you see this?
it’s called a razor
if you’re a girl, USE IT
your hairy legs and armpits aren’t cute okay
you’re not helping out for woman’s rights or anything
YOU’RE JUST MAKING YOURSELF LOOK NASTY
Or!
Women have been socialized to believe that they must remove hair for a number of reasons, primarily the following:
- hair is historically and Biblically associated with power; we as a patriarchal culture are obsessed with keeping hair on men (facial hair, Hair Club for Men, hair plugs, whatever) and keeping it off women. You say hair on women is nasty; why is it only hair on women? Women and men have the same pubic hair. We all grow it out of our follicles for the same reason. Why is it only gross on women?
- women’s bodies have been considered the property of men since the dawn of time, and therefore we have been held to a standard of beauty and attractiveness that is not determined by us but is instead determined by something called the male gaze, which is erases all sexualities and genders other than cisgender heterosexual men and assumes that women are performing for it.
- childlike women are considered less “threatening” and more “feminine” because they are naive, quiet, and rely on ~*adult men*~ to take care of them.
AND ALSO:
- there is a fallacy about pubic hair that it is dirty. It is not dirty. In fact, it’s there to keep your genitals cleaner. Pubic hair and armpit hair are also there to spread your pheromones around and make it easier for you to attract a mate.
- all mammals have hair. We’re mammals.
AND FINALLY:
- No one else’s body is your business. Ever. You want to shave? Go ahead! That’s totally your prerogative and if you’re more comfortable shaving, feel free. But given that pubic hair isn’t innately dirty, there’s no reason for anyone to remove it if they don’t want to.
You’re not sending out some edgy, hardcore message here. You’re just reinforcing what our culture wants you to reinforce. Before you pick up that razor again, think about why you want to shave. Is it just because our culture told you to? Why’d they tell you to? What’s the point?
Do what makes you comfortable and what makes you happy, and let others do the same.
Not to mention that at least in the US, shaving legs and underarms has been a thing for less than a century.
And was popularized by razor and depilatory companies. Who, of course, just wanted to double their sales by targeting women as well as men. Their marketing campaigns started in women’s magazines in 1915.
Here’s the first advertisement they ran trying to sell razors by telling women their underarm hair was “objectionable”. And it worked.
Advertising and commercialism once again enforcing arbitrary restrictions on women’s bodies~
Yes I am reblogging this again. Because of what the above person added. It’s so interesting to learn how customs come about in a culture.
Bless this post.
Nevermind the fact that in many parts of the world, you’ll get funny looks for having shaved legs and armpits. Many many many cultures are deeply rooted to not care about it, whole countries in fact! Do THEY have to drop their culture for our American culture just because you think lady-hair is gross? Fuck that. Why should people spend money on things that are completely unnecessary if they don’t want to? I do shave, but do you know why? I like the feel. It’s for me. My body, my choice, everybody elses’ is theirs respective-and-respectful-ly. Grow up.
And, in the ancient cultures that actually did promote shaving (like in Egypt) both men and women shaved extensively. it wasn’t either or.