Fans and famous people including Zach Braff, Olivia Wilde, Jameela Jamil and Kathy Griffin are speaking out in support of Harry Styles, who faced backlash after he wore a frilly dress on the cover of US Vogue. 

We'll rewind for a sec: the 26-year-old became the first-ever dude to appear solo on the cover of the iconic fashion mag when he graced the December 2020 front page, wearing a lacy blue dress and black Gucci jacket. Needless to say, he served. As always. 

But while some people celebrated just another wondrous Harry Styles look, others weren't so chuffed about the outfit – namely New York Times best-selling author Candace Owens, who took to Twitter to share her 'concerns'.

"There is no society that can survive without strong men," she wrote. "The East knows this. In the west, 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. Bring back manly men." 

Obviously the comments are archaic and problematic, and a bunch of celebrities said as much. Olivia Wilde, who's directing Harry Styles in the upcoming flick Don't Worry Darling, wrote, "You're pathetic" while comedian Kathy Griffin added, "Candy Owens doesn't know what she in for going up against the Harry Styles stans."

Fellow Brit Jameela Jamil also spoke out: "Harry Styles is plenty manly, because manly is whatever you want it to be, not what some insecure, toxic, woman-hating, homophobic dickheads decided it was hundreds of years ago. He's 104% perfect. Also…he looked fit as fuck." Exactly.

But it was Zach Braff who put it best. The actor wrote: "Our whole lives boys and men are told we need to be manly. Life is short. Be whatever the fuck you want to be." 

Owens later doubled down on her first tweet. "Since I'm trending I'd like to clarify what I meant when I said 'bring back manly men'", she wrote. "I meant: Bring back manly men. Terms like 'toxic masculinity,' were created by toxic females. Real women don't do fake feminism. Sorry I'm not sorry."

Harry has yet to comment himself, though he did share his thoughts on wearing womens' clothes in the magazine itself, saying: "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. What's really exciting is that all of these lines are just kind of crumbling away."

He continued: "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. I'll go in shops sometimes, and I just find myself looking at the women's clothes thinking they're amazing."

Check out Harry Styles in all his wondrous glory here. Thank you, Vogue.

Written by Sangeeta Kocharekar, an American-born, Sydney-based writer at MTV. Photos from her pre-COVID-19 days as a travel writer are here.