The article also drew parallels between the couple and Virginia Woolf’s transgender character Orlando.
Hadid and Malik on the August 2017 Vogue Cover (Inez and Vinoodh, Vogue)
A gender-fluid person is someone “whose gender identification and presentation shifts, whether within or outside of societal, gender-based expectations,” according to University of California, Berkeley.
The article did discuss actual trans and nonbinary people, including model and actor Ruby Rose, and the writer and activist Tyler Ford.
But the only passage of the article which could be interpreted as the cover stars discussing gender was when Hadid asks Malik: “I shop in your closet all the time, don’t I?”
He responds: “Yeah, but same,” before asking Hadid about a t-shirt he borrowed from her the other day.
“I like that shirt,” he says. “And if it’s tight on me, so what? It doesn’t matter if it was made for a girl.”
She agrees, adding: “Totally. It’s not about gender.
“It’s about, like, shapes. And what feels good on you that day. And anyway, it’s fun to experiment”.
Many people were angry because Hadid and Malik are, as far as we know, a cisgender couple who Vogue seemed to call genderfluid simply because of this habit of experimenting with their fashion choices.
One typical comment read: “Think Vogue is a bit confused on what gender fluidity is! Wearing your gf’s T-shirt does not make you gender fluid”.
Vogue apologised for its mistake, saying in a statement: “The story was intended to highlight the impact the gender-fluid, non-binary communities have had on fashion and culture.
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