13 August 2023 , 05:32
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Billy Porter has taken fresh aim at Harry Styles - slating him anew for wearing a dress on the cover of Vogue magazine three years ago.
But the 53-year-old Pose actor didn’t stop with just Harry as he also lashed out at the fashion bible and it’s 73-year-old Editor In Chief, Dame Anna Wintour. It’s not the first time Billy has expressed his displeasure at the fact 29-year-old Harry posed in a frock and was pitched as a poster boy of genderfluid/non-binary fashion back in 2020.
And while the American star had previously issued an apology of sorts to British singer and occasional actor Harry in the past, it seems the gloves have come off again. Billy has hit out and expressed his frustration that a twinky pop star should be spotlighted as a role model for the gender nonconforming community - when it seems the One Direction star is just jumping on a trend.
And has has taken vicious aim at Vogue and Anna for allowing the ‘white and cute and straight’ performer to be granted a magazine cover at the detriment of true genderfluid performers. Speaking to The Telegraph, Billy - who has generated countless headlines for his own extravagant fashion choices and has worn a dress on many a red carpet - explained that he had been invited to a Q&A session with Anna in front of Conde Nast staff a few short months before Harry’s Vogue cover was unveiled.
Actor Billy Porter has hit out at Harry Styles once again (Getty Images for The Recording A)
Harry wore a dress while on the cover of Vogue magazine in December 2020 (VOGUE)He raged: “That b***h said to me at the end, ‘How can we do better?’ And I was so taken off guard that I didn’t say what I should have said,… Use your power as Vogue to uplift the voices of the leaders of this de-gendering of fashion movement … Six months later, Harry Styles is the first man on the cover.”
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He then attempted to downplay that he was unhappy with Harry himself - however, went on to assume the Watermelon Sugar’s own sexual preference. Billy said: “It’s not Harry Styles’ fault that he happens to be white and cute and straight and fit into the infrastructure that way. I call out the gatekeepers.”
He continued: “[Harry is] white and he’s straight. That’s why he’s on the cover. Non-binary blah blah blah blah. No. It doesn’t feel good to me. You’re using my community — or your people are using my community — to elevate you. You haven’t had to sacrifice anything.”
Billy branded Dame Anna Wintour a 'b***h' (Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions)
Some music fans have questioned if Harry's choice of wearing women's clothes could inadvertently be seen as mocking the non-binary community (Getty Images for HS)Billy had previously asserted his views in 2021 when he went into detail about his views about the Vogue cover with The Sunday Times. He said: “I’m not dragging Harry Styles, but he is the one you’re going to try and use to represent this new conversation?
"He doesn’t care, he’s just doing it because it’s the thing to do,” Porter said at the time. “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 now. All he has to do is be white and straight.”
Harry himself - who has been linked to a long list of attractive women - has played coy about his sexuality in the past. He told the Guardian in 2019: “Am I sprinkling in nuggets of sexual ambiguity to try and be more interesting? No. ... In terms of how I wanna dress, and what the album sleeve's gonna be, I tend to make decisions in terms of collaborators I want to work with.
“I want things to look a certain way. Not because it makes me look gay, or it makes me look straight, or it makes me look bisexual, but because I think it looks cool. And more than that, I dunno, I just think sexuality's something that's fun. Honestly? I can't say I've given it any more thought than that.”