Apex of culture war: Marxism is trending on Twitter, because of…a left vs right fashion row?

Some British Twitter users were puzzled after seeing “Marxism” trending, just because a boy-band singer put on a dress for a Vogue cover, and a conservative pundit viewed it as part of a radical-left cultural conspiracy in action.

The December issue of the fashion magazine features One Direction’s Harry Styles, the first male to ever get a solo cover in Vogue. Styles “makes his own rules” the cover stated, backing the blurb with a photo of the star wearing a dress. More photos of gender-bending clothing choices came inside and were used to promote the story on social media.

One of the negative reactions to the provocative photo-op came from conservative commenter Candace Owens, who declared that Western society desperately needed manly men. “The steady feminization of our men at the same time that Marxism is being taught to our children is not a coincidence. It is an outright attack,” she tweeted.

And this is how the classical teaching of class struggle, which has little to do with gender-appropriate garments, climbed to the top of Twitter, puzzling some commenters…

…and amusing quite a few others.

Owens is far from being the only person to take issue with Styles’ attire, of course. Likewise, there is no shortage of people defending his non-masculine outfits – either on principle or by arguing that there is nothing feminine about dresses at all.

Incidentally, last week a celebrity from the other side of the cultural war fronts had posted a much-mocked take on what people should and should not wear, based on their gender. Feminist commenter Anita Sarkeesian lashed out at the TV series ‘The Mandalorian’ for showing a female character in chest armor, which, unlike for a male counterpart, has a bulge better fitting a woman’s anatomy. 

Fans were quick to point out that the depiction was absolutely true to the Star Wars lore and hardly befitting the derogatory term “boob armour” that Sarkeesian used. Also known as “bikini plate” it refers to a trope in fiction, in which women warriors don armor too small to be practical, but just the right size to cater to the tastes of horny males.

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