The Styles police need a good dressing down
He often wears a pretty blouse. He is so rock ’n’ roll
Afew years ago, I sent my son Zac to school in a dress for World Book Day. He went as the character in David Walliams’ book The Boy In The Dress.
It was a bit last minute so he borrowed the frock from his sister and I put a clip in his hair before sending him off on the school bus.
But I have to admit that as soon as I waved goodbye I thought: “Oh no, he’s going to get bullied. They’re going to laugh at him and it’s all my fault.”
After school that day I waited anxiously in the car park, expecting Zac to come out crying with the dress in tatters.
But he came out laughing and smiling.
“How did it go?” I asked, tentatively.
“It was great,” he said. “I wasn’t the only one in a dress – there were quite a few. But they had the proper character’s dress on, like in the book.”
And with that he laughed and tucked into a Jaffa Cake.
I thought: “Wow! W The world is changing. Boys can wear dresses and this new generation g doesn’t even bat an eyelid.” ey
Young peo people today are more open to othe other people’s choices. They are comfortable expressing themselves and pushin pushing boundaries.If a boy had worn a dress to school in my day, he would probably have been called names and had his head kicked in. But we were dinosaurs compared to today’s society.
And it is my generation of dinosaurs who criticised pop star Harry Styles for wearing a dress on the front of Vogue.
Harry, 26, is a handsome, charming young man. He was always my favourite in One Direction and when I once met him briefly, I got the impression he was brought up very well.
I love his style. He often wears a pretty blouse and make-up. And I understand why girls find him irresistible. He is so rock ’n’ roll.
A man can only carry off a dress if he is at ease with who he is, like Harry. He told Vogue: “There’s so much joy to be had in playing with clothes. I’ve never thought too much about what it means. It just becomes this extended part of creating something.”
I really get that. But people who are unhappy in their own skin – people who like to stifle others’ freedom of expression – really don’t.
Trump supporter Candace Owens actually thinks Harry’s dress sense is an “attack” on masculinity. She tweeted: “There is no society that can survive without strong men. The East knows this... bring back manly men.”
With my South East Asian heritage, I can assure her that men in that part of the world wear the same clothes as women – the baggy trousers and tunics called shalwar kameez.
They certainly don’t relate their masculinity to their clothes.
And what exactly is manly? My hubby doesn’t wear a dress, but he’s never done DIY. Does that make him unmanly?
Owen’s words feel dirty in a world brought together through a shared pandemic.
During lockdown, people have thought about what’s really important. Many have concluded that life is too short, so we need to get out there and be happy.
And live and let live.
I think Harry looks strong and sexy in his dress. And anyone who calls him weird, is very weird indeed.