In a bid to prove that a woman’s hair is nothing to be disgusted by, feminists in China have showcased their armpit fuzz in a contest on social media.

Organisers are inviting women to post photos of their underarm hair on Twitter-like social media website Weibo, before the competition closes on Wednesday.

Women will be given prizes for prizes for taking the most “characteristic and beautiful and confident” photos of online underarm hair, Mail Online reported.

Highlighting how attitudes towards women’s body hair have changed, activists behind the contest cited the example of a film star who grew her armpit hair to play a character in 1930s China, BBC News reported.

Xiao Meili, 25, a leading women’s rights activist who helped to launch the contest, told The Guardian she hoped the contest would spark a discussion around what defines “feminine beauty”, as well as the wider topics of stereotypes and the ownership of the female body.

“Keeping armpit hair should not be seen as uncivilised or dirty – it is nothing of the sort,” she argued.