I absolutely love authenticity and applaud anyone who lives their truth no matter how much push back they get. This is why I love Billy Porter. I fell in love with Billy’s sartorial clothing choices at award shows. My favorite of course was Billy’s 2019 Oscar’s tuxedo gown from Christian Siriano. That was the moment I knew Billy wasn’t playing by anyone’s rules and I was here for it. In a profile with InStyle, Billy said that he measures his life as BO (before Oscars) and AO (after Oscars). He said that Oscars moment raised his profile and, although he welcomes it, he no longer has the anonymity he once did. Billy is using his platform to give others permission to embrace genderless fashion and authentic expression. He also explained how reactions to his fashion can be hurtful. Below are a few excerpts:
Part of his loss of privacy over the past few years stems from his larger-than-life Emmy-winning turn as Pray Tell in FX’s ballroom-culture drama, Pose. The other part of it has to do with the massive following he’s gained since the 2019 Oscars, when he arrived in a statement-making, gender-bending custom Christian Siriano tuxedo gown that both broke the Internet and launched him into instant fashion-icon status.
When speaking about his evolution, Porter puts things into two categories: “BO or AO,” meaning before Oscars or after Oscars. The impact of the look on his career was no accident. Porter knew he was about to step onto one of the world’s biggest stages and was ready to seize the moment. “I thought back to when my friend Idina Menzel was at the Oscars [in 2014] to sing ‘Let It Go,’ from Frozen, and John Travolta mispronounced her name onstage,” he says. “I literally said out loud, ‘She’s going to be a household name in less than 24 hours.’ And she was. As funny as it may sound, I’m a businessman, and wearing that [Oscars] dress was a business decision, in a sense. People were like, ‘Oh, he’s just trying to get attention.’ Well, yeah, I’m in show business! It’s part of my job. Otherwise, I don’t eat.”
Porter’s other hope was that the look would inspire a long-overdue conversation about genderless fashion. “I used to get frustrated that women could wear whatever they wanted and men had to show up in the same penguin suit,” he says. “The reason why women wearing pants is considered OK by society’s standards is because it comes from the patriarchy. The patriarchy is male, so suits are strong, and anything feminine is weak. I was sick of that discussion, and I knew my platform allowed me to challenge it.”
While the look went viral and applause emojis showered Porter’s feed in an outpouring of love, there were also a lot of close-minded comments hurled his way. A particularly frustrating moment happened in January 2020, when he was invited to appear on Public Television’s Sesame Street wearing his Siriano gown. After the show shared Instagram photos of Porter on set, Jason Rapert, a Republican Arkansas state senator, wrote a Facebook post slamming PBS for using taxpayer dollars to promote a “radical LGBTQ+ agenda,” adding that he could pass a bill to “cut off all funding” to the network. A petition to remove Porter’s appearance on the show from pro-life group Life Petitions also began to circulate, alleging that Sesame Street was trying to “sexualize children using drag queens” by featuring Porter in his gown.
“It was based on this idea that I’m coming to get their children because of the way I dress,” says Porter, shaking his head. “What is that? I’m over here minding my own business. So why is it triggering you? At that moment, I was grateful that I am a man of a certain age, because when you become a certain age, zero f—s are given. I don’t now, nor will I ever, adjudicate my life or my humanity in [other people’s] sound bites or responses on social media. Simultaneously, it still hurts to have people come after me for nothing.”
Porter looks at his sartorial choices as another form of his artistry, much like any song he performs or character he embodies. “It’s how I express myself,” he says. “When Lady Gaga dresses up and performs a song on TV as if she’s a man [Jo Calderone at the 2011 MTV VMAs], no one bats an eye. They receive her as an artist who’s playing with different silhouettes and ideas. Same with David Bowie. When white and straight people do it, they’re considered artists. When I do it, I’m a perversion. The answer to that from me is no.”
While I have not gotten into Pose yet, as I mentioned I admire Billy’s fearless fashion. I grew up in the 80s when men dressing in more feminine styles was de rigueur. We had Prince in high heels and ruffles, David Bowie in a dress and Rick James in makeup. We did not judge it but accepted it. It is so odd to me how everyone is making a big deal of Billy Porter and Harry Styles’ fashion choices. I love how Billy was like, “why is my living my life and minding my business triggering you?” Like seriously, he isn’t hurting anyone so why are people having an issue? If parents fear that celebrities have more influence over their children maybe those parents need to reconsider their parenting skills. In the meantime, I want these conservative wingnuts to stop policing how people are living their lives. If people like Rep. Jason Rapert are afraid that Billy just living his life authentically will shock his children he can always just turn off the TV. Billy is a national treasure and I hope he continues to live his best life and wear his ostentatious fashion. Billy shouldn’t worry about pissing people off because rule breakers and trail blazers often do.
