I once saw a Groupon offer for a month’s worth of unlimited bikini waxing, which made me seriously concerned about the kind of person that wants or even needs that frequency of pubic hair removal. From daily deal offers alone, there seems  a disturbing concentration of places to get waxed, plucked, lasered, and otherwise rendered as sleek as any marine mammal.

And no group seems as synonymous with meticulously hairless bodies as gay men. Models in stereotypical gay-focused media (magazines, sites, and porn) run the gamut from waxed-and-oiled muscle gods to twinky boys shaved to resemble only the sexiest of 12 year olds.

But we may yet have hope. From only the finest of scientific sources, a Manhunt survey of 27,609 users (via Queerty - the original, NSFW results here), showed that a majority of gay men prefer the unshaven male body. Broken down by body part, the largest group preferred a shaved shaft (21.35%) while a scant 1.06% liked a shorn forearm. But  in all cases a majority would rather guys not shave themselves down.

The generously-named “study” was just between shaved and not, which doesn’t take into account trimming (which anecdotally I think most guys prefer), or, you know, science. But the specific validity of the results are unimportant. A majority of gay guys seem to prefer at least some body hair on guys: so why is there such a gap between the hairless images we’re presented with and what we really want?

In the gay animalia—which requires a complex illustrated guide to sub-cultures based around minutely different characteristics—the default is coiffed body hair while lovers of man-fur are relegated to specific groups: the bears, otters, cubs, and other zoological-themed identifiers. But I’m not fully convinced hairless guys are an accurate “norm”.

Maybe it’s personal bias. I’m a big fan of hairy guys; I find body hair undeniably attractive. It’s partially because my body’s genetic makeup rejects growing body hair anything past awkwardly placed patches that make me look trapped in a permanent state of semi-puberty. And to top it all off most of what I do have is blonde. So maybe it’s an opposites-attract type situation, but I’ve never felt particularly enticed by the idea of velvety-smooth hairless skin.

The actual results of this poll doesn’t matter; what matters is that maybe we get some recognition for the love of hairy guys and maybe see some different kinds of hotness out there.