for women,’ once you remove any barriers, obviously you open up the arena in which you can play.
Porter told The Sunday Times that he was among the first men to wear dresses at public events on such a mainstream scale. “I changed the whole game,” Porter said. “I. Personally. Changed. The. Whole. Game. And that is not ego, that is just fact. I was the first one doing it and now everybody is doing it.”
During a recent appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Porter addressed the controversy over his remarks about Styles becoming the first man to be on the cover of Vogue in a dress last December. Straight away, he addressed the issue by apologizing to Styles.
“Harry Styles, I apologize to you for having your name in my mouth,” Porter said. “It’s not about you, the conversation is not about you.”
“The conversation is actually deeper than that. It is about the systems of oppression and erasure of people of color who contribute to the culture,” Porter said. “Now, that’s a lot to unpack. I’m willing to unpack it, sans the dragging and cancel culture of the internet. Because I do not now, nor will I ever, adjudicate my life or humanity in sound bites on social media. So when you’re ready to have the real conversation, call a b—h! Okay? I’m ready to have it!”
When Porter called out Vogue’s move, he explained that he believed Styles was wearing dresses as a mere fashion choice, while Porter wore a gown on red carpet of the Academy Awards as a political statement.
“He doesn’t care, he’s just doing it because it’s the thing to do,” Porter said. “This is politics for me. This is my life. I had to fight my entire life to get to the place where I could wear a dress to the Oscars and not be gunned down. All he has to do is be white and straight.”
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