Actor Billy Porter sparked praise and outrage when he wore a black crushed velvet tuxedo gown designed by Christian Siriano to the 2019 Oscar Awards in Hollywood on Sunday. Twitter users were in a frenzy, expressing praise and admiration for the openly homosexual actor who stars in "Pose" on FX Network.
Vogue magazine explained:
"The custom creation by designer Christian Siriano included a sharply tailored tuxedo jacket overtop a full-skirted strapless velvet gown. A play on masculinity and femininity, the look challenged the rigid Hollywood dress code and was boundary-pushing in all the right ways."
Porter was accompanied to the Oscars by his life partner Adam Porter-Smith.
"What is masculinity?" Porter said in an interview with Vogue on the red carpet. "What does that mean? Women show up every day in pants, but the minute a man wears a dress, the seas part.”
Interestingly, women of all races and ethnicity were highly supportive and overjoyed at the sight of a Black man in a dress on one of the biggest nights in television. Porter and his tuxedo gown trended most of the night on Twitter.com.
Thousands of women wondered where they could purchase a similar outfit. But the fallout among Black men was just as intense.
Many Black men took to social media to voice their outrage over what they perceive as the left's ongoing campaign to emasculate Black men via the media.
Another reader wrote, "This rise of the beta male shit is a ploy. Looks like a new wave to remove strong Blk male role models from the picture. It never ends. Always something with these mfers."
A female reader - a rarity on Vladtv.com - wrote: "Someone will blame black women for this."
Question: What do you think of Billy Porter wearing a dress to the Oscars? Would you mind seeing your man wearing a similar outfit to work? Is this the new direction for men's fashion?
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Photo by Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images, Frazer Harrison/Getty Images
