so tip #9 talks about how “androgyne” is “one of the great images of Camp sensibility”. She cites figures that are “swooning, slim, sinuous” (yeah, we’re looking at you Harry) and “thin, flowing, and sexless”– and to me this is were the Media Vision of Harry comes into play.
So, stay with me for a second and I’ll get back to Sontag. BUT so we all know that Harry is constantly made to be a Sex Symbol– the tight jeans, the Mick Jagger and “Rockstar” comparisons, and womanizing bullshit. That’s what most people think of when they think of Harry, but now we’re being introduced to Big Grandpa Pants, Loafers, Big Sweaters, Hats, and other fashion choices that are obviously purposeful but Not “Sexy” the way people think it should be. There’s a shift in his physical image. [This isn’t saying that him wearing those things isn’t sexy, but we’re working in Fashion Binaries right now, so stay with me I hate it too]
Okay, so with that in mind, back to Sontag. She says that “the most refined form of sexual attractiveness consists in going against the grain of one’s sex” which sounds like it’s gonna be gross again but hold on. She isn’t talking about being purposefully “dressing like a girl” as a man [re: enforcing binaries], but rather “the exaggeration of sexual characteristics and personality mannerisms”. And my favorite quote “What is most beautiful in virile men is something feminine”.
What does this have to do with Harry’s camp look? Well, in my humble onion, everything.
Look at him! He’s wearing clothes that would typically be used for exaggerating the “sex characteristics” of women’s fashion, so to speak. He has lace breast patches. He has a sheer back with visible buttons (which I argue is inherently associated with women’s fashion and the whole “zip me up?” trope, but that’s less relevant but still food for thought). His pants are loose, which isn’t acting as a “cod piece”– as “men’s fashion” typically might and how that old “black skinny jeans” look for him used to– but rather working to accentuating his waist. His clothes are purposefully accentuating things that would typically seen as key “characteristics” to women’s fashion.
It’s incredibly feminine but not just because it’s sheer and made of lace. It’s how and where the clothes are different and exposing that make it Camp. It’s all on purpose. This also leans into Camp’s inherent need for “stylization” that it so needs in order to be, well, Camp. I know Harry isn’t in a full gown or glitter (which also would have been amazing, of course) but that’s not stylized for him.
Harry Styles, according to some spots of media, is still the Completely Heterosexual Rockstar Sex Symbol. So this outfit was designed to specifically subvert that very limiting and “masculine” expectation of him. I feel like we are all already over that image of him so we were ready for more, for that last piece of his hesitation to break and let us see him All Out, but this was his choice! He was careful in stylizing this look to be for them, for the society that doesn’t want to acknowledge this side of him.
There is so much more I could go off about, and I’m sure y’all could too, but I just wanted to share something that really struck me. We know Harry’s been over sexualized since he was far too young and I think this was a conscious move to show that he isn’t a Male Sex Object, but rather someone who can dress his own body and show off the parts he wants– even if they aren’t what men “typically” want to show off. He is showing his literal nipples at the biggest fashion event of the year and has pastel painted nails, a pearl earring, and an open, sheer back and arms. With that said, he’s even showing off his “Rockstar Tattoos” through sheer fabric, which softens the “tougher/sailor” masculine energy people associate with them, and make the black ink look more like a part of his very feminine and stylized outfit. And that is so against what Everyone That Thinks They Know Womanizer Harry Styles would be expecting.
It’s gentle, it’s high fashion, it’s gorgeous, it’s breathtaking, it’s Camp, and it’s all Harry’s.
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