Anthropologie uses dancer Harper Watters to show off dresses on their Instagram, backlash ensues.

In what seems to be an increasingly common occurrence, a brand hires a male to show off products targeted at women. This time it's Anthropologie who hired the soloist for the Houston Ballet, Harper Watters, to model their dresses. The video post is an upbeat edit where Harper twirls in the way only ballet dancers can, with some clever editing to swap from jeans to various dresses.
The Anthropologie post read: "To quote @theharperwatters, "Never anthro-pologize for being fabulous! Loving these #UnexpectedAndUnforgettable look." (Obviously, we couldn't agree more!) Twirl to the link in bio to shop bold, beautiful dresses for every solo.

In other posts on his Instagram channel, Harper shows off his incredibly strong ankles and body control by running and dancing in high heels on treadmills, etc.
The overwhelmingly negative comments on Anthropologie's Instagram post didn't stop when they closed the specific Harper post for comments, they are now taking over the rest of Anthropologie's feed.

"Your previous post is stupid. Men are not your target market. This company is a failure and completely disrespectful to real women and the beauty that a real woman is!"

Back in 2017 Dove faced backlash for having a trans-identified male as a #realMom, but more recently brands targeting women have hired gender-bending influencers as well as trans-identified men, to such an extent that women seem to have gotten quite fed up with it all. David Lopez and Dylan Mulvany for Ulta, Estée Lauder had a trans-identified male explain "my favorite part about being a woman", and "Blush", a lingerie company in Germany, had a man modeling ladies underwear.
The biggest backlash yet was when Dylan Mulvany partnered with Bud Light and Nike for women, which caused a huge drop in Bud Light sales and sent the Marketing Director responsible on leave of absence.
It appears that using trans-identified models in ads has become a popular tactic for gaining attention, whether positive or negative. However, there was a time when gender-bending in advertising wasn't as controversial. The response to Anthropologie's post suggests that those times are now behind us.