After a Twitter user called hairy chests ‘ick’ queer men decided to do what they do best: Take their shirts off. Pictures Ltd./Corbis via Getty Images)
After a tweet that called hairy chests “ick” went viral, outraged queer men decided to respond by doing what they do best: Taking their shirts off.
On Monday (17 May), Twitter timelines quickly became rammed with Lourve-ready photos of men proudly showing off their gloriously hairy chests, all to squash body-shaming.
The relentlessly thirsty trend that is a modern-day act of Divine Providence took off after a Twitter user tweeted: “Hairy chests are a massive ick.”
We are once again reminding all 192 million daily active users that, sometimes, it’s perfectly fine not to tweet. Yes, really.
Soon enough, countless queer folk unbuttoned their striped Zara and H&M shirts – or took them off altogether – in defiance as they did their best Tom Selleck in Magnum PI impression.
Braving the body-shaming by bearing their beautifully hairy chests for the world (or at least, their followers) to see, users of all body types and looks sought to uplift one another and say it is perfectly OK to have body hair, or none at all.
And this even included RuPaul’s Drag Race UK‘s Crystal who said saying hairy chests are ick “is how to summon me”, which is very, very good to know.
Tweeting “hairy chests are a massive ick” is how to summon me pic.twitter.com/BabM3MIswt
— Crystal | Black Lives Matter (@crystalwillseeu) May 18, 2021
hairy chest appreciation tweet pic.twitter.com/ADYBSoTOqm
— Jay (@highluronicacid) May 17, 2021
I dare you to tell me this hairy chest is ‘ick’. Go ahead. Make my day. pic.twitter.com/tKT7Mol3yI
— Matthew May I? (@TeachToAmerica) May 18, 2021
Apparently, it’s ick?!
Hairy nipples must be the ick also.. 🙄🤭 pic.twitter.com/Sdw2brpekV
— 🐾 John (@JGDavison94) May 18, 2021
Personally my hairy chest and I think body shaming is a massive ick pic.twitter.com/9HcbIwQOOa
— josh (@asstronom1cal) May 17, 2021
If you want a hairy chest pic there’s loads on my timeline 😘 love for all body types ✌🏽 https://t.co/6jMB3oLxSI
— Mufseen (@mufseen) May 18, 2021
not me logging in on my birthday to see y’all calling my chest ick…. pic.twitter.com/Q8p9vMZrqG
— Q (@listentoquincy) May 18, 2021
As Grindr’s Twitter account, the poet of our generation, put it: “Hairy chests are hot.”
hairy chests are hot
— Grindr (@Grindr) May 18, 2021
You heard it here first.
This certainly isn’t the first time that queer Twitter users have rallied against a take that they see as body-shaming.
In 2018, a user tweeted: “Dear gays with a waist larger than 32”, floral prints just aren’t for you, sis.
“Hust because Zara makes them in a XL doesn’t mean it’s for you.”
The backlash was swift. Hundreds of queer men dunked the user for their weird, gatekeeping opinion on, er, floral shirts.
“IGNORANT,” one user fumed. “I can wear floral, I can wear stripes, I can wear what I please because I love myself enough to not let people like you get me down.
“Don’t be mad that when I wear floral I end up looking like a whole beautiful tree & you don’t .”
To paraphrase the Spice Girls here: All you need is body positivity.
