Harry Styles shades Candace Owens for saying he wasn’t ‘manly’ in viral post

Harry Styles has hit back at critics who said he launched an “outright attack” on masculinity after wearing a dress on the cover of Vogue.

Harry Styles has poked fun at critics who said he wasn't 'manly'.

Harry Styles has hit back at critics who said he wasn’t “manly” for wearing a dress on a magazine cover.

The former One Direction star shared a photo of himself in another feminine outfit on Instagram today with the caption “bring back manly men”.

Styles, 26, was referencing comments made by conservative US commentator Candace Owens, who said Styles wearing a dress on the cover of US Vogue’s December issue was an “outright attack” on masculinity in Western society.

“There is no society that can survive without strong men. The East knows this. In the West, the steady feminisation of our men at the same time that Marxism is being taught to our children is not a coincidence,” Owens wrote on Twitter last month. “It is an outright attack. Bring back manly men.”

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"There’s so much joy to be had in playing with clothes. I’ve never thought too much about what it means—it just becomes this extended part of creating something.": Read our full December cover story starring @Harry_Styles here: https://t.co/oX7MrtPCRg pic.twitter.com/abpWXUGb9f

— Vogue Magazine (@voguemagazine) November 22, 2020

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Owens was criticised by some, who pointed out that men had worn dresses, including kilts and sarongs, across numerous cultures throughout history, and in recent times.

“Mining pictures on the internet of men in dresses is not going to suddenly make me attracted to men in dresses,” Owens said. “I’m impervious to woke culture. Showing me 50 examples of something won’t make it any less stupid.”

Harry Styles has poked fun at critics who said he wasn't 'manly'.

Since I’m trending I’d like to clarify what I meant when I said “bring back manly men”.

I meant: Bring back manly men.

Terms like “toxic masculinity”, were created by toxic females.

Real women don’t do fake feminism.

Sorry I’m not sorry.

— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) November 16, 2020

Styles shared the post on Instagram today, attracting some 6.8 million likes and 265,000 comments.

The Watermelon Sugar star received hundreds of thousands of positive comments.

“A real man will eat a banana and make direct eye contact with you,” fashion author Derek Blasberg commented on the post.

Designer Marc Jacobs also commented, leaving three black hearts on the post.

Owens also left comments on the post, writing: “Thank God you agree. Harry Styles promoting Candace Owens.”

“He looks great! He just doesn’t look masculine,” she said in another comment.

Owens also fired back with a number of tweets saying she doesn’t speak for people who “worship perversity”.

Women who objectify themselves by spreading their legs for the world are lauded as courageous.

Men in ball gowns & little girl’s clothing are lauded as icons.

Hollywood is no longer about diversity, it’s about perversity.

I speak for people who do not worship perversity.

— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) December 2, 2020

Owens is a divisive commentator who sparked criticism earlier this year, after she declared she didn’t “support George Floyd and the media’s depiction of him as a martyr for black America”.

She also was involved in a feud with rap artist Cardi B, and said the Grammy Award winning artists music was leading to the “disintegration of black culture and values”.