It's no secret that rigid, unrealistic standards of beauty and sexual racism exist in the gay community. More often than not, our media publications choose to celebrate masculine, muscled, white men while leaving everyone "other than" in the dust.
Now more than ever, people of all different body types and skin colors want to be represented, and social media user Ziad Stephan took this push for diversity into his own hands on Instagram last December.
Source: Instagram
Stephan direct messaged Hoscos, a popular Instagram account with over 315,000 followers, a simple question: "As a follower of your brand, why don't [you] include more men of color and beautiful men who don't fit the body image that's portrayed within the community?"
After initially responding with images of black men the page had previously posted to show that they did, in fact, post men of color, the editor of Hoscos promptly showed his ass prejudices with a subsequent comment.
Source: Mic
"I wish I would post thicker people but I cannot find photos that make me fall in love. Or even Asians."
A double whammy. Seems Hoscos can't find the beauty in any man who doesn't have abs or is a descendant from the entire continent of Asia.
Sadly, the page runner isn't alone in these views—they're prevalent throughout Western society. Asian men are still fighting to prove they are sexy and are working to overcome a wide variety of prejudices. Gay men of all races are much more likely than straight men to struggle with eating disorders and body dysmorphia. These prejudices actually do hurt our community.
As screenshots of the exchange began to get passed around on social media, Hoscos changed their tune and quickly started posting images of Asian men, along with an apology.
"I want Hoscos to be inclusive and diverse," wrote the page. "I sincerely apologise if I have offended anyone by misspeaking. I know Hoscos is not perfect, I appreciate the feedback. Help me do Hoscos wider! Help me do Hoscos more human."
While some quickly accepted the apology, other users revealed some ugly truths about the page.
"My friend called you out for not featuring any black models last year. You blocked him," wrote one user.
"I'm ashamed to share the same community with people like you. And to then post a photo of a beautiful man you formerly 'didn’t love' as a token of your apology. Lord. Go away," said another.
Dimitri Rojas, one of the men Hoscos posted an image of after the incident, explained his issue with the page to Mic. "If you can’t find beauty in anything other than a bearded, white male, with the perfect body, your thought process is the construct of centuries of racism that has led you to believe features associated with a specific race are superior to another."
Rojas thinks it's time for the gay community to redefine just exactly what beauty is. "It's up to us to decide if we want to continue to support the things we’ve been taught or if we want to redefine the definition of beauty." He went on, "people who identify as ‘white’ need to take the position of an ally and recognize that complacency in regards to the mistreatment of POC ultimately equates to racism."
Amen! It's about time that everyone in our community feel included, not just the white men with abs. Demanding change in our media is just step one.
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