Humiliating someone for the way his body looks clearly violates that credo. The gay rights movement is centered around an ideology of self-love and self-acceptance, of embracing yourself and others no matter how they live their lives or what they look like. The fact that a gay man would mock my colleague merely for bearing his own body at the beach fills me with shame for my people. Another admitted that he’s still embarrassed by the coarse hair that covers his shoulders and recently faced ridicule from a gay friend about it. One straight Slatester told me he felt self-conscious about his hairy back throughout his youth and hesitated to go shirtless at the pool. And many, tragically, share the shame I have, until now, clutched closely.
A quick poll of friends, family, and Slate staff suggests that most men blessed with a hairy chest are also, to varying degrees, cursed with a hairy back.
