Vogue is being hit with a deluge of criticism with regards to their latest cover story featuring supermodel Gigi Hadid and her musician boyfriend Zayn Malik.
The story, which intended to celebrate the duo for being “part of a new generation embracing gender fluidity”, puts the couple front and centre of a complex conversation, with text on the cover that reads: “Gigi & Zayn shop each other’s closets.”
Gender fluidity, which is a term used to describe someone who does not identify as having a fixed gender, is a concept the magazine appears to suggest should be spearheaded by a couple who, in the past, have not identified as anything other than male and female and who simply and occasionally swap clothes.
As per the piece:
“I shop in your closet all the time, don’t I?” Hadid, 22, flicks a lock of dyed-green hair out of her boyfriend’s eyes as she poses the question.
“Yeah, but same,” replies Malik, 24. “What was that T-shirt I borrowed the other day?”
“The Anna Sui?” asks Hadid.
“Yeah,” Malik says. “I like that shirt. And if it’s tight on me, so what? It doesn’t matter if it was made for a girl.”
Hadid nods vigorously. “Totally. It’s not about gender. It’s about, like, shapes. And what feels good on you that day. And anyway, it’s fun to experiment…”
According to Micah Scott, the CEO of Minus18 – Australia’s largest youth-led network for gay, bi, lesbian and trans teens – regardless of intention, a feature story that suggests being gender fluid and sharing designer clothes are the same thing will always be the focus of attention and criticism.
“In cases like this, there are a lot of sensitivities around identity and using other people’s culture and their identity for personal gain, whether that be selling magazines or music or art,” he tells Mamamia.
“People’s lived identities, particularly in this community, are the reason for discrimination, prejudice and violence, so when other people use these identities for their own personal gain, that’s when people begin to take issue.”
However, Scott is quick to stress that on the flip side of this, who are we to tell someone the community is closed, and that they are not allowed to identify as gender fluid?
“On the other hand, it’s not up to us to own the identity. If someone identifies at gender fluid, that’s theirs to own as well.”
Scott says there are a few key things Vogue could’ve done better, in this case, to effectively create a conversation about gender and identity.
“What would’ve been better was if they had used a diverse range of people, not the people who live a more polished view of gender diversity,” he says.
In short, perhaps in these conversations, it’s more productive to reach out to people from the community to spearhead the chatter, or, in Scott’s own words, the less “palatable version” of what we perceive as gender fluid.
After all, these are the voices that should garner greater gravitas than a celebrity couple with a wardrobe full of expensive clothes and good intentions.
Top Comments
what in the actual f**k !!!...turning everything into a problem is starting to become a game to some !!...
True equality was supposed to be about men and women not having set gender roles and therefore part of that would be that they wear whatever, regardless of whether those clothes were designed for the female or male gender.
Having said that I'm not suggesting that people shouldn't have set gender roles if they want them, but if these people want not to have set gender roles for themselves then that's their choice, the true sexists are these transgender people who insist that because they like to wear makeup, dresses and heels that makes them a woman. And of course they are offended by everything. Well some of us who truly are women are offended that after having suffered periods and the other biological issues that only a biologically born woman would experience that some guy can demand that because they like wearing dresses they are now to be called women, even they have never for one moment of their life experienced periods or ant of the trials and tribulations of being a woman, but we real women are supposed to just like it or lump it. Talk about patriarchal males taking over us!
Wow this is so ignorant. Transgender women 'truly are women' just as you or I are women. Suggesting that periods or other biological functions make a woman a woman is so stupid. What about women who are assigned female a birth, but are infertile or born with disorders that prevent them from menstruating? If someone's born with a vagina, but is missing a womb are they not female? Taking such an essentialist view is deeply flawed.
As for your suggestion that these 'guys in dresses' don't face any 'trials and tribulations', trans women may not face identical issues to women assigned female at birth, but I would argue the discrimination, misogyny and general sense of endangerment they face is just as bad, if not worse. The violence and murder transgender women are subject to is sickening.
I also think you need to reconsider what it is trans women want. It's not a matter of 'patriarchal males taking over us', its simply a group of women wanting to be accepted and supported by other women.
Support your sisters, not just your cisters.
"Support your sisters, not just your cisters".
I love this line! :) x
Humans are not 'assigned' anything at birth. They are born with either XX chromosones (female) or XY chromosones (male). There are rare exceptions to this. No amount of social engineering and gender study courses can change the fact that there are indeed biological differences that determine whether an individual is a man or a woman.
"Suggesting that periods or other biological functions make a woman a woman is so stupid." ok so by your definition biological functions, being born with a vagina etc does not make a woman a woman, even though that has been pretty much the definition for ever, but people like yourselves have in recent years decided to co opt the definition that the majority were happy with to fit your own ends.
But if what you say is correct then how can we define what a woman is if by your definition genitals no longer define her, therefore your suggestion must be that the state of being a woman is how you feel - therefore emanating from one's brain. So your position therefore is sexist because you are supporting the hypothesis that there is a female brain as opposed to a male brain - the very argument that was used against women to gain the vote etc, because patriarchal men would say our brains are different. So this is why transgenderism is the ultimate form of sexist.
Also even if what you say is true, how many of these transgender people have had a test to prove that their brains are of the opposite sex? And exactly what test would that involve?
I have no issue with a man wishing to wear a dress etc but feeling like he is a woman and being a woman are not the same thing.