A new investigative piece published by Mic confronts sexual racism and body shaming in the gay community and it’s sure to ruffle a few (predominantly white) feathers.
The video was made in response to Hoscos, an extremely popular Instagram account with over 315K followers, that came under last month for it’s lack of diversity. When confronted about this, Hoscos doubled down by saying there simply weren’t any pictures of “thicker people” or Asians that make a person want to “fall in love.”
Related: CEO Joel Simkhai officially out at Grindr… Will the sexual racism he promotes go with him?
So what is the Hoscos aesthetic exactly? Mic describes it best:
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
If you like your men with a little grunt in their dumbbell curl, or if you are a lover of somewhat exposed derrieres, entirely exposed derrieres, naked men contemplatively staring out on a mountaintop or couples whose bodies are so similar in definition you’d swear there was some sort of genetic mutating at play, then Hoscos is an account you might consider tapping.
Related: These interracial couples are not having your racism, er, “preferences” any longer
Now, we get it. Thin, cisgender, musclebound, mostly white dudes can be hot. But so can a lot of other guys. Which is the point Mic is trying to make.
Cue the outrage in 3… 2… 1…
Watch:
https://www.facebook.com/MicMedia/videos/vl.437739276627126/1771004009589048/?type=1
Donston
I’m not even a white dude (at least not 100% white) but how about actually focusing on promoting men who represent diversity rather than merely bitching about the lack of diversity while throwing all muscular white men (which is still the main thing this site primarily hypes) under the bus.
Kangol
Thank you. The irony of Queerty regularly calling out other people while not dealing with its own forms of apartheid is reaching absurd levels.
JK 1984
There is definitely more than a little “pot calling the kettle black” involved with this article.
There is definitely a plethora of White “masculine looking” men regularly featured on Queerty (Steve Grand, Tom Daley, Colton Haynes, Tom Daley, Max Emerson, etc….) vs a much smaller amount of Asians, Blacks, anyone without a six pack.
I get that they are most likely targeting what is (or at least they think is) their target market, but personally I would love to see more diversity of hot guys of any colour, guys who aren’t the “perfect ” body and guys who are intelligent and can actually string together a coherent sentence when interviewed.
Wolfie
Yep nothing like promoting racial diversity by being a racist and excluding gay white men. Utter bullshit.
Dymension
I’m not even white, and the irony was not lost on me…
OrchidIslander
Who said anything about excluding white men? For many white men, not all obviously, why does inclusion sound like (their) exclusion?
Blackceo
It never was enough for me but whatever…I get what they are saying. My first thought is for people to make their own Instagram account that does celebrate gay diversity. Its Instagram. Its not confined to just one page, but if it has 315,000 followers there is a reason. Eurocentric standards of beauty have always been thought of as the be all end all so of course there’s the market for that. It is changing slowly as more and more people of color are advertised and those in the advertising rooms don’t all look like Trump’s cabinet.
But I put my money and backing among those who do engage in such advertisements of diversity and inclusion. I like to see people who look like me and who look like people I’m not used to seeing be celebrated for beauty. If all those people really want to be the change then they should start a competing Instagram account that does show all those beautiful gay men of color.
gymmuscleboy
I have had it with this site – your hatred of normality is exhausting
Donston
Ultimately, who gets to decide what is normal? But yes, this site goes out of its way to greatly promote promiscuity, drug use and pretty, muscular “straight acting” white guys. Yet, they bitch about stereotypes, “toxic masculinity” and the lack of diversity. It’s hypocrisy 101.
Creamsicle
Are you American? Perfect gym bodies are not normal. Look at the spread of body types the next time you go to the grocery store. Gym bodies are the exception, not the rule.
Having said that, this “controversy” is a lot of people getting their panties in a well-meaning twist over the types of men on a single instagram account. If they feel like there should be a competing diverse instagram account then they should make it and post the kinds of imperfect beauty they appreciate. The Internet is big enough for multiple gay instagram accounts. There’s no need to tear down this one account for their body type and racial bias. I think from the way Hoscos replied in a private communication does expose actual racial bias in their judgement of beauty, but so what? Unfollow and find somewhere else to find your naked men. The internet is full of naked men.
I can understand pushing for diversity in mainstream media outlets, since there are gatekeepers in that industry. There are no gatekeepers on the Internet. If you want to make something then all you need to do is make a new instagram account or *gasp* build your own website to promote your agenda. It’s not hard. It’s not expensive. It will probably take time to get as many followers as your competitors, but it might not take that much time if your content is good.
chris33133
When asked when a joke is funny, even as it outrages people, the British comedian Jimmy Carr answered that the audience determines that. If people laugh, even if they can’t believe they are laughing, it’s funny.
