Baldwin 100: The timeless style & savoir-faire of James Baldwin prove he’s the ultimate butch queen

Call it the gay aesthetic. 

It’s the perfect combination of masculine and feminine styles juxtaposed. Unapologetically. Intentionally. Dramatically. 

James Baldwin—the audacious activist, auteur, and anomaly—used fashion as a form of expression to amplify his genius, his gaiety, and his gayness as a Black gender nonconformist amid intense racism, revolutionary protests, and respectability politics. 

You see, a butch queen is fearless and will read you for filth, elegantly gather you, and fight for their lives (if need be) and punctuate it all with an effeminate gesture—a flick of the wrist with an enormous cocktail ring on their finger holding a cigarette with an inch long ash grasping for dear life. 

Baldwin knew in a society where beauty is held at the precipice that, a brilliant Black gay man who wasn’t considered “attractive” needed to be sartorially casket sharp with a touch of savoir-faire to single-handedly gain social acceptance while engaging and expanding his audience with rigor. 

For Baldwin, like many gay and queer men, our fashion statements are often our armor. 

As we celebrate Baldwin’s 100th birthday—his rhetoric, activism, and critical thinking, let’s also make some commotion for his exacting, elegant, and eloquent style.