Gigi Hadid is the star of LOVE magazine’s latest Christmas advent calendar video and she’s used it to take a stand against body hair.
In the day 11 clip, the Victoria’s Secret model is shown working out in red exercise gear, showing off her unshaven armpits in the process. Predictably, comments on the video have ranged from celebratory to insulting – with some users seemingly unaware of the biological fact that women grow hair under their arms.
One user put it best when they said: ‘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.’
It’s not the first time that female celebrities have been criticised for showing off unshaven armpits – Paris Jackson, Miley Cyrus Madonna and Julia Roberts have also been attacked for daring to go out without removing their body hair.
Hadid has been unafraid to discuss female grooming in the past, previously saying that she avoided having to get a Brazilian wax ahead of the Victoria’s Secret show because she wasn’t wearing any body paint or anything skimpy enough to warrant the effort. It's great to see someone of her standing using their platform to draw attention to the stigma around female body hair.
For this year’s calendar series, LOVE has taken the theme of ‘stay strong’, with Ashley Graham shown pulling a sledge, Kendall Jenner filmed boxing and Emily Ratajkowski ‘carb loading’ on spaghetti. The latter’s clip was predictably attacked by her arch-nemesis Piers Morgan, who branded Ratajkowski a ‘global bimbo’. The model hit back saying: 'Lol never said my love video was a feminist statement. But now it's worth saying that telling women what to do with their bodies & sexuality is actually just classic sexism. I can have opinions about feminism & also do sexy photo shoots k thanks.'