By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Private Policy and Terms of Use.
Billy Porter Claps Back at Critics of His Oscars Tuxedo Dress
"I don’t understand why my putting on a dress causes this much strife in your life."
Celebrities have had a lot to say about the showstopping Christian Siriano tuxedo dress that Pose star Billy Porter wore to last Sunday's 91st Academy Awards—but not all of them were quite as impressed as Glenn Close.
\u201cMorning after! Simply divine @theebillyporter \ud83d\udda4\ud83d\udda4\ud83d\udda4 #oscars\u201d— Christian Siriano (@Christian Siriano) 1551127239
"If your back is as wide as the Incredible Hulk I don’t want to see you in a ball gown," said "My Neck, My Back" rapper Khia.
"I just don’t get this ongoing and continual assault on masculinity by the Left," said a particularly dim-witted news pundit.
Porter has made it clear that he isn't letting the haters get to him.
“If you don’t like it, go somewhere else," Porter told the Associated Press. "You don’t have to look. It’s not about you. I don’t understand why my putting on a dress causes this much strife in your life.”
Secure in who he is, Porter is paying the critics no mind. "The comments are not my business. What people think about what I’m doing is not my business. I lived that already."
Porter says that he wanted to make a point about black masculinity, and he did. "It goes all the way back to the earliest of emasculations, which is slavery, so the only way to sort of overcome that is to be the strongest and the most masculine and the most powerful and now, [that] has become toxic. And I don’t think it’s just black people. I think it’s men in general. Every ethnicity has their version of it."
At the end of the day, he's the one walking the red carpets at the Oscars. "I’m inside of my authenticity and the whole point is that you have to respect me as much as I respect you."
Taylor Henderson is a PRIDE.com contributor. This proud Texas Bama studied Media Production/Studies and Sociology at The University of Texas at Austin, where he developed his passions for pop culture, writing, and videography. He's absolutely obsessed with Beyoncé, mangoes, and cheesy YA novels that allow him to vicariously experience the teen years he spent in the closet. He's also writing one!
Taylor Henderson is a PRIDE.com contributor. This proud Texas Bama studied Media Production/Studies and Sociology at The University of Texas at Austin, where he developed his passions for pop culture, writing, and videography. He's absolutely obsessed with Beyoncé, mangoes, and cheesy YA novels that allow him to vicariously experience the teen years he spent in the closet. He's also writing one!
