Gigi Hadid’s Armpit Hair LOVE Shoot Has Divided Opinion

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Gigi Hadid has been criticised by idiots online who don’t understand the biology of body hair.

It’s Christmas time and thus LOVE magazine releases its progressive feminist fashion advent calendar, starring the likes of Emily Ratajkowski, Rita Ora, Slick Woods and Bella Hadid.

The elder of the Hadid sisters, Gigi, of course, has made an appearance too, shot by Phil Poynter in a ‘Headmaster Grand style’ video.

Despite being widely regarded as one of the most beautiful women in the world, Gigi has still received abuse online for her appearance, and apparently no one is safe from trolls.

And all over a little bit of body hair.

The LOVE Magazine

Showing off her fit physique and boxing moves, the 22-year-old American supermodel’s Lycra two-piece activewear, emblazoned with her own name, revealed underarm hair.

Cue: a backward and scarily squeamish portion of society losing their collective mind.

The video was shared to Instagram by the liberating, progressive fashion magazine:

Another viewer insisted they had been ‘distracted’ by the look, commenting:

Her armpit hair was too distracting for me to watch the video. That should of been shaved. This magazine should of [sic] known this before shooting and releasing this video. Just not a clean look!

One apparently ‘excused’ the natural abomination by adding it may have just been the fabric ‘rubbing off’ on Gigi’s skin. Another not-so eloquent naysayer simply wrote, ‘ew’.

The LOVE Magazine/Instagram

However, on closer inspection, which left one Instagram observer ‘shook’, a fact biologists have known since the dawn of science and women have known since the dawn of humankind was confirmed: Gigi Hadid, like every women before her and after her, grows armpit hair.

Thankfully, many of the commentators came out to support Gigi’s rightful decision to not spend a ridiculous amount of money on feminine grooming products – marked up because they’re pink – or spend her valuable time shaving the various nooks and crevices societal beauty standards dictate should be hair-free on women.

Francesca Donovan

One sensible soul put it well when she wrote:

For all of you women commenting rude words and hating on this: You are missing the main point of this campaign.

While you’re thinking ‘shame on Gigi for not shaving her armpits and letting me see them on Instagram (omg I won’t sleep tonite)’ you should really feel ashamed of yourself for showing us yet again that unity and unconditional love and support between each other is far from happening until there are these social boundaries that really exist nowhere but in your minds.

The LOVE Magazine

Gigi herself shared a statement as the video was released, writing:

I love seeing everyone else’s videos. It’s celebratory of epic human beings and always pushes boundaries. The fashion circle is a family, so the Love Advent kind of feels like a Holiday Year Book in a way.

Luckily, Gigi is used to using her boxing skills to rid herself of creeps and misogynistic people, just like her attacker on the streets of New York. Maybe she’ll be able to kick these haters to the metaphorical social media curb, too.

The LOVE Advent Calendar recently came under fire from antagonistic journalist, Piers Morgan, who continued his sad, long-standing but one-sided diatribe against Emily Ratajkowski when he said her feature in the magazine’s series didn’t constitute feminism.

Morgan, a self-proclaimed feminist, was quickly schooled by the model and scholar, when Ms Rata tweeted him, explaining ‘telling women what to do with their bodies & sexuality is actually just classic sexism’.

We’ve been here before. Piers took to Twitter after the Golden Globes to berate Ms. Ratajkowski’s red carpet dress choice, because the freedom of expression we all hold dear also entitles Morgan to pass on style advice that literally no one has ever asked for.

Out of the hundreds of photographs of Emily, Piers sought out an image in which her underwear is on show and tweeted the photograph.

He captioned it:

Here’s @emrata deliberately flashing her knickers on #globes red carpet. Another triumph for feminist empowerment!

Emily demonstrated the split in an Eli Saab canary yellow satin dress – something she was possibly contractually obliged to do for the fashion house, in exchange for the pleasure of wearing the couture gown.

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Piers tweeted his ignorant sentiment for all the world to see, presumably in a ploy to embarrass Ratajkowski or – even more sinister – to coerce her into covering her body.

His tweet is an insult to the very idea of ‘female empowerment’ Piers claims to be upholding – and an insult to the the diversity of the human form; something we should all embrace no matter what shape or size it comes in.

It’s not the first time Piers has singled out Emily.

Responding to a tweet about a nude photo shoot in Harper’s Bazaar, Piers asked Emily if she needed him to buy her some clothes.

Needless to say, it was creepy as hell:

Perhaps Piers never learned not to judge a person – just as you wouldn’t with a book – by their cover, or their lack of inclination to cover up, for that matter.

His manner of insulting a woman in the name of gender equality to further his own brand of disrespectful journalism is not only unkind, but inhuman.

Piers’ tirade is another triumph for misogyny masquerading as so-called righteous deliverance from the empowering sexuality and success of a young woman – the sort of narrative that makes it okay to criticise a woman for not shaving her armpits.

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Newsflash: It’s not okay to criticise a woman for not shaving her armpits. Sadly, thus in 2017, this isn’t the first time a woman in the public eye has been criticised for her pubic hair.

The daughter of pop legend Michael Jackson, Paris, received a torrent of sexist abuse when the slack-jawed yokels saw she hadn’t shaved her legs or armpits – for an appearance on TV no less, shock horror!

So the 19-year-old shared some truths on Instagram:

When, oh, when will people stop being freaked out by strong women who do what they want with their bodies?

Shaved or unshaven.

Francesca Donovan

A former emo kid who talks too much about 8Chan meme culture, the Kardashian Klan, and how her smartphone is probably killing her. Francesca is a Cardiff University Journalism Masters grad who has done words for BBC, ELLE, The Debrief, DAZED, an art magazine you’ve never heard of and a feminist zine which never went to print.