Gio Scotti / Ancient Greek Towel Boy

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About

Ancient Greek Towel Boy refers to a series of tweets and TikTok comments about female, Italian model Gio Scotti (also known as TikToker @gioscottii and Instagram user @gio.scotti) who many male Twitter users, in particular Statue PFPs, thought looked like a 13-year-old Greek boy from Ancient Greece. The series of tweets and comments surfaced in early 2023, leading to controversial discourse about predatory sexual relationships in Ancient Greece and Rome between men and young boys and how they were all of a sudden manifesting in a modern, parasocial relationship between Twitter users and Scotti's appearance. Scotti eventually discovered the Twitter memes and discourse and confronted them on her Instagram Story in February 2023.

In September 2023, the debate was reignited by a photograph of German footballer Charlotte Voll going viral.

Origin

On May 10th, 2022, Twitter^[1] user HINDUSTANILION5 posted a tweet (since deleted) that attached a TikTok video from TikToker^[2] gioscottii (also known as Italian model Giovanna Scotti) with the caption, "This is what 13 year old boys looked like in Ancient Greece." earning over 170 likes in one day (shown below).

Although the tweet was soon deleted by HINDUSTANILION5 and HINDUSTANILION5's account was later suspended in 2022, other Twitter^[3]^[4] users posted screenshots of the tweet and discussed it on May 11th that year (examples shown below).

Spread

On October 8th, 2022, Twitter^[5] user SCHIZO_FREQ tweeted one of Scotti's TikToks, captioning it, "This is what the towelboys ancient Roman warriors had sex with looked like. This is what they took from us," gaining roughly 10,500 likes in four months (shown below).

The tweet inspired discourse about the comparison once again, such as a reply from Twitter^[6] user Sclenk1 sent on October 9th, 2022, that read, "'This is what they took from us! [posts a person who is visibly still here and has not been taken anywhere]'," and earned roughly 1,800 likes in four months.

On January 25th, 2023, Twitter^[7] user ressurectedlion posted a tweet (since deleted) that attached one of Scotti's TikToks, captioning it:

Imagine you’re chilling with your homie in Ancient Greece and his 13 year old boyfriend looks at you from across the room like this. Idk about you, but I’m definitely going behind his back and clapping those cheeks, screw friendship fr 😂😂😂.

Over the course of three days, it received over 630 likes, meanwhile, the tweet itself received roughly 2.9 million views in three days (shown below, left). The large ratio gap between likes and views was likened to viral quote retweets that have also since been deleted yet received mass engagement. For instance, on January 29th, 2023, Instagram^[8] user kidnapped.meme.t3am posted a screenshot of Twitter user lemonade_grrrl's QT (shown below, right).

On February 6th, 2023, Gio Scotti then posted an Instagram Story that read:

for those who don't speak Italian: I'm referring to the meme of months ago according to which I should be a 13 year old Greek boy. and, since i don't use twitter, I have only now discovered everything that is being created behind it.
i don't even know what to think

The IG Story (shown below, left) was noticed by the circle of Twitter users aware of the 13-year-old ancient Greek boy comparisons, namely Twitter^[9] user dyingscribe who posted a screenshot of Scotti's story on February 7th, 2023, writing, "It's over. She found out," and earned roughly 4,600 likes in one day (shown below, right).

Charlotte Voll

On September 12th, 2023, X^[10] user @QuiErat05 posted a photograph of Charlotte Voll, a German professional footballer who plays for Bayer Leverkusen, commenting, "Wild how these soccer women look like straight up dudes sometimes." Later that day, user @crotchner2^[11] quoted the post, referencing the popularity of Gio Scotti with Statue PFPs. The post (shown below, left) received over 3,600 reposts and 63,800 likes in one day. In the same thread, @crotchner2^[12] posted a screenshot of a reply by user @SplendorEternal reading, "Like a towel boy, even," commenting, "oh god they already have." The post (shown below, right) received over 50 reposts and 4,600 likes in a day.