I take the same attitude towards these sorts of debates. Who is good looking? What is beauty? Who is even interesting? It’s all in the eye (and the wallet) of the beholder who — even while bemoaning the lack of XYZ; or the shaming of older or portly people; or the toxic masculine male — continues to patronize those web sites and/or those postings.
Gentlemen: vote with your eyes and wallet. When we patronize the web sites that promote diverse forms of beauty and ignore the ones that don’t, the norms will change. Until then — in the immortal words of Liza Doolittle — “words, words, words. All I hear are words….”
PinkoOfTheGange
I am supposed to be out raged at what? Some guy post pictures of guys he likes, and doesn’t include guys someone else finds attractive.
This is easy…
start your own frigin instgram.
It is an individual, they have no power to oppress any one, nor any responsibility to add diversity as some else divines it.
PinkoOfTheGange
or even defines it.
Cai
It’s one account. If you don’t like it, find another account to like.
ErgoCoffeeto
More regressive leftist identity politics garbage. People are attracted to what they’re attracted to. Not being sexually attracted to XYZ doesn’t mean you don’t like XY or Z. It just means your taste runs to other things and it should be left at that.
mhoffman953
In 2018, the word “diversity” is merely code for anti-white
STS
Lets define diverse: differing from one another : unlike; composed of distinct or unlike elements or qualities. in it’s best expression a diverse group of hot men could include all men, all colors, all body types. So diverse really just means diverse, there is no need to read anything else into it. That being said, there are plenty of places to see the kinds of men that turn each if us on and there is absolutely no reason to expect every site to appeal to every guy. I tend to agree with others who say, that no one site need to feel obligated to cover all forms of male beauty. I also have to say that although mainstream media is obsessed with one particular look, there is extreme beauty in all cultures, and it takes very little effort to find it.
mhoffman953
@STS
That is what diverse means by definition but that is not how many outlets who push for “diversity” currently see it or present it.
Currently many online blogs (i.e. Buzzfeed, Salon, and others) will go to great lengths to demonize, ridicule, and chastise being white or being a white male while claiming the answer to this vile trait of being white is “more diversity”.
Yet these same outlets never complain when there is a disproportionately small number of white people in any given area such as sports.
Diversity is about celebrating differences and recognizing these differences. Diversity isn’t always skin color, diversity can include diversity of experience or opinion. That’s what many of these outlets and movements fail to recognize. To them, diversity means making white people and white men the minority.
Jack Meoff
There seems to be a real trend in the world at the moment where people focus in on something that someone else has created or done and then fault it for not being different than it is or for not conforming to their version of how they think things should be.
Seriously, if all of these SJW’s got creative and started their own projects to create what they perceive as their utopian version of the world then they could have what they wanted but that doesn’t seem to be their end game. If you want to create change then do something about it don’t just bitch that others aren’t doing it for you.
Danny595
Why would they start their own projects to solve problems? Their goal is not to actually solve any problem in the world. It is to assume moral authority and power over others. Finding an ever-lengthening list of things (people, political views, public policies, films, books, TV shows, games, comic books, dating practices, hair styles, etc) to be “problematic” furthers that objective, since each problematic thing gives them reason to sermonize, to pretend to have moral authority, and to make demands of others to conform to their dictate. Solving problems would work against their objective.
tnguy222
This site is becoming unbelievably and intolerantly “social justice warrior” focused. Yes, it is good to fight for socially equality, but not at the expense of logic and rational thinking.
If you want an Instagram or Twitter page to focus on hot Asian dudes – make it! Want one with hot black guys – makeit! Want one with bony butt Twinks – make it!
There is simply no need to shame people into having sex with others in the name of “diversity”
As I have said, it is normally the unattractive and ignorant people who are pushing the agenda because they cannot get in the pants of 10/10 guys.
As a Black man whose sexual and romantic partners are beautiful twinks with an average age of 18 and six months years old (I calculated it), I can assure you that “sexual racism” is usually bested by a confident personality, fun spirit, sexual prowess, and generally successful life.
You want hotter guys? Do hotter things. Travel the world, participate in revolutions, be striving towards the top of career. Attractive and smart people like that; they should not be strong-armed into sleeping with you by being called “racist “
KaiserVonScheiss
We get it. You hate white people and masculinity. Wonderful.
potstirrer
All these noble Men of colour (MOC) activists who wants to see diversity and make MOC more mainstream……. have white boyfriends ? Kinda ironic and contradictory …
potstirrer
Ditto for the noble white men activists who wants to see more MOC and their beauty celebrated…… have white boyfriends themselves
Danny595
Graham Gremore is cisgender, white and gay, and he’s really tedious and predictable, so maybe the headline is true.
ingyaom
How many of those 315,000 followers are heterosexual females?
Creamsicle
More likely that at least 10k of them are bots that Hoscos paid for in order to bump their visibility on instagram.
