Since he’s risen to fame, Bad Bunny has challenged gender norms in both subtle and overt ways. The Puerto Rican rapper has tweeted in favor of women not shaving and is consistently showing off his perfectly manicured nails on Instagram. The gender non-conforming look he donnned on the The Tonight Show a few months ago came laced with a particularly pointed politcal message. The white statement T-shirt he paired with a black skirt read, “Mataron a Alexa, no a un hombre con falda,” which roughly translates to: “They killed Alexa, not a man in a skirt.” It was a tribute to Alexa Negrón Luciano, a homeless, transgender woman that had just been murdered in Toa Baja, Puerto Rico. News outlets and the police had initially misgendered her, calling her “a man dressed in a black skirt.”
Bad Bunny’s new video, “Yo Perreo Sola,” is his most expressive gender-fluid statement yet, with the rapper in drag for the majority of the video. After a little boy playing the rapper’s younger self, a character who has been a recurring element of all the visuals for his sophomore release YHLQMDLG, appears in the first frame, Bad Bunny emerges onto the screen in an all-over red latex outfit complete with a slicked back wig and ruby red lips, heeled boots included. He then dances in a cheetah-meets-floral printed skintight dress with matching flared pants layered underneath. Then comes a vision of him that’s altogether more recognizable. He’s wearing a characteristically flamboyant hot pink outfit comprised of an oversize sweater and a light pink raincoat along with his signature bold sunglasses. And though the song is all about dancing alone, mid-way through the clip, Bad Bunny goes check to cheek with a drag version of himself.
The visual’s fashion apex comes towards the end when everything comes full circle: he’s wearing another skirt, this time by buzzy British-Bulgarian label Chopova Lowena. He’s chained to a ring of regal figures in thrones and has the patchwork belted plaid skirt accessorized with a spiked collar. Bad Bunny had already proved himself an outspoken ally of the LBTQ community, now he’s arrived as your new favorite drag queen, too.
Source: Vogue.com
