It all started with a Twitter account asking for Kansas University students to submit pictures of their boobs to support the KU basketball team.
From the group's "History" section:
OUR BELOVED KANSAS JAYHAWKS WERE FACING CERTAIN DEFEAT FROM THE EVIL MISSOURI TIGERS IN A FINAL BATTLE FOR SUPREMACY. THOUSANDS OF JAYHAWK FAITHFUL WATCHED HELPLESSLY AS THE BORDER RUFFIANS FROM MISSOURI SOUGHT TO PILLAGE AND DISGRACE OUR BEAUTIFUL CATHEDRAL. FAR ABOVE THE GOLDEN VALLEY GLORIOUS TO VIEW, ONE WOMAN HAD ENOUGH. SHE CHANNELED THE POWER INHERENT IN ALL TRUE JAYHAWK FANS TO RESURRECT THE JAYHAWKS FROM A 19 POINT DEFICIT TO A STUNNING 1 POINT VICTORY!
They also offer a "Feminist Perspective" on their site.
It's all about who's in the driver's seat; and in the case of #kuboobs, it's the ladies all the way. #kuboobs has emerged from the throes of March Madness: a frenzied, cultish worship of the male body and its physical prowess. Its a masculine sphere that traditionally excludes women (just like those pricks who assume girls don't watch the games!). But with #kuboobs, ladies are here to announce their fandom, loud and proud, and to seize their own place among the Apollonian body worship that's synonymous with the NCAA basketball tournament. Its our answer to the phallic act of putting the ball in the hole.
It's since spread out to a Facebook page with 12,887 likes.
A Pinterest page with 58 pins of KU boob pictures.
And, of course, a Tumblr.
The hashtag #Boobment started spreading across Twitter
There are college sports boob twitter accounts for dozens of schools, including:
• @CaneBoobs for Miami University
• @MSUBoobs for Michigan State Boobs
• @UF_Boobs for University of Florida
• @UTBoobs for University of Tennessee
• @UNCBoobs for University of North Carolina
• @UGA_Boobs for University of Georgia
• @UofM_Boobs for University of Michigan
There are dozens of other imitators. It's important to note though that none of these accounts are remotely close to as active as the original KU account, which has 24,708 followers and a very active community:
Their mission statement:
Sportswriter Clay Travis was an early supporter of KU Boobs:
He wrote on January 15th:
"There are all sorts of genius uses of social media. Kony, Jonna Chizik rallying Auburn fans, now meet the latest iteration, #kuboobs"
One look at the #Boobment hashtag and it's pretty clear this isn't slowing down anytime soon. The tag is full of different schools and variations of other schools' accounts.
UPDATE: We've received a statement from Ken Soap, one of the students involved with @KUBoobs
"It's been a great pleasure to see so many new KU fans popping up across the globe," Soap says of the twitter account's new found game. "We never anticipated it to happen at every college across the country overnight, in what has come to be known as the #boobment. We welcome and encourage all schools to join the #boobment. Except Missouri. We don't like Missouri."
Soap says that University of Kansas hasn't reached out to anyone from KUBoobs yet, but that the guys involved have been keeping a pretty low-profile around campus.
As for what he plans to do with all the newfound attention, he says at this point it's up to the fans. "My job is to listen and facilitate. Last October we turned our attention to Breast Cancer Awareness. We are just coming off the heels of our first KU Boobs contest and we had a huge positive response," Soap says.
"There has been an increased demand for merchandise like t-shirts and calendars so we'll likely venture into that area soon. It's all in the hands of the fans! I listen to what they want and do my best to make it happen," He says.