When Harry Styles agreed to model a series of dresses and skirts for a Vogue cover shoot, he knew it would stir up controversy. He probably didn’t think he was going to be blamed for undermining civilization itself. But that’s what some right-wing opinion-havers would have you believe.
“Blexit” leader Candace Owens started the brouhaha with this melodramatic tweet:
She followed up with a swipe at feminism:
It wasn’t long until fast-talking dunderhead Ben Shapiro decided to chime in.
But Ben wasn’t content to simply share a couple of tweets on the issue, and so he took it to his podcast today, delivering a nearly half-hour rant on the subject, interrupted only by Shapiro reading out ads for luxury bedsheets and his publication the Daily Wire.
He began by not-so-subtly suggesting that men wearing dresses might deserve a punch in the mouth, and followed with a rambling, repetitive rant taking on what he, likes Owens, sees as a dire threat to western civilization: men in “floofy” frocks.
This excerpt will give you some of the flavor of the thing:
But Shapiro wasn’t just annoyed; he presented himself as a noble guardian of civilization fighting off the cross-dressing barbarians.
“This stuff matters,” he declared.
It matters. Because these are fundamental ideas for the preservation of civilization. Boys and girls are different. Boys and girls are different. And it’s important to inculcate in your children that boys and girls are different. And any parents who fail to inculcate in a boy that manliness is a good thing, and that responsible manliness helped build civilizations … any parent that does not teach their girls that femininity, meaning the protection of hearth and home in a different way than masculinity, is a good thing. Any parent that doesn’t teach their girls that is not doing their kid any favors. They’re undermining the civilizational compact that men and women [have], based on biology and in every human culture.
Dude, it’s just a man in a dress. Cis male musicians have been donning dresses for decades — from David Bowie to Kurt Cobain — and somehow civilization hasn’t come tumbling down.
But Shapiro thinks this is a Very Important Topic.
We shouldn’t be shy about discussing these issuesl the left certainly isn’t shy about discussing these issues. They’ll put these [ideas] in public schools, they’ll tell your kindergartener that real men wear dresses. And then you’ll be explaining to a five year old that real men don’t wear dresses. And I don’t feel that’s an acceptable ramification of our cultural discussion.
I really don’t think there’s much discussion of cross-dressing in kindergarten.
Shapiro throws in a weird racial aside:
Harry Styles is a free man, living in a western country, in a west by the way that is defended by white masculine men, as a general rule.
Shapiro insists he has nothing against Harry Styles. It’s just that when Styles puts on a dress he is TEARING APART THE VERY FABRIC OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION
I’m not saying don’t pick up his CDs; I’m not saying don’t listen to his music; I’m not saying don’t watch the movies he’s in. All I’m saying is that when you put out an argument that men ought to act like women and that this is a good thing you’re doing something that tears at the fabric of not only civilization but family and the fabric of childrearing and everybody with half a brain knows this.
Again, Ben, it’s just a man in a dress, a playful tweak of conventional notions of masculinity. How fragile is masculinity — how fragile is civilization itself — if it can be brought to its knees by a handful of pictures of a man in a dress?
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My numbers might be outdated, but I remember reading somewhere that white men are becoming underrepresented in the US military, with Hispanic enlistment on the rise and Black men twice as likely, proportionally speaking, to enlist than their white counterparts.
Tastes vary of course, but I find Kwon Ji Yong butch regardless of what he wears.
(Bigbang Café)
https://youtu.be/kj-XYOr_3rQ
@ kindasortaharmless
Here you go.
https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/demographics-us-military
I’m guessing he’s never seen pictures of Jesus?
Male rockers have been wearing dresses for longer than Owens and Shapiro put together have been alive. And frankly, I’d like to see Shapiro try to lay one on Iggy Pop, even now.
I could be wrong, but isn’t a common stereotype among racists that Asian men are less masculine than men of other races?
Now I want a shirt that says “toxic female” on it.
It’s interesting Owens says this, seeing as it would imply that there is some “real” form of feminism that is good in her eyes.
Of course Ben extends his view that anything is a debate to imply that any time anyone does anything it’s a referendum. No one asked for his opinion.
All this time us feminist conspirators had been making elaborate plans to feminize men. If only we knew that all it took was making them put on a dress!
Of course, if cis men and their masculinity is this weak, I question why it’s so important anyway.
Didn’t Ancient Greek men, which he thinks are the pinnacle of Western Civilization, wear what he would probably consider dresses?
Cool. Once again he tries to make us sound bad but instead makes us sound cool.
As for biology, Ben, maybe you can ask Dr. Wife which gene codes for clothing.
It’s been a long time since I was in kindergarten, but I don’t remember the subject of men in dresses coming up at all. I do remember that my mother refused to let me wear a dress to school, but that was a separate issue.
Sounds fun.
Speak for yourself, Ben, at least I know what a WAP is.
