Reviews | Here’s the problem with Brad Pitt’s skirt

I was used to that. While most of my peers spent the weekends at football games and rodeos, I donned black high heels and Russian red lipstick and drove to Los Angeles, where I sneaked into clubs with my fake ID and innocent smile. It was just me being me.

So I found it off-putting when I saw CNN tease, “Brad Pitt’s linen skirt is getting attention.” And fashion editor Merle Ginsberg’s Facebook post: “When Brad Pitt walked the red carpet in Berlin for the [premiere] of Bullet Train, he outclassed Harry Styles – by wearing a skirt suit. It’s one thing, people.

People: There are those who have known, throughout history, that men in skirts “is a thing”.

Here’s another thing: Brad is Brad, and Harry is Harry – rich, famous, untouchable white men. They are immune to any dangerous consequences of their expression. I was not.

Shortly after my playful appointment, my school was in turmoil. How dare Trey do something for girls? Journalists rushed to campus before I could leave, to report on the boy who had caused a “royal uproar.”

So maybe it’s fun to see famous people doing things that are out of the norm. And I’m sure the flashy appearances of Pitt et al. give the curators plenty of meat to chew. (We don’t even know what a man is is more!)

But what about people who cannot return to safety? What about the little boy who will be thrown in the mud tomorrow because he’s a little too fey? Or the butch girl whose breast will be pinched by someone who wants to see if it’s really a girl?

I’m not offended by Pitt and her skirt – which, frankly, wasn’t that interesting or attractive. Kill, my daughter. Try something new.”

I’m far more concerned about the treatment of Pitt’s skirt as clickbait and queerbait (the marketing practice used to get the attention of LGBTQ people by claiming a topic is queer). Britain’s GQ came under fire for this after a recent cover photo showed Brad “all dolled up and looking like a freshly deceased ex-gay”, as one reviewer put it. Styles, who is in a heteronormative relationship, has been hailed as “groundbreaking” for wearing a dress on the cover of Vogue but will not commit to a queer label.

Homosexuality is innate and permanent. It’s not “brave” to put it on for publicity and then donate the clothes to Goodwill.

More than 7% of American adults identify as “something other than heterosexual”, according to Gallup. After surveying nearly 35,000 queer people between the ages of 13 and 24 last year, the Trevor Project concluded that “the majority of LGBTQ youth (52%) who were enrolled in middle school or high school said they had been victims of sexual abuse. bullying in person or electronically in the past year. It also revealed that 42% had “seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year, including more than half of transgender and non-binary youth”.

As a child, I was delighted with what society considered feminine. I played with GI Joe but I also had a Barbie. I was sassy and mannered. I was called “gay”, “fag”, and “sissy” – before fifth grade. I was pushed and beaten, and after my appointment to the house, I received death threats, all for crossing gender lines.

When I was 17, I tried to kill myself. I was tired of being harassed and hurt, and my life at home wasn’t safe. My mother died when I was 16. My father had been away since I was 3 years old. I lived with a Christian grandmother and a homophobic aunt who had difficulty accepting my homosexuality. And no, I couldn’t retire to the safety of a mansion.

Today I am a 45 year old man. I no longer hang out or wear women’s clothes. I’m fit and I have facial hair. But I’m still not safe.

About 240 bills targeting LGBTQ rights were proposed by state lawmakers in the first three months of this year, according to an analysis by NBC News, and about 670 anti-LGBTQ bills had been introduced since 2018. On July 19, the House passed a bill protecting federally recognized same-sex marriage; it is now in the Senate. Will Pitt’s skirt get senators to vote yes, so President Biden can sign the bill?

I am 100% in favor of free and artistic expression. But it’s not daring for a celebrity to take it off and then return to their lush life. Millions of people have broken heteronormative norms, forever, without the safety of a stage or a red carpet. And these people are very attacked.