14 DAY TRIAL // The other day, I stumbled on a report on the ever-increasing popularity of blogs and online communities celebrating women bold enough to stop shaving their legs, their armpits, and any other part of their body, if they did not wish to have it hairless and smooth as a baby’s bum. Those who could provide photos of their act of defiance against society’s norms were hailed “heroines.”
Feminism is becoming stronger online.
I know that most celebrities today and perhaps even regular women avoid identifying themselves as feminist because, deep down inside, they probably think the entire world would frown upon them if they said it and imagine they’re spinsters who can’t argue their point without yelling like crazy and who would take off and burn their bra at a moment’s notice.
That’s not what feminism is about: feminism is about wanting equal chances and opportunities for all. It’s not about hating men (how often have you heard, “I’m a feminist but I don’t hate men!”?) or wanting to “take their place,” it’s about working towards a society in which women have the same social, economic, cultural, and political opportunities as their male counterparts.
Feminism is not an act of war (against men), it’s a step towards equality.
But not shaving your body hair is (an act of war). It’s women’s way of standing up to a society that has told them time and time again that they must be pretty, thin, polite, with a full face of makeup, hairless, delicate, as close to perfect as possible.
It’s their way of rebelling against a norm that leaves them no possibility of choice: they can’t choose not to shave (or wax, rip, pull, pluck, laser) their body hair, they must do so because it’s what’s expected of them.
We should probably not be surprised then that they’re rebelling by trying to impose a new beauty standard, one that puts them on equal footing with men: if they can choose to grow a beard or go clean-shaved, women should too. No argument about it.
This is how the HairyLegsClub or VeryHairyLegs were born on tumblr, or WANG (Women Against Non-Essential Grooming) came to get started on Facebook, to name just 3 of the most popular communities of this type.
Now, because this “beauty” ideal of the hairless woman has also been ingrained in me, my first reaction upon scrolling through the photos posted by all these brave women (even you don’t agree with them, you have to admit they’re brave, if only for risking ridicule like this) was similar to that of many of my (mostly male) friends: ugh, this is just so nasty!
How can a woman go out wearing shorts or a skirt when she has hair on her legs, how could she wear a tank top when her armpit is hairy – these were just two of the thoughts that went through my head when I saw the pics and read the testimonies accompanying them.
I was clearly missing the point on this revolution: the idea that these women are trying to put forward is not that all women should just let all of their hair grow, but rather that they should be allowed this choice if they wanted to. This isn’t a fight to get women who like to wax to stop doing it, but rather to allow all women the liberty to choose what is good for them.
It’s their body, they should at least get to decide what to do with it – and this should extend to body hair without them being shunned in society.
So, as I was saying, even if you don’t agree with that, you still shouldn’t hate on them because they’re fighting for what they believe is right for them. If your man goes for weeks without shaving, why should you be embarrassed in his presence if you do the same? If you’re a man who won’t shave this morning because you’re lazy, aren’t you a bit of a hypocrite to laugh at your girl / mother / sister if she doesn’t?
Why not just live and let live without judging?
To answer the question in the headline, no, the fact that thousands of women are refusing to shave as a form of protest against unnatural beauty norms is not the end of the world. But it is probably the beginning of the end of this norm.