DCguy
So says the author who is constantly writing articles about “Straight guys” and who calls bisexuals “Hetero-flexible”.
This looks like poorly done click-bait.
Ummmm Yeah
So if all the white gay men boycott Queerty and it’s advertisers how long will this site last?
gregory_phillips
Click-bait crap
GoodGrief
Wow. I had to read the article a few times to ensure that it was really attempting to say what I thought it was saying. An individual’s personal social media account, that focuses on men he finds attractive, is getting condemned because it lacks diversity? Really?
I’m on board with the condemnation of “No blacks or Asians” in dating app profiles. There are better ways to express interests than “No XYZ”. (E.g., “Really into light-skinned guys” or “Love European guys” is less negative and still gets the point across).
But, to condemn a guy for sharing pics of what he finds attractive because the pics do not represent the diversity of men? It’s one thing if say GQ or Macy*s only featured fit white models. But this is a personal social media account.
Creamsicle
Right? I’ve experienced plenty of rejection as an asian gay man, but I just do my best to roll with the punches and find someone else. I got lucky a few months ago and now I have an amazing boyfriend who shares the same interests as me and is the furthest thing from a vapid basic gay.
If these guys think there should be a competing instagram that features sexy thick men and sexy man of color then there is literally nothing stopping them from creating an account and posting that content. Beating up on Hoscos is excessive and not constructive since it’s just an instagram. There are no gatekeepers on the Internet the way there are with publishing, film, or television.
Shotbyzooby
It’s not his personal social media account. His personal account is mainly selfies and architecture with about 8k followers.
It’s an account the owner “curates” (or is that “Queerates”;D) photographs from other photographers and other profiles to showcase them to the world (of Instagram) of which he has 315,000+ followers.
As with anything you do in the wider public, you have to consider what you do as “influential” once it hits 10k followers and with that influence comes a responsibility to make sure you’re including everyone that you’re talking to.
I did wonder why Hoscos suddenly started featuring Asian guys (I’m part Asian myself) and I’m disappointed to find his response within the article pretty much the same as any sexual networking app profile.
Yes we could all find the right hashtag to find the kinda guys we like looking at, but when it comes to an influencer (whether you set yourself out to be or not) saying “This is hot” and it ONLY being one type of guy, you have to think, wait a minute… What about all the other guys just as hot? Do they not need to be showcased?
Xzamilloh
I’m sorry, but I’m just sick of this crap. The utter lack of self-awareness was so astronomical that it was almost insulting. The ONLY diversity this video seemed to care about was (slight) color variation… the men ALL looked like gorgeous Instagram models, all had the same groomed facial hair, haircuts, torsos, etc., and the fact of the matter is, I don’t need to see black men on a random Instagram account to feel validated. At this point, Queerty’s saturday morning lineup of hot good looking guys is becoming “emblematic” cis-normative blah blah blah.
FYI, making someone feel bad about something they didn’t choose (like being gay and white) is something WE especially should not be feeding into.
Josh447
“cisgender” the most offensive derogatory and unnecessary term of the 21st Century.
Aires the Ram
Josh447, I thought no one else would say it!! I swear, if I hear the utterly ridiculous term “cisgender” one more time I will likely vomit on my shoes. Thank You Josh.
Josh447
Amen
Nahald
This whole cisgender thing is a joke. If you are a guy and act that way (gay or straight) call yourself male. Sheesh, cisgender sounds more gay than the word gay.
sydboy007
What’s more diverse
20 white cis gendered men with very different social and political views
20 non white varied genders who all have common social and political views.
I know which group I’d prefer to have a few beers and shoot the breeze with.
CanadianGuy62
I just want to check…are there amy other sites that, as a gay man, I’m obligated to look at? Don’t want to offend anyone because I find some things hot and some things not.
This is such utter B.S. If people don’t like what he posts, don’t look at it! If you want to see other bodies colours, shapes, types, etc., on Instagram or elsewhere, get off of your (most likely white) butt and create an account and post away.
This is free market economics…if someone offers something people want, he/she will succeed. If the appeal of that product or service fades, then failure to adapt will cause it to fail on its own.
Meanwhile, if he/she does well with whatever is being sold, then the market has spoken.
sydboy007
So much easier to just go RREEEEEEEE
Rex Huskey
“Being cisgender, white, and gay is no longer enough to make a guy interesting” Never did it for me.
Surely he’s gotta have a dick made by God. Who cares about color? It’s the “gay” thing, at least for me that doesn’t work. Give me a closeted, bi-curious or open minded straight man any time. Not in to sisters of perpetual indulgence or club bois or RuPaulers. I want my man untrimmed and not always ready to bend over. I want him focused on life not the mirror. I love it when there’s some body odor and having a little brown on my dick after “when the time is right.” This site is called queerty not sissy-ty.