“Gigi Hadid and Zayn Malik are part of a new generation embracing gender fluidity.” Vogue’s latest issue, surrounds one of the most talked about couples Gigi Hadid and Zayn Malik. The aforementioned article focuses on how they share each other’s clothes and don’t care about “clothing gender”. Zayn goes on to talk about how he wears Gigi’s shirts (wowza) and Gigi even talks about how she wears Zayn’s clothes (crazy!). She told the interviewer, “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.”.
Let’s get one thing straight, anyone would love to take a crack at shopping in either Zayn or Gigi’s closets, regardless of gender. It’s really amazing to hear how so many people in the mainstream media are attempting to deconstruct the gender separation of clothing, but that doesn’t make them genderfluid. Zayn wears tight shirts, Gigi wears blazers and suddenly they’re Vogue’s new faces of the genderfluid community? That doesn’t seem right to me. Gigi doesn’t go by genderfluid pronouns and Zayn wears clothes that aren’t distinctly feminine (sorry but just because you wear tight shirts, doesn’t mean that you’re embracing a more feminine wardrobe). Wearing each other’s clothes makes them “couple goals”, not “genderfluid goals”.
Zayn isn’t wearing skirts and dresses and lipstick and [insert other traditionally feminine clothing/make up things here]. Gigi still goes by female pronouns, wearing a blazer doesn’t change that. Members of the genderfluid community receive insane amounts of backlash; from harassment to physical abuse. Vogue should've used people who actually identify as genderfluid, not some uber-famous celebrity couple that shares each other's t-shirts.
The main point is that gender fluidity is not an aesthetic. It is not defined by how you dress (though it definitely plays a big part). Being genderfluid is who you are, it’s a part of your personality and who you are as a person.
Since the controversial cover and article came out, Vogue has since apologized for labeling Gigi and Zayn as "genderfluid" because they wear each other's t-shirts.
