Male Celebs Rocking Skirts, Nude Photoshoots Give Constructive Spin To Masculinity

Whether or not we like to believe it, most human beings are bound by social constructs. Each of us are products of our socio-political-economic environments and only a few have the courage to go beyond it. For example, when Elizabeth Smith Miller designed “bloomers” in 1851, there was much controversy. It was absurd for people to see a woman in such a ‘masculine’ piece of clothing and for them, women had no requirement for it. Thus, sooner or later the trend fizzled out as women returned to the domestic sphere.

It was only with the women’s rights movement in the 1960s and 70s that pants were deemed as an acceptable and appropriate piece of clothing for women in private or public.

Brad Pitt rocking a skirt; Ranveer Singh's bold photoshoot: The positive spin to the future of masculinity

What this illustrates is that the gender binary, and the roles that society attaches to it are at the very least, problematic and losing relevance each day. These also include clothing. With the idea that gender cannot be defined and is by nature, fluid, comes the idea that “The notion that clothing as an expression of our personality belongs to one gender or another is the social construct that needs disassembling,” said Nick Paget, senior analyst at World Global Style Network.

An outfit is a form of expression and not categorisation. An individual’s “OOTD” is a space for inclusivity and fluidity. So, when artists like Harry Styles, Dan Levy and Brad Pitt step into their comfort zones, that’s what breaks systematic stereotypes. Pitt said he wore a skirt in the scorching heat because “it’s all about the breeze” and advised other men to do the same. For a man of Pitt’s age, to do this, means to spell out that gender-fluid clothing is not just a “Gen-Z thing” but a worldview that is here to stay. Styles told Vogue that when we think of clothing in binary terms as menswear or womenswear, we limit and constrict ourselves; “once you remove any barriers, obviously you open up the arena in which you can play”, said Harry.

Dan Levy, Ranveer Singh

Since older times, skirts have actually been a part of men’s clothing in western as well as non-western cultures like Egyptian kilts, Greek chitons and Indian dhotis and lungis. We also know Indian actor Ranveer Singh and American rapper Lil Nas X to have rocked skirts. So, why are we so hell-bent on assigning genders to everyday activities? Ranveer Singh recently did a nude photoshoot and had extensive backlash, hate comments and multiple first-information reports filed against him. People have blamed Singh to have “insulted the modesty of Indian women”. Such accusations are a product of holding the gender norms too close to one’s heart. Personally, there’s no need to assign a gender to activities or clothing and definitely no need to posit one gender against the other by claiming that in doing what once was common only to a certain gender group, one disrespects others.

The future of masculinity is that there is no defining it. No fixed ideals, no norms, no roles, just self-expression. I have always believed sheer and unfiltered subjectivity to be the best form of creativity. Every individual has a unique sense of self and the hope is to be able to appreciate humans each time they do something liberating, irrespective of their gender.

Suggested Reading: Are We Witnessing The Peak Of Male Objectification In Bollywood?

Views expressed are the author’s own