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His Met Gala get up was amazing too. Best of the night, actually doing the theme.
was that the one with the moving fringe on the hat?
THAT was BY FAR my favorite of his red carpet outfits. I LOVE the tux-gown but that HAT!!! with the silver eye make up?! SLAY.
It was the year of the camp theme. He was carried in by like 6 other men and they kind of had an ancient Egypt look.
He was in a gold jumpsuit with gold wings… amazing. But that hat with the moveable fringe was also divine–even though it was a different event.
HIs fashion is so memorable that the event fades into the background…
I think Billy Porter has such elegant bone structure.
That Oscar tuxedo gown is everything!
That’s the best dress Siriano has ever made, and that’s saying something (he’s my favorite).
What I love about it the most is that it’s exactly in the middle between masculine and feminine. Billy Porter will wear clothes on both ends of the spectrum, and he’s always on point, but this one was right in the middle.
So feminine with the skirt and the velvet, but masculine in the way it’s structured and the way the top is cut. It’s just perfect.
I don’t think I will ever get over how much I love that tuxedo gown. Every time I see that top pic, I just feel happy- it really is everything!
The dress is a work of art and belongs in a museum.
I love Billy Porter! Treat yourself and pull up his performance of Beauty School Dropout on Leno (it’s an old one) on YouTube
That white dress is so so beautiful — I want! (Less the stupid Laura Ingles hat).
Fashion, esp for men, needs to expand. And Ungendered clothing is so harmless, even comfy and beneficial (why don’t men wear skirts so their thingie has room to breathe???). Love him for doing this, hate others for being so behind.
Not their thingy tho.. LMAO
😉
Pose is soooooo good. I hope there is a third season!
There is a third season! It just wrapped and will be out in may. Sadly it is the final season. I’m going to have to keep myself from watching the whole thing in one go.
I grew up in a community heavily impacted by HIV/AIDS. It took me forever to get through seasons one and two because they brought back so many memories and so much heartache.
Billy Porter in his Oscar gown is my lock screen on my phone. It’s perfection and a joy to view every day. Portrait of a powerful man.
I love what he said. It took me a long while to understand that people’s opinion of me are not necessarily an indictment against me but a reflection of themselves. If Billy’s way of life and artistic fashion offends some people then that’s their problem to deal with. I wish they would just stop spreading hate into the world. It’s so unnecessary.
Me too. The things he mentioned are often presented as either/or things, but he’s just being open about all of it. He can be seeking attention and money while being happy to express himself and challenge something he disagrees with at the same time. He can be secure enough to not need every person’s praise, or to expect every response to be adoration, but still (rightfully) be hurt and alarmed by homophobic abuse.
I love him and that tuxedo dress! I want him in all the things, including Sesame Street.
Republicans love to threaten to defund PBS but they never do because their voters also love PBS.
He’s awesome but if I am understanding what he said about women, pants and the patriarchy, he is dead wrong. The most patriarchal parts of society do not think women should wear pants. Lots of private school dress codes still make girls wear skirts, lots of conservative industries (finance) expect women in senior management roles to wear dresses and skirts. Women had to fight for the right to wear pants.
I don’t think he was making that point, but I think you bring up a good point! Women really had to fight for the right to wear functional clothing and to be allowed to exist in the formerly masculine sphere, and we’re still not really in the game.
Here’s what he said:
Porter’s other hope was that the look would inspire a long-overdue conversation about genderless fashion. “I used to get frustrated that women could wear whatever they wanted and men had to show up in the same penguin suit,” he says. “The reason why women wearing pants is considered OK by society’s standards is because it comes from the patriarchy. The patriarchy is male, so suits are strong, and anything feminine is weak. I was sick of that discussion, and I knew my platform allowed me to challenge it.
Maybe he’s saying it’s considered okay for people to want to move upwards in a power dynamic but people freak out when men move in a direction that is considered less powerful/ feminine. But the patriarchy is not happy when women try to move upward in a power dynamic either – like wearing what they want and not trying to look “pretty” if they don’t want to. Its more subtle and generally doesn’t carry a ton of physical risk, unlike men wearing feminine clothing though.
I still remember being in 6th grade (1970) when female teachers were finally allowed to wear pants to work.
