I think it was taboo back in the day to try to appeal to the queer community.” (It’s hard to imagine Dragons’ Reynolds - who’s said he got fit for health reasons after battling an auto-immune disease for years - not being aware of that each time he wrapped himself in a pride flag sans shirt in concert this year.If there was any hope that after the death of Hugo Chavez things in Venezuela could get better, it now appears that things could not get any worse. As a result of that, we now have artists kind of catering. “And you have a community where people in the gay community are allowed to be outspoken about their interests and their fandom. “We’re now in a place, because of social media, where queer culture is allowed to be so public and be so forward,” Gauk-Roger says. It also allows artists, in turn, to acknowledge them right back. Still, the bigger shift, he argues, is the growing acceptance of and visibility for LGBTQ fans, which allows them be more vocal about their own desires and lust over the abs of Shawn Mendes or G-Eazy just like everyone else. But also, you have to think, well, all these media publications and the whole music industry are run by men who have hypersexualized women over the years.” “It doesn’t conform to the male gender role.
“There’s always been a standard a guy doesn’t have to do that,” says Topher Gauk-Roger, an editorial producer for Entertainment Tonight. And while male pop stars have had to do the same to some degree - after all, teenage girls have always been the tastemakers of who’s hot and who isn’t in pop music - as we’ve seen with Charli XCX’s star-studded “Boys” video from last year, there’s a greater willingness among male musicians to participate and flip the script. Female pop stars have long had to cater to the male gaze - like when Britney Spears posted for a 1999 Rolling Stone cover in her underwear with a Teletubby - by seeming equally sexy and innocence at once. There’s also a been growing awareness of the different ways male and female artists have marketed or expressed their sexuality. When we see men speak about love and be passionate about life, it’s so much more attractive these days.” I’ve seen more kindness and people caring for others. “In 2018, I’ve noticed men are more open with their sexuality, and nothing is sexier than a confident person,” he says.
Stylist Anthony Franco, who has dressed Panic!’s Brendon Urie in the past, thinks that widespread shirtless is just one sign of male celebrities’ growing embrace of vulnerability, which also manifests itself in things like Travis Scott’s adorable pictures with daughter Stormi. Justin Bieber's Shirtless Shot Slides Him Up Social 50 Chart “I feel like clothes are genderless and people are more open” to bold style choices, she says, whether that’s A$AP Rocky’s decidedly feminine red-carpet look at the LACMA Art and Film Gala earlier this year, or in the case of many musicians this year, not wearing a lot of clothes. While late icons like David Bowie and Prince famously played with androgyny in their clothing choices, that kind of experimentation has only become more commonplace today - Lambert says she puts many of her male clients in women’s clothing now. So how do they express it through fashion?” Some people might not be able to say those things yet. “That’s out there, so maybe now other people will come out, and then that also has to do with clothing. “People are allowed to be who they are a little bit more, and I think that influences everything,” she explains she points to Brendon Urie’s choice to come out as pansexual in an interview earlier this year as an example of more candid conversations about sex and sexuality in the mainstream. Yet stylist Candice Lambert, who’s worked with the likes of Pentatonix and Kelly Clarkson, says that evolving social norms and fashion trends have led male artists to be more deliberate and unabashed about how they express their sex appeal.
It’s a way for them to strut their stuff but hold on to their precious credibility.” “They could pretend it’s just so hot and sweaty up on the stage, they have to rip their shirts off to keep rocking, not to vamp it up. “For male rock stars, taking their shirts off was a way to turn on the cheesecake, but with plausible deniability,” Rolling Stone critic Rob Sheffield explains. Of course, top male musicians flaunting their stuff onstage and off is a timeless tradition - think of rock stars like Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Anthony Kiedis, Iggy Pop and Chris Cornell. #prayforthewicked - post shared by Panic! At The Disco on at 10:29pm PDT