Fans Think The Hidden Meaning Behind Harry Styles’ ‘Wizard Of Oz’ Costume Is A Clue About His Sexuality
Why did he choose to dress up as Dorothy?
Twitter Ever since Harry Styles’s departure from the once-popular boy band One Direction, his rise to solo stardom has come with questions from fans about his sexual identity — more specifically his sexuality.
Styles is known for his unique fashion sense and for wearing things that people wouldn’t normally expect a man to wear — this Halloween was no different when he performed at one of his shows wearing a Dorothy costume from the Wizard of Oz.
Harry Styles’s costume may be a nod to LGBTQ slang, "friend of Dorothy."
It’s not just because he’s dressed up as a popular female character from a movie about discovering yourself, but because of the other meanings behind the character Dorothy.
According to Urban Dictionary and LGBT slang, men and sometimes women would ask other men if they were “a friend of Dorothy’s” in order to decipher whether or not they were gay.
This was back when being outwardly gay and proud was frowned upon and more dangerous than it is now — it was a code that allowed people to discuss their sexualities without needing to expose it to everyone.
Dorothy was considered a gay icon back in the day because of the many stories set in the ‘Land of Oz’ universe, like the 1906 novel “Road to Oz.”
In the fifth installment of the Land of Oz series, the Rainbow’s daughter, Polychrome, tells Dorothy "You have some queer friends, Dorothy."
Dorothy, being the gay icon that she is, responded with "The queerness doesn't matter, so long as they're friends!"
The series and the character resonated a lot with the LGBT community because Dorothy was very accepting of all people and was always supportive of her friends — even instilling some confidence in them herself.
Harry Styles' 'Wizard of Oz' costume channels a gay icon.
Becaumse Styles was seen performing at one of his shows over the weekend as the gay icon, Dorothy, and even got his band to dress up as the other characters from the movie, fans are wondering if he was trying to send a message.
Fans of the singer always question his sexuality — he’s even been asked in interviews about his sexuality and his views on how people perceive him.
In 2019, soon after the release of his chart-topping album Fine Line, he did an interview with The Guardian’s Tom Lamont, where he talked about his sexuality without giving anything away.
Lamont asks Styles if anyone has asked him about his sexuality, to which Styles responds, “Why?”
“It’s not like I’m sitting on an answer, and protecting it, and holding it back,” he says. “It’s not a case of: I’m not telling you cos I don’t want to tell you. It’s not: ooh this is mine and it’s not yours.
“It’s: who cares? Does that make sense? It’s just: who cares?”
Which is true — who cares? Not in the sense that people shouldn’t care to know, but that it shouldn’t matter what his sexuality is or how he identifies.
He spoke similarly about the clothes that he wears in the same interview.
“What women wear. What men wear. For me it’s not a question of that,” he said. “If I see a nice shirt and get told, ‘But it’s for ladies.’ I think: ‘Okaaaay? Doesn’t make me want to wear it less though.’ I think the moment you feel more comfortable with yourself, it all becomes a lot easier.”
If he wants to dress up as Dorothy for Halloween, he’s allowed to do that without needing to answer anyone’s questions about his sexuality — and look damn good doing it.
Isaac Serna-Diez is a writer who focuses on entertainment and news, social justice, and politics. Follow him on Twitter here.