Billy Porter

I present to you all a pretentious ten page essay written in typical fan-girl style glorifying Billy Porters PHENOMENAL #Oscar2019 look.

This multi-talented and faceted American entertainment asset has stunned us all with this custom couture masterpiece guaranteed to turn heads and attract all forms of attention. Negative publicity? Hell no, grow up. Positive publicity? ALL THE DAMN TIME!

Billy Porter wearing an elegant Christian Siriano ensemble is undoubtedly the most memorable fashion statement of the history of the Oscars. His velvet tuxedo ball gown single handedly deserves all the rave and Oscar-glory. Billy Porter, who is known for his bold fashion choices has collaborated with the former Project Runway winner resulting in a creative explosion transforming all of the male and female best dressed lists. This magnificent look DEFINITELY wins first place in every category.

Revolutionizing the connotations surrounding gender norms in the fashion industry, this iconic ensemble singlehandedly shifts the argument surrounding "crossdressing" into "normative dressing." Scrapping all views on typical masculinity and femininity.

Cross dressing is a term placed on individuals who wear clothing that is typical for the opposite sex. Another outdated street term for this is known as "performance dressing" which originated in French film between the 1880s and 1980s as a form of comedic relief to mock the opposite sex. This phenomena birthed what we currently know as "drag queens/impersonators."

Now here's the article crunch line. Why is Billy Porter's look so important for culture in the digital millennium era?

Billy Porter’s look is indeed a statement, not just a statement that will go down in the fashion history books, but a statement that holds incredible political standing. The dress brings typical considerations of masculinity into disrepute.

Political climates around the world have changed and evolved drastically from where we were a couple decades ago, so why has human thinking not evolved in a similar manner?

Women attend award shows and walk red carpets, go to meetings and carry out daily life wearing suits and no one bats an eye. But, the moment a man puts on a skirt, a dress or a gown, his masculinity is questioned. His sexuality is questioned.

Billy Porter himself, in an after Oscars interview with E! News, stated that he “wanted to create a space where we can have a dialogue about the masculine and feminine and everything in between.” The underlying message here is that we, as a society, equate power with "wearing the pants" and subsequently look down on a man dressing in a typically feminine way.

So, to answer our own question, statements like the one made by Billy Porter allow people in the online sphere to question that which they have been taught. It shows young girls and boys that they should be free to express and explore who they are in any way they feel comfortable and in doing so, break down the cultural and gender defying barriers placed on us from birth.

Perhaps this is how, as a people, we will begin to redefine societal terms and attachments as to who we are. Do we have to clearly identify as one thing over the other? Who's to say that we can’t be both—or maybe even embody all societal labels on gender and sexuality. I look forward to an age where men can comfortably wear lace lingerie, an era where women can can pay for the entire bill on the first date, a time when men can comfortably leave the house wearing a layer of foundation. Why is the conversation so advanced, yet the actual implementation is so last century?

Why is it that the "Best Dressed" category hasn’t fully transformed into a non-binary category?