Derek Guy (also known as the Menswear Guy) has amassed 1.2 million followers on Twitter posting about menswear aesthetics and criticizing celebrities and politicians for their poor taste. What separates Guy from other menswear accounts, and what makes him an interesting comparison to many participants in religious discourse, is his self-conscious relationship to tradition and his frequent uses of traditionalism to outflank “trads” in online battles. He chides those who “performatively worship tradition but know very little about tradition” and yet “use the superficial symbols of masculinity and tradition to impress people.” He has also called certain of his fashion choices a “true retvrn to tradition.” His sustained comparison between fashion and language (reminiscent of Judith Butler’s application of citationality to gender) allows Guy to have a flexible, open-ended, and performative use of tradition that can be compared with uses of tradition common to religious neo-traditionalists.
Derek Guy (also known as the Menswear Guy) has amassed 1.2 million followers on Twitter posting about menswear aesthetics and criticizing celebrities and politicians for their poor taste. What separates Guy from other menswear accounts, and what makes him an interesting comparison to many participants in religious discourse, is his self-conscious relationship to tradition and his frequent uses of traditionalism to outflank “trads” in online battles. He chides those who “performatively worship tradition but know very little about tradition” and yet “use the superficial symbols of masculinity and tradition to impress people.” He has also called certain of his fashion choices a “true retvrn to tradition.” His sustained comparison between fashion and language (reminiscent of Judith Butler’s application of citationality to gender) allows Guy to have a flexible, open-ended, and performative use of tradition that can be compared with uses of tradition common to religious neo-traditionalists.