Through travelogues, lavish grooming routines, and daily appearances at Barry’s Bootcamp, one imagines endless disposable income (seemingly without real work to produce it).ĭespite some ridicule, there’s no shortage of Instagays who have crossed the elusive 500,000 follower mark, from writer/director Max Emerson to Justin and Nick, a gay couple based in Pittsburgh. It seems like many Instagays know each other, and so their world is unique. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Instagay phenomenon is often criticized for being vapid and misrepresenting modern gay life. “These men are more relentless and artful their images as well-selected, aspirational, and powerfully seductive as an underwear or fragrance ad campaign.”
They’re “different than your average hot selfie-taking guy or women on Instagram,” as New York Magazine once put it.
Meaning the inbox of a successful Instagay-the burgeoning cult of beautiful gay men on Instagram, with follower counts that reach into five or six digits-must be inundated.Ĭhances are, if you’re a gay man, you either follow or have encountered an Instagay online. I have conversations like that on Twitter or Instagram almost weekly, but I have just a couple thousand followers on each.