I was in 6th grade when girls were allowed to wear pants on Fridays- I think 1969. I think of how we had to suffer in the cold weather while waiting for the bus… or have to wear snow pants under our dresses which which were hard to get in and out of without flashing. Flashing was also unavoidable on the jungle gym, swings, etc. I think it went to every day by the following fall.
I remember in 1992 when my employer decided to let women wear pants to the office.
I don’t know him well enough as an artist but when I saw that photo of him in the tuxedo gown my heart sang for him.
I totally back genderless fashion. No one blinks an eye at women wearing dungarees, trousers etc. why the fk can’t the average man wear skirts and dresses as a matter of course? So dumb to have gendered clothing.
I don’t know a lot about Billy Porter outside of his fashion choices, but I love how he uses skirts and dresses in a masculine way? I’m not sure I’m expressing myself clearly, but to me his masculinity becomes more multifaceted by wearing traditionally feminine shapes.
Billy Porter is a gift to the universe. Such a talented (and glamorous) human being. We’re lucky to have someone like him in the public sphere.
What kind of perverts are these GOP loons that they saw that stunning Siriano gown as sexuliazed? There was nothing sexy about the gown itself. Billy’s Oscar moment was purely about the look and art. Republicans are the ones bringing sex into it. What a bunch of sickos they are.
Also, Gaga’s VMA performance that year was so freaking embarrassing. I don’t think anyone noticed the “gender bending” because Gaga came out and made an utter fool of herself.
Put me down in the “Jason Rapert [dude should have taken his wife’s name when he got married] has some unresolved issues with his sexuality” column. The shocking numbers of sexual assaults and crimes, extramarital affairs and rumored closeted gay people among the GOP electeds suggests that there are very many Republicans who are hiding their true selves and experiencing problems from doing so. I’m not saying that gay people are a perversion, but that when you’re hiding it throughout your adult life because you think there’s something gross about it, it makes it into a poisonous secret that gives others power over you. The GOP has a serious issue with sexuality.
I think seeing the gorgeous Porter in that gorgeous dress made Rapert 1) Tingly in his man parts and 2) Jealous of how fabulous Porter looked.
thus, he freaked out and had to say something that comes off as “methinks the man doth protest too much”. sort of like that airport men’s bathroom toe tapper with “the wide stance”. he was one of the most outspoken anti-gay members of congress and then he got caught trolling for strange in an airport bathroom.
these GOPers tell on themselves all the time.
One of the go-to ways for legitimizing a homophobic, transphobic, or victim-blaming talking point is to pretend it’s about preventing pedophilia and human trafficking. The person will tell you their regressive, abusive assholery is singlehandedly preventing the objectification of X group of people, one slur and stereotype at a time. It sucks that he had to see that crap directed at him personally to- as if the way he dresses and presents himself makes him responsible for the actions of real abusers. Or worse.
First of all, watch Pose! It’s very good. The only thing I don’t like about it is that they did such a good job with the costumes and dressing that even though I was growing up in a different state and totally different milieu, it sometimes puts me in a nostalgic funk.
Second of all, I really like Billy Porter. I only know him from Pose, but he’s so good in that.
Everything about Billy Porter is enchanting- voice, fashion, DGAF attitude. It’s so utterly pathetic that anyone is threatened by someone who is such a gift to humanity.
Arkansas state senator says it all. I once met a white girl from rural Arkansas who sounded like nothing and no one I have ever heard before or since. Just to put Arkansas in perspective. I’m convinced that these backwoods backwards people don’t actually have a clue what a trans person looks like, which is why they seem to think they’ll be able to do things like enforce bathroom laws and the like.
Some of the best open minded people I know are from Ark. (university related). I hope they are doing alright and healthy (My sis in a coastal area got a bad gallbladder with the last president.
I LOVE HIM!!! He’s the best and his talent is something to behold (I could listen to him sing the phone book).
Yeah, it’s stunning to think there are still people freaking out about men in dresses. Why is it okay for Elton, Bowie, Prince, Freddy, et al. I remember clubbing at The Stark when if you didn’t embrace gender bending, you weren’t getting in. The right continues to be the bane of existence. Their tortured souls need extinguishing. But they keep breeding.
I adore him. And I absolutely love Pray Tell. Start watching “Pose,” Oye!
“ If parents fear that celebrities have more influence over their children maybe those parents need to reconsider their parenting skills. ”
This!! 👏👏👏👏👏
I loveovelove him!!
He reminds me of my uncle Bill sooo much, everything about him.
I am trying to wait patiently for POSE to come back on, I love that show too.