Ranveer Is A Style Trendsetter, But Also A Cis-Het Actor Taking Up Queer Space

Calling a cis-het actor like Ranveer Singh a pioneer and game-changer in gender-bending, while we continuously shun our queer community is definitely not ideal. 

Ranveer Singh is known as the gamechanger of Bollywood. He has rejected traditionally masculine trends and dressed in rainbows. His dressing style is called sartorial, which means tailor-made is an apt way of addressing his wardrobe.

But he wasn’t always so experimental with his clothing. It wasn’t until he established himself in Bollywood that he started experimenting with his look.

While many of his co-workers and critics have criticized him for his ‘outlandish style’ they soon adapted it, as it has now become a trend. Many cis-het actors such as Ayushmann Khurrana, Rajkummar Rao and even Aamir Khan have followed his path and experimented with their wardrobe, and wear the kind of clothes that are traditionally ‘reserved’ for women.

Ranveer, today is the king of Quirk who does not shy away from experimentation. From rainbow prints to multicoloured skirts, he has tried it all.

Let’s applaud Ranveer, but…

While we should applaud him for his bold style, we should not forget that he is not the first man to wear a skirt.

While we praise him for ‘pushing boundaries and redefining menswear’ we should also not forget that we see shun and treat our trans women who often have similar choices in clothes as criminals.

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Today Bollywood has become the ‘woke’ place where cishet actors are called gender-benders, and pioneers in challenging masculine gender norms and breaking barriers.

While these actors are being praised for quirky dressing or playing a gay character, for representing gender fluidity and the queer community, they have managed to push the actual queer community out of the only space they had for themselves.

Dressing quirky is not wrong but dressing in a way queer people have dressed for thousands of years, pushing boundaries that they put for themselves and breaking them is.

Calling a cis-het actor a pioneer and game-changer in gender-bending and praising them while we continuously shun our queer community is definitely not ideal.

Cis-het actors taking up queer space for trends is not woke.

Images source: Ranveer Singh’s Instagram

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