Going Dark: Streetwear Magazines are Addressing their Homophobic Problem
Highsnobiety is a digital space that originally started as a streetwear blog by David Fischer in 2005. It has now evolved into a lifestyle publication, receiving around 500 million impressions worldwide. Having grown at this significant rate, the brand is now known as one of the biggest streetwear appreciation sites, alongside Hypebeast and VICE, facilitating conversations on fashion, art, music and culture.
That being said, after a certain time, even large brands like Highsnobiety can’t control the crowd that follow them. But it seems like they are attempting to fight back – streetwear has a homophobia problem, and Highsnobiety is finally addressing it.
In September 2020, Highsnobiety explored the work of late artist Tom of Finland, known for his “masculinized homo-erotic artwork” that has inspired many fashion designers and collections from as early as 1950. Tom was considerably interested in fashion trends, creating illustrations with men featured in tighter, sexier clothing tailored to his own specifications. His renderings have influenced cutting-edge designs by contemporary fashionistas such as John Bartlett, Tom Ford, and Jean-Paul Gaultier, to name a few. As part of their exploration of Tom of Finland, Highsnobiety posted some of his artwork on their social media, alongside part of an interview previously posted by the Tom of Finland Foundation. As a result of this, Highsnobiety lost 32,308 followers in three days. Some of their previous posts also received negative attention; their Summer 2020 Supreme tribute to ‘80s performance artist Leigh Bower triggered comments like, “[James] Jebbia has a thing for weird AIDS infested artists.” With these unfollows came hate speech, prejudice, and homophobia, leading us to the conclusion that the streetwear community has a deep-seated homophobia problem.
Sailor’s Dream (Tom of Finland, 1959)
Part of the reason why homophobia is still an ongoing issue in the streetwear industry is because of the hypermasculinity inherent in its foundations. Streetwear’s original supporters were hyper-masculine individuals, many of whom had traditionalist values which contrasted ironically with its countercultural movement: “While each subculture has specific beliefs, norms, customer, traditions, and attributes, there are shared subcultural traits or common languages that include hypermasculinity between them.” It’s fundamental that we acknowledge that most counterculture movements during this period were inherently homophobic, but nowadays, there is no excuse. With streetwear having integrated into luxury fashion, its consumer base has changed. It has also meant that those notoriously underrepresented in the industry have been given a platform that others try to profit from, for instance, luxury designers such as Virgil Abloh, Kim Jones, and Kanye West. Many who believe that streetwear is the best also demonstrate a lack of inclusivity; streetwear has staple shapes, and refuses to take into consideration anything that falls outside of its norm.
Untitled (Tom of Finland, 1978)
Highsnobiety’s piece on Tom of Finland acknowledges streetwear’s homophobia problem and explores ‘othering’ in the case of straight and gay fashion consumers: “It can be argued that gay culture has been central to the creation of modern fashion. The gay level of fashion contributions in streetwear is nowhere near as significant. The fashion is reflective of the culture. I wouldn’t say it has been intentional, but early fashion designers have been predominantly heterosexual males.” This statement is quite concerning - the definition of what gay culture is in relation to fashion seems to be “modern fashion” only, whatever that means. Yes, the contemporary terrain has changed significantly with regard to intersectionality, but that isn’t inherently ‘gay’. The easiest (but quite overstated) example of crop tops is a clear indication of this: homophobes labelled the crop top a ‘gay’ item of clothing, even though it was originally designed for men and can be seen being worn in the early 90s by icons like Will Smith (who is heterosexual). Now, on TikTok, it is straight men wear crop tops the most. Shrug.
Buddies (Tom of Finland, 1973)
If you believe that modern fashion has become inherently ‘gay’ or camp, then you have no understanding of intersectionality in fashion. It’s an outdated view. Intersectionality is essential in the evolution of fashion, and the streetwear community needs to realise that this applies to them as well, regardless of how niche they might be. By continuing to isolate themselves from other groups and claiming that the modern fashion environment has become ‘gay-infused’, they risk polarising themselves as a minority and encouraging hate speech. It’s dangerous to let a community project that way.
Hopefully, many streetwear magazines will follow Highsnobiety’s example and not back down when they are met with online hatred. There is no place for LGBTQ+ hate and those sorts of responses should be treated in the same way as racism and misogyny in the fashion industry. Fashion is about more than just clothes - it is about community and collaboration, and it invites people from across the globe to contribute to a bigger picture about our society and who we are. What kind of image do we want that to be?