If you are grossed out with body hair on women, then this is the time for you to unlearn.
HOW IT STARTED IN THE FIRST PLACE…
Removal of body hair initially emerged as a survival tactic before becoming an unrealistic beauty standard of today’s society. In order to avoid frostbites, cavemen in the stone age used sharp stones, seashells, etc. to shave off their body hair. Even if we look back at the history of Egypt, people shaved body hair either due to the acute heat or because they believed, body hair made them look “uncivilized”.
Despite hair removal being an expected thing to do, women around the world didn’t really start shaving until the early 1900s. they started as the market created a fictional problem (hair on body) and used it as a marketing tactic to shame women into buying razors. Being hairless was associated with femininity and high class which is an unreal beauty standard. This clearly shows that the idea of body hair being ‘unfeminine’ and ‘gross’ is nothing but a social construct so as to sell products. This tactic has created a narrative in most people’s minds that if we allow our body to be natural(hairy), it makes us different from others. The idea of being hairless ratifies that a woman’s body is not acceptable if it is unchanged .Body hair is an extremely natural feature of the human body, which becomes more prominent as puberty hits but there is a lot of tension on women to ensure they shave and those who don’t are often considered as dirty, unattractive or bad feminists. What a woman decides to do with her body is a complete personal choice and they shouldn't be generalized as a result of it.
Body hair, especially when seen on women have always become a topic of debate for the most un-obvious reasons ever. But why does something as natural as body hair a big reason of concern. The ideal body for women in society is supposed to be smooth, clear, baby skin. For majority of the world, it is a completely unrealistic beauty standard to hold oneself to, so that's great for capitalism
With every hair shaved, I felt cleaner but the shame would not leave me until I cleaned every visible evidence on my skin. We all know the Venus razor advertisement with an extremely catchy song, ‘I am your Venus, I am your fire, I am your desire’ playing in the background while the camera zooms in on individual body parts- none of which I could relate to as they run a razor on their extremely smooth hairless body. When I look at these ads now of women blowing bubbles on their skin, as the voiceover talks about the built-in moisturizing Blade, I scoff! My 20 years old self can now see how absurd patriarchal view of women and their beauty standards is portrayed even today in the 21st century. But why then can't I, for once think about parting ways with my razor? Why do I then, feel shame and disgust when I have to wear a sleeveless dress without having to shave my underarms? Why do I not want to be seen in public with my hairy legs out, yet I judge my father for being sexist when he refers to me as a “bird”? I remember being called out in a family function by my brother, as how I looked manly with my upper lip hair. I was an 18-year-old then and I believe an 18-year-old teenager sure knows what’s right and wrong for them, which I sure did know, but being called “manly” in front of 25 people I barely know, definitely counts as one of the most embarrassing events of my life. Was that right, that a full-grown woman had to go through this terrible experience of being called out in front of a gathering just because of her choice of keeping herself natural? Well, sure it wasn’t the right thing to say on my brother’s part but what did I actually do about it? I questioned myself so as to why do I not want to be like other girls and that’s where all the problem starts. How did I develop so much hatred for something so natural?
Whenever body hair grosses us out, we instantly go to get our hair waxed, shaved, plucked or lasered, but when we talk about the same hair on head, we all want them in abundance. Not that it matters, but there is a set notion for hair on head as well, that limits only to women. “Women shouldn’t have short hair, it makes them look manly” shouts my grandma, when I wanted to chop my hair of knee length 5-6 years ago. Being an active person, managing lengthy hair was a difficult task for me and hence I chopped them off, but I was always made to feel guilty and even till today I have that guilt ingrained in me as, what if I kept my hair long, I would have looked more “womanly”.
From all the research that I have done ,examples of Chinese foot binding or Victorian corset wearing was so correlated with shaving, but in the case of these two scenarios it was only a tiny class of women actually practicing these so it was always about personal choice .But thanks to this world where social media exists ,that we are now living in a global ideal where everyone is shaving irrespective of the gender ,that it has now become normalized to the point that it is considered a hygiene practice. Keeping shaving or waxing parallel to brushing your teeth would explain the response I got from a few people when I asked, how they felt if they let their body hair grow. ‘lazy’, ‘untidy’, ‘as if I do not care about my body’, ‘gross’ and ‘unfeminine’. As I hear more answers, I feel bad for these women, I feel so terrible and want to tell them how ridiculous it is but, who am I to speak when this is exactly what even I feel. People think this is not something of great importance, but from what I know it is serious issue because every woman now has to shave and if they don’t, punishment awaits. These punishments do not only include verbal abuse but also women who are ‘hairy’ are deemed as dirty and to stand near them is a felony. Women who are hairy are even prevented from being hired for a job because a hairy woman is either messy or is trying to make a statement. After talking to a few women and girls I realize these punishments are very much real. From being called names in school and men pointing out upper lip hair to mothers commenting about unshaved legs, we have internalized this shame around our body hair and there is no going back anytime soon. In an interview Paisley Gilmour, Cosmo UK’s sex and relationship editor answered, “I had periods of growing my hair when I was dating men, but there was always a thought in the back of my mind that they would be grossed out by it.” This sure made me realize how can one learn to embrace their body hair, when they are not even willing to accept them.
IS BODY POSITIVITY JUST TRENDING?
Miley Cyrus, Gigi Hadid, Ashley Graham all appear to have successfully fought the patriarchy or even if they did the slightest of action like embracing their underarm hair, it matters. On a level where they stand, they have the ability to influence people and of course they did some positive work in the field of body positivity. Along with these celebrities advertising has drastically changed, and razor companies have realized, a bikini model with no hair won't appeal people now.
The razor start-up “Billie” has been a front runner body hair acceptance. The company shares post on Instagram showing body hair and how it is a natural part being a woman. While my rebellion is now liberating after some mindful thinking, I am not sure if I am ready to give up shaving all at once.
Being a thin person, it took me a long time to allow myself to go out in a dress that shows my legs, that were so thin, one could see my veins popping out to say hello, let alone adding hair to it, like cherry on top. Does this mean I am doing injustice to girls who look up to me or people who are influenced by my choices? If we actually want to challenge the existing beauty standards, we should not think about what we did or not, but about how we change the culture so that body hair removal is not an expected things to do. One of my friends who was a part of my research stated, “I don't wax for men or anyone else, I do it because it makes me feel confident, I do it for myself”. So, while you are unlikely to see me, I will be challenging the way I think about myself. I’m never going to wake up early praying about having the perfect body, but I will stop thinking that I am gross just because there are parts on my body, except my head, where hair grow.
Mrigakshi Mehta