Model Says She Received Rape Threats For Posing With Unshaven Legs

Swedish artist, photographer and model Arvida Byström claims her recent campaign with Adidas resulted in unsolicited threats of violence after she posed with visible leg hair. Byström, whose work challenges traditional ideas of femininity, said she’s received rape threats in her direct messages.

“Me being such an abled, white, cis body with its only nonconforming feature being a lil leg hair. Literally I’ve been getting rape threats in my DM inbox,” she captioned the Sept. 25 post on Instagram. “I can’t even begin to imagine what it’s like to not possess all these privileges and try to exist in the world. Sending love and try to remember that not everybody has the same experiences being a person.”

She added: “Sending love and try to remember that not everybody has the same experiences being a person. Also thanks for all the love [rose emoji] got a lot of that too.”

My photo from the @adidasoriginals superstar campaign got a lot of nasty comments last week. Me being such an abled, white, cis body with its only nonconforming feature being a lil leg hair. Literally I've been getting rape threats in my DM inbox. I can't even begin to imagine what it's like to not posses all these privileges and try to exist in the world. Sending love and try to remember that not everybody has the same experiences being a person _ Also thanks for all the love _got a lot of that too ❤️❤️❤️❤️
A post shared by arvida byström (@arvidabystrom) on Sep 25, 2017 at 6:46am PDT

The social media star — whose Instagram following numbers nearly 200,000 — received an outpouring of support from users on the platform. The photo was “liked” more than 20,000 times and received more than 1,000 comments.

“How people could get so offended about hairy legs in 2017?” wrote one user. “Shame on them. That's really sad.”

“I can't believe people would be so horrible over Unshaved legs,” another user said. “Thank you for being real, you are amazing and beautiful. I haven't shaved my legs in 20 years or my pits, why should I?”

Another commenter wrote: “Gorgeous photo and gorgeous woman! This shouldn’t even be a discussion, because it shouldn’t be ‘against social norm’ for women to have body hair!”

Byström, 26, began receiving the threats after the campaign was posted to YouTube, BBC News reported Wednesday. She’s shown in various poses as she says: “I think femininity is usually created from our culture. So I think everyone can do feminine things, can be feminine, and I feel like in today’s society we’re very scared of that.”

In a statement to BBC News, Adidas said that it was “[honored] to work with creators like Arvida for their creativity, diversity and unique ideas.”