Hairy Stockings: China’s Social Media Craze Du Jour [WTFoto]


hairy stockings

Japan isn’t the only Asian nation with a bit of strange. An image going viral on Sina Weibo (China’s Twitter) is giving the latest Japanese trend of eyeball-licking a run for its Yen.

The image shows a pair of legs (the gender of the wearer is unclear, but we’re guessing it’s a gal) wearing a full coat of thick Uncle Pauly body hair from thigh to ankle. At the bottom of each hairy trunk? Two non-hairy feet.

Basically, these are “hairy stockings,” and are less a fashion statement and more “pervert protection.”

“Super sexy, summertime anti-pervert full-leg-of-hair stockings, essential for all young girls going out,” says the caption with the image, according to a translation offered by China trend watcher ChinaSMACK.

The response has so far been mixed. There are a lot of short “disgusting!” comments, along with several cute vomiting emoticons under the post.

One commenter deserves a shout-out for accurately summarizing what I believe to be the most obvious concern here:

“This will not only prevent against perverts, it’ll definitely also result in preventing handsome guys from approaching you. When things go to the extreme, they can only go the opposite direction!!!”

Bleaauughhh.

Sound off on this strange “hairy stockings” social media trend. Gross? Clever? What say you?


Kokou Adzo

Kokou Adzo is a seasoned professional with a strong background in growth strategies and editorial responsibilities. Kokou has been instrumental in driving companies' expansion and fortifying their market presence. His academic credentials underscore his expertise; having studied Communication at the UniversitĂ  degli Studi di Siena (Italy), he later honed his skills in growth hacking at the Growth Tribe Academy (Amsterdam).

12 Comments

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  1. I would say I will stick with pepper spray, my concealed carry, and self defense to keep perv's away… this is a bit strange and I don't see how this would really do much.. if some one is going to attack you in that way, its likely they don't care what you look like…

  2. Well, I said "most obvious," not "most important." It does seem to me that if these are truly only meant as a pervert shield, then you also do run the risk of alienating men (or women) the wearer may fancy. We are, all of us, lying if we say that we don't care how the opposite sex perceives us, though that is not the sum all of a person. Not by a long shot.

    I appreciate your chivalric though quixotic zeal Davide, but this isn't an issue of sexism. I would have made the same observation were this a story about some kind of … male … equivalent … of some kind.

    In any case, kindly refrain from putting words in my mouth, and emotionally hop-scotching your way into a conclusion you only think you should have made for reasons I do not understand. Women don't only ever go out to attract men, just as men don't ever only go out to attract women.

    But what about serendipty? Where is your sense of spontaneous romance, man???

  3. Salient points, many of which I agree with, but I still think you over-zealously read too much into the original comment. Also, the "you also do run the risk of alienating men (or women) the wearer may fancy" in my response was meant to be inclusive toward homosexuals. Asexuals though, you do have me there. I'll just say here and now that should an asexual choose to wear these garments, I will almost certainly not try to stop them.

    By "almost certainly," I am, of course, including exceptions. Like if an asexual wearing hairy leg stockings attempts a flying ninja kick in my direction. I will have no choice but to defend myself.

  4. Chivalric? Ha. This isn't an issue of chivalry, and is most definitely an issue of gender and sexuality.

    You're right, it is problematic that this garment is marketed as a pervert shield, but in the way it supports a binary logic when thinking about sexual assault, not in the way it might cause alienation. Talking about this issue as such a dichotomy (sexual desire vs. sexual alienation) frames the garment solely as a tool for or against sex, which isn't true. Maybe some women would want to wear it simply because they like it? Maybe even some men would want to wear it. Anyway, we can never assume designed garments such as these are going to be used for their intended uses, because people are almost always re-purposing things for their own individual use. Assuming that women are going to wear it for sexual reasons is problematic, because you really don't know that, and are ultimately saying that a woman's fashion choice is resting on her level of sexual desire or lack thereof.

    "We are, all of us, lying if we say we don't care how the opposite sex perceives us."

    What about homosexuals and queer-gendered individuals? Asexuals? You should try to think about the entire scope of gender and sexuality before you make statements such as these.