It used to be pretty common for boys to wear dresses.
That’s Franklin D Roosevelt.
O/T: Alek Minassian, the Toronto van killer, is on trial and his defense (and his father testifying in his defense) is trying to claim he isn’t responsible because he is autistic. Needless to say, the claims made that all autistic people are incapable of emotion or empathy are extremely harmful and also contradict the lived experience of autistic people. Regardless of the court’s ruling, this kind of argument being spread online in media is very harmful to autistic people as a group.
Funny, my son was in kindergarten last year, down here in Australia. I don’t recall any discussion of whether “real men” wear dresses at all. He didn’t tell me if there was. Almost like Ben is talking out his arsehole…
I had no idea western civilization was that fragile.
#WesternCivilizationSoFragile
*facepalm
@Naglfar
As someone who actually is on the autism spectrum: I despise people that make this anemic and abelist defense in the name of defending monsterous human beings who hurt and murder innocent people, as well as implying that because I am autistic: I am devoid of emotion or empathy. Needless to say if this were not the case: I would not feel emotional and emphatic compassion towards people who are victims of injustice (such as women, LGBT people, non-whites and other minorities) nor feel rage at the atrocities against those who persecute and advocate persecution of minorities or having dirt bags like this trying to cop to the claim that autistic people are uncarring, emotionless murderers for simply being autistic.
And I frankly find it and can affirm that it’s as harmful, abelist and demonizing of autistic people (if granted in distinct ways) as the nonsense, unscientific claim that “Vaccines Cause Autism”.
@Alan Robertshaw
Thanks! I was surprised that the poorest Americans are actually slightly underrepresented, considering how often recruiters try to sell the military as a path out of poverty.
I wounder how much The music video for Queen’s I want to break free contributed to the fall western civilization.
I would love to have the emotional energy of Ben and Candace have. I am freaking out about the Covid-19 numbers here in the states. And then the canvassing board in Wayne county (where Detroit is) in Michigan refused to certify the results which could lead to Wayne county votes not counting flipping Michigan to Trump.
Democracy is at risk and these twits are worried about a dress??!!? Mr. Styles can walk down the street nude for all I care.
@Kestrel
Wayne County finally did certify the results after national pressure. Frustrating that it came to this, but ultimately resolved.
Kilts. Togas. Ministerial robes. Judicial robes. Bathrobes. Winter coats, down to the knees. Bib aprons. Lab coats. Artist smocks, down to the knees.
[quote]responsible manliness helped build civilizations[/quote]Yes, but, chucking tantrums over any deviation from a narrow and harmful ideal of masculinity is not responsible.
Does donning a floofy dress constitute generally voting in this referendum on masculinity? I guess then men who claim floofy dresses for masculinity would be in favor, and men who don the dress as a rejection of masculinity would be against. Apparently, results are still pending.
So much for the tolerant right punch.
Because they might not notice otherwise?
Damnit I was going to wear western civilization and now it’s ruined beyond repair.
Civilization is is in danger of being canceled, but at least Harry Styles isn’t.
I definitely have the feeling the far righter thrashing are more violent and desesperate theses days.
That being said, while I know personally some trumpards and neonazis, I don’t know of any people who ever took Shapiro seriously. I guess they exist, just they are quite remote from me apparently. And I sure hope they aren’t too numerous.
I have not read the article, but if someone had read it, is it written somewhere in it that men have to act like women ?
I mean, if i read an article of a famous male person wearing a clown costume, do i have to assume that i have to wear a clown costume to be considered as a manly man ? Even if the article just says that there is a circus in your town this week-end ?
Love how it’s SO obvious and natural that men and women are different and must be dressed differently, that we have to drill it into our kids and never let them see anything that contradicts it less they suspect otherwise.
@KindaSortaHarmless
Shitty diet and education, mainly. The poor diet means they can’t hack the physical, and the comparatively poor education voids them out. The days of a soldier being “a strong back and no brain” passed on about 50 years back, contrary to the stereotype.
Let’s pause for a moment to contemplate the irony of Candace Owens, one of the most toxic people of any gender walking the earth today, calling someone else toxic.
As a trans person, one thing that really sticks out with all these arguments is the weird no-win situation created. Somehow Shapiro et al are convinced that if a cis man puts on a dress he isn’t a man anymore, but in the same breath insists trans women are men in dresses. I mean, I don’t expect coherence or consistency from them, but that bit stuck out to me.
@Lumipuna
It was probably a dress anyway. I mean, have you seen the Ancient Greek clothing?
@Ohlmann
I’d imagine it’s because they realize Trump lost and are in the “anger” stage of grief.
I had the misfortune of knowing a few but haven’t seen or heard from them since before the pandemic. I’d like to keep it that way. Unfortunately, judging by his book sales and speaking engagements, he appears to be popular, although it’s all within the conservative bubble.
@occasional reader
Yep, better get your clown makeup ready. /s