Daily Mail questions Chris Mears and Jack Laugher’s masculinity after gold medal hug
Daily Mail questions Chris Mears and Jack Laugher's masculinity after gold medal hug
By Will Stroude
Being named the world’s finest male synchronized divers after years of training and hard work is bound to be a little emotional. So when Chris Mears and Jack Laugher become Olympic champions in the synchronized 3m springboard event last night (August 10), the pair, who are also best friends, were obviously overcome with the sheer enormity of their achievement. The Daily Mail, who recently sparked outrage from the LGBT community after describing HIV-preventing PrEP medication as a “lifestyle drug”, were quick to dampen spirits when they picked up on their (justifiably) zealous hug, and immediately contrasted it with third-placed China’s “manly” pat on the back.
The Daily Mail has angered me even more than usual today! Boys are allowed to hug. It’s not unmanly. pic.twitter.com/PYykcscoXe
— Alice Pope (@Alice_Pope) August 11, 2016
The comparison didn’t go down well with everyone, with some taking to Twitter to complain about the remark, which many believed had thinly-veiled homophobic undertones. “Boys are allowed to hug. It’s not unmanly”, wrote on user. Another added: “This backward view of gender behaviour and casual homophobia has to stop”. Maybe it’s just us, but if we’d just won Olympic gold, the last thing on our mind would be keeping things #masc4masc…
Jack Laugher & Chris Mears won a gold Olympic medal & the daily mail run a headline criticising their masculinity for hugging to celebrate — Calum McSwiggan (@CalumMcSwiggan) August 11, 2016
https://twitter.com/prendergast/status/763628936312066048 https://twitter.com/WayneDavid81/status/763630918523289601 https://twitter.com/TEHayward/status/763626436708208640 https://twitter.com/Craig_Weir/status/763656669754757120 Hopefully, once you’ve stood on an Olympic podium the thoughts of the Daily Mail aren’t all that important to you. Carry on, boys. Carry on. More stories: Colton Haynes was told his father killed himself after finding out he was gay BBC commentator slammed for homophobic comment during Olympic kiss cam