Shaving is the Pits

Off Our Backs, May/Jun 2005 by Friebur, Robin

In the next 35 years, feminism needs to reclaim lost ground. Many issues that once "had no name" but were important to what happened in our real lives were explored in the 1970s. While some of these were never lost or have moved to the forefront-lesbian and gay rights, race and racism in women's movements, global feminisms-others were buried in the "sex wars." Prior to the sex wars, for example, feminists had dared question the expectation that we be "hairless wonders" (except for our heads).

The "slut feminism" embraced by some women in the 1980s and 90s made it difficult to question the rules about "sexy" appearance propagated by media moguls (rich men) and enforced by the less privileged men who may be our husbands, fathers, boyfriends, or sons. "Slut feminism" suggested that as long as we had our orgasms, it didn't much matter how we got them. If being "sexy" the way the media moguls said was sexy helped us get off, then we shouldn't question what "sexy" was, or those who insisted on its restrictive standards. And one of the most iron-clad rules of being sexy was, and is, shaving.

Let's not be silenced any longer. Most women have bristling legs, arms and armpits. The idea that we must pluck, shave, wax or otherwise remove body hair to achieve the smoothness of a baby's bottom is impractical and destructive. As Mimi Spencer writes in The Age, an Australian publication, "What woman doesn't abhor the eggy smell of depilatory cream, the searing pain of a blunt razor dragged up her shinbone, or the embarrassment of opening the door to the postman with crème bleach still clinging to her upper lip?"1 As long as we accept this social norm without question, the development of ever more torturous methods of hair removal will continue. Consider the Brazilian bikini wax, "which was surely developed in Hades, but (get this) has actually received good press from the world's ditzy beauty editors. Not only is it a humbling and hideous experience, during which you proffer your undercarriage to an unknown shop girl, it also hurts like the bayjesus."1

Shockingly, women's transition to shaving occurred without significant protest. Before the 1900s, only men shaved. Around 1915, however, sleeveless dresses became popular, opening up a whole new field of female vulnerability for marketers to exploit. By 1920, the Gillette Razor Company, which continues to cater to the shaving habits of today's women and men, had ingrained in women the idea that underarm hair is unnecessary and objectionable, and needs to be "smoothed out."2 Later, as swimming evolved from a recreational activity to a ritual requiring women to "flaunt their stuff," swimsuits became fashion statements and leg hair was shunned. Thus, shaving became a cultural norm.

While contemporary women are not literally forced to depilate, the culture and media pressure us to do so. Those women with enough guts to challenge the status quo and free themselves from the shackles of a sexist society are stigmatized. They face judgments that others escape by complying to and personifying the behaviors and attitudes expected of them by their peers. Not only are they condemned by others, but they sometimes internalize others' perceptions of them. The views associated with "slut feminism," have made it even more difficult to challenge the expectation that we be "babes" and hairless [except for a sexy hairstyle.]

Thus, the past 35 years of feminism have not ended the endless duty of depilation. The fashion and modeling industries amplify the problem by reinforcing the "established aesthetic that dictates women be hipless, breastless, and above all, hairless."1 Consider the physical characteristics of preadolescent children-they are strikingly similar to the current beauty ideal for adult women. Because men value childlike traits in adult women, some men probably become confused when they perceive, either consciously or subconsciously, the (artificial) resemblance between children and adult women. A man who is socialized to become erotically aroused by an infantilized woman may be primed to also become erotically aroused by children. Whereas some foreign cultures celebrate the growth of body hair as a mark of puberty and womanhood, the "rite of passage" for girls hi the U.S. is shaving the hair that sprouts at adolescence. We are, essentially, infantilized. Children's skin is typically smooth, clean, and hairless; these very features are what adult women so ardently strive for. Likewise, the ideal woman is traditionally pure, submissive, and childlike. Thus, women have been conditioned to believe that in order to please men, they must live up to the quintessential model of the perfect woman and embody the character traits that make her ; desirable. Hence, when women shave their legs, they unconsciously send a message that they "live to please and please to live."3 Those who disapprove and opt not to participate in the attitudes and activities seen as "appropriate" for their gender are branded "unnatural" or "deviant." Perhaps these brave women recognize the link between hair removal and pedophilia.