Instagays, Unfiltered

Contents:

• INSTAGAYS, UNFILTERED
• LOS ANGEL GAY GYM
• GAY FNS TRAER VISED 100 CROSSF GYMS AND FOUND EXCELLENCE LED TO QUICK ACCEPTANCE
• NEW YORK GAY GYM
• A GAY GIRL’S GUI TO THE 2023 WOMEN’S WORLD CUP

INSTAGAYS, UNFILTERED

The other night, a stranger wh an ambiguo-lookg avatar and a private acunt DMed me on Instagram to tell me he was gay. He then asked how I rencile my homosexualy wh beg Mlim (he'd likely jt seen a vio about my relatnship wh my Mlim father.

I wished him luck and signed off, “Congrats, beg gay is great.

Meang the box of a succsful Instagay—the burgeong cult of betiful gay men on Instagram, wh follower unts that reach to five or six digs—mt be undated. Chanc are, if you’re a gay man, you eher follow or have enuntered an Instagay onle.

LOS ANGEL GAY GYM

”Perhaps unsurprisgly, the Instagay phenomenon is often cricized for beg vapid and misreprentg morn gay life. It seems like many Instagays know each other, and so their world is unique. Dpe some ridicule, there’s no shortage of Instagays who have crossed the elive 500, 000 follower mark, om wrer/director Max Emerson to Jt and Nick, a gay uple based Ptsburgh.

Ask a gay man to close his ey and picture one, and he might see Charl-Lrent Marchand, a 26-year-old former nway mol studyg to be a pastry chef. He broke 400, 000 followers last not unlike his peers, brands faiar to any Instagay follower are peppered throughout Charl’ feed, om Daniel Wellgton watch to the datg app Chappy. And while gay culture has always slavishly worshipped unrealistic ias of bety, om physique mol magaz and the cult of Tom of Fland, Instagay culture may take this worship to a new all, Instagays are algorhmilly-librated thirst traps, a new kd of social media star whose fame is predited on a heady batn of sculpted abs and the lavish trappgs of “fluencer” culture.

GAY FNS TRAER VISED 100 CROSSF GYMS AND FOUND EXCELLENCE LED TO QUICK ACCEPTANCE

What if the are our new gay ins? Is the superficialy of Instagay culture really somethg they should look up to?

How many of them are reachg out to Instagays for help through dark tim, as they do to me? I sought to ask the Instagays directly.

And if you’re lookg for Instagays, there’s one surefire way to fd them: On New York-based artist John MacConnell’s page, where he’s sketched hundreds of men, most of whom are Instagays, their unrwear or DMg John, 33, to talk about his experience, he ved me over to his Nola apartment. By the time I climbed six flights to reach him, I had sweat through my whe drs shirt, and no filter uld glamorize me—I was the oppose of an Instagay. I ask if he thks his work ntribut to body dysmorphia the gay muny.

NEW YORK GAY GYM

He’s an artist, this is his art, and the role—if any—that Instagays play body dysmorphia wh our muny is almost impossible to ’s more fortable talkg about the good he’s seen om Instagram. And he talks about his upbrgg, and I’m surprised to learn he spent high school gay nversn therapy, twice a week for three years. “When I me out, my fay took my phone and puter away so I uldn’t nnect wh other gay people.

Maybe his feed—and maybe the Instagays—are more harmls than people thk. ”He talks briefly about Instagays who are speakg out and c exampl of posts where they tell their g out stori or support an iative like GLAAD’s Spir Day; he qualifi that the speakg out is somethg, even if ’s only “twenty percent of the time.

A GAY GIRL’S GUI TO THE 2023 WOMEN’S WORLD CUP

I also wanted to know whether he approach Instagram differently given his reer (molg and actg) is most directly impacted by ; John works as an art director and Logan works early nversatn was more aligned wh my expectatns of an Instagay—he posssed a nfince that borred on arrogance, and threw around words like “my brand” and “my art” when referrg to his feed and his body. “Many people, pecially whe gay men, treat me like an rt.