Why You Shouldn't Hate on Tom Brady's Met Gala Get-Up

'Every time someone can smash a gender norm, the world gets a little bit better'
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted May 8, 2018 4:13 PM CDT
Why You Shouldn't Hate on Tom Brady's Met Gala Get-Up
Tom Brady attends The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute benefit gala celebrating the opening of the Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination exhibition on Monday, May 7, 2018, in New York.   (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)

Tom Brady showed up at the Met Gala, famous for attendees in extravagant outfits, wearing a tuxedo with gold embroidery on the lapels—and the internet can't stop mocking him for it, writes Brian J. White in the Boston Globe, where he implores everyone to stop making fun of the Patriots QB. (For a sample of the teasing, check out CBS Sports, which refers to the outfit as "a magician's suit.") Brady has attended a number of Met Galas, which always have a theme, and he's never adhered to the theme before. No one cared. "Lots of men show up at the gala doing the least with formal wear while the women are doing the most with all kinds of fun fashion," White writes. Commentators complain about the men not trying, but then "this year, when Brady tried, albeit just a little bit, he got dragged like a Cub Scout trying to tackle Rob Gronkowski."

And that's reflective of a wider truth. "We still live in a world where men are expected to live within a pretty muted range of self-expression. Every time someone is able to step outside those expectations, every time someone can smash a gender norm, the world gets a little bit better." It's not fair to joke that Brady is a "joyless, soulless" bore and then roast him when he dodges society's expectations. "Sure, the jacket wasn’t a huge blow against toxic masculinity. But you don’t get a flower without nurturing the seedling. And you certainly don’t get one by stomping the seedling into the ground. Let’s give men (and everyone else) room to bloom. The world will be a more beautiful place if we do." As for Brady, who told People wife Gisele Bündchen chose the now-infamous outfit, it sounds like he's not a huge Met Gala fan; he told the magazine his favorite part is "the end." (More Tom Brady stories.)

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