kill the idea

so harry styles, one of the members of one direction, came out with his first ever solo photoshoot today. harry has never presented in the most traditionally masculine way, and has often been praised for having long hair and not being hypermasculine and for wearing glittery shoes, things like that. but some of the photos in this shoot present him as androgynous in that particular way that artists shoot for when they have attractive cis white models. anyway now people are like HARRY !! KING OF GENDER!!! and i for one want to die! so here's my tirade about it!! 

kill the idea that cis people should be praised for “paving the way” for trans/nonbinary people by “queering gender.“ almost every cis person ive seen on tumblr since harry's solo magazine shoot came out has been praising him for being androgynous and breaking gender stereotypes. operating on the assumption that he is cis, which he very well may not be, but he has verbally self-identified as a man many times over the years, so i'm assuming he’s cis–as a cis white man, his gender expression does little to nothing for trans ppl. i still get harassed on the street by strangers and wont go into gendered public bathrooms out of fear and get misgendered bc of the way i express my gender. i get harassed and misgendered when i express my more masc aligned gender in feminine coded ways. harry gets praise. this is not "liberation”–it’s literally nothing. like harry can express his gender in any way that feels authentic to him, that’s not the problem. gender is performative for all of us. the problem is that ppl think that his gender expression is groundbreaking. regardless of that idea completely ignoring history and many poc who came before him who did similar things or even more (first thought was prince), there is nothing radical about a cis man with long hair in chelsea boots. that will never be more radical than the mere existence of trans ppl. we do this shit every day to survive and be ourselves and we get disrespected, abused, and killed. harry styles gets praised. THAT is the difference. there is NOTHING radical or subversive about a cis white man getting credit for shit trans ppl do every fucking day. in fact, i can barely think of anything that conforms more to our society’s hegemonic structure. i love harry very very much, but it is an ENORMOUS privilege that he can perform his gender authentically and not face violence for it.