Harry Styles has a message for the critics of his gender-fluid wardrobe choices: just stop your crying, it’s a sign of the times.

As we reported, the One Direction member was unfairly condemned for wearing a Gucci ball gown for his Vogue cover shoot, with political pundit Candace Owens taking to social media to demand that society bring back “manly men.”

Well, the Fine Line singer has responded to Candace’s remark with some fine shade of his own. On Wednesday, he shared a photo of himself wearing a powder blue suit and ruffled shirt while seductively eating a banana, writing in the caption:

“Bring back manly men.”

Ha!

The 26-year-old also clapped back at Owen’s comments in a new interview with Variety, telling the mag that he doesn’t want to be told what kind of clothes he can wear. He shared:

“To not wear [something] because it’s females’ clothing, you shut out a whole world of great clothes. And I think what’s exciting about right now is you can wear what you like. It doesn’t have to be X or Y. Those lines are becoming more and more blurred.”

The Watermelon Sugar hitmaker — who was Vogue’s first solo male cover star BTW — went on to say his love of women’s clothing stems from his admiration for other flamboyantly dressed performers like David Bowie, Prince, Elvis, Freddie Mercury, and Elton John.

Related: Harry Might Be The Sweetest Human EVER After Hearing This Fan’s Heartwarming Story!

But most importantly, Harry likes wearing women’s garb because it simply makes him feel “amazing.” He shared:

“Now I’ll put on something that feels really flamboyant, and I don’t feel crazy wearing it. I think if you get something that you feel amazing in, it’s like a superhero outfit. Clothes are there to have fun with and experiment with and play with.”

And now that the social constructs of gender are beginning to dissipate, the ambiguous pop-rocker has more room to play than ever before. He added:

“What’s really exciting is that all of these lines are just kind of crumbling away. When you take away ‘There’s clothes for men and there’s clothes for women,’ once you remove any barriers, obviously you open up the arena in which you can play.”

Amen to that!

Elsewhere in the interview, the Dunkirk actor reflected on his 1D days, revealing that everyone in the group — himself, Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik, and Liam Payne — really enjoyed their time together. He elaborated:

“When you look at the history of people coming out of bands and starting solo careers, they feel this need to apologize for being in the band. ‘Don’t worry, everyone, that wasn’t me! Now I get to do what I really want to do.’ But we loved being in the band. I think there’s a wont to pit people against each other. And I think it’s never been about that for us. It’s about a next step in evolution. The fact that we’ve all achieved different things outside of the band says a lot about how hard we worked in it.”

We have a feeling this manly man is just getting started!

[Image via Instar/WENN]

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