Remember back when you'd fight your siblings on Sunday morning for the comics section of the paper? How times have changed, but luckily, you can find the same kind of political satire, fart jokes, and — how could we forget? — Calvin and Hobbs cartoons in a little place called Instagram. That's where illustrator Christine (a.k.a. @yeahitschill) showcases her work.
Similar to the old-school strips, most of her designs draw inspiration from real-life struggles, like getting a gnarly sunburn, putting your short hair up into a top knot, wearing a lip stain that just won't quit, or, most recently, dealing with body hair. (Fine, so they're real-life beauty struggles.)
AdvertisementADVERTISEMENT
Well, the post (which she created in collab with @goodbadcomics) triggered a strong reaction. Within the hour, users had stopped being polite and started getting real... nasty. "I woke up to a bunch of comments that progressively got more ridiculous," Christine tells us. "It started with people telling me I'm gross. Saying men won't like me. I went to brunch and came back two hours later to 100 new comments that were completely toxic. This was definitely the most negative reaction I've had on any comic."
After multiple slurs — including "hairy slag" and "nasty ass" and countless others that don't deserve repeating — flooded her feed, she decided to disable the comments section. "Body hair is such an small thing and my comic was so lighthearted, but so many people made it about how body hair affects a woman's attractiveness to men," Christine says.
"It's as if some people don't think women can live a life not concerning herself with how physically attractive she is to random men." But she brought up an interesting point: "Human women are mammals. Mammals have hair. Sometimes we take it off, but sometimes we leave it on, and it's not a big deal. At all."
On the bright side here, nearly 44,000 people liked (and more than likely related to) the comic. And, in case you're curious WTF proper protocol is for your body hair: It's whatever you want, period. You can wax it, grow it out, or dye it the color of the rainbow. Then you'll see who gets the last laugh.