After Miley Cyrus, Jemime Kirke of Girls showed off her underarm hair growth at June 1 CFDA awards, one of the top fashion events of the year.

On Sina Weibo, a popular microblogging site in China, the women's rights activist known as Xiao Meili held an ‘Armpit Hair Competition’, complete with prizes that included condoms and a vibrator, to protest societal pressure on women to shave under there.

Meili’s efforts earned more than 1.7 million hits. The 25-year-old Xiao, whose real name is Xiao Yue, said, “In past two decades, there have been lot of commercials and advertising for hair removal cream and laser removal of hair that have talked about women needing to shave their underarm hair and that the armpit area should be clean”.

She said her mother’s generation didn’t care about having removed their underarm hairs. But she said nowadays it has become a headache for women in the summer as they have to consider whether to shave that area or not.

Love it or hate it, not shaving under the arms has morphed into a call to action for other women as well for those who are looking to be free of the restriction or choose for themselves without ridicule.

Mum Katherine Anne True, 30, a registered nurse in Raynham, Massachusetts, recently also showed off her underarm growth on Instagram.

True said she started it a few months ago and knew that it will soon become a trend. At first, it was just for fun, she said.

True affirmed at first her five-year-old daughter and nine-year-old niece asked her to shave those hairs. She at moment realized how these genders stereotypes were already so ingrained at such small ages.

Some celebrities have been sporting armpit hair forever like Lady Gaga who used little shaggy turquoise wigs under her arms in 2011 while performing at the Much Music Awards to match the same color in wigs for her head and an over-the-clothes crotch piece.