THE FLUFF UNDER MY ARMS - Liberation & Lazyness

Hey, another feminist blog article about hairy body parts! How refreshing! But I most certainly wouldn't write these words if I wouldn't feel like there are still people out there who need it.

I don't have to tell you that even the thought of a woman having body hair lets most men and even other women cringe. The shaving industry is letting out a big "UGH!", since they were and are part of what has brought us to this unfounded disliking of our own bodies since the 1900s:

The industry tried to open a completely masculine product range up for women as well. No woman would've even considered shaving back then since it was seen as a thing "only men do". So what does an industry do in order to increase their sales?

While in typical vintage women's adverts like the ones above, the industry used the technique of "shaming" the female viewer and therefore creating a "problem" they didn't know they even have - this technique is used in many adverts, but in this case, it was used for demonizing hairy body parts. 

They made women believe that no men would love or marry them because women's body hair is dirty and unhygenic. The viewer was confronted with that problem and it created a fear in them that they desperately wanted to get rid of, and here comes the shaving industry into play - the hero who saves the damsel in distress, presenting her a nice and easy solution to get rid of a part of herself. 

This fear is the only reason the industry was able to get as big and influential as it is today. 

But the other side of the industry's target group isn't any less interesting:

The tone in men's shaving advertising was quiet different, but still very manipulative: The technique most commonly used here was the "promise of fame, money and sex". It told woman that shaved men are more attractive, and it told men that when they are more attractive to women, they are loved and admired much more (I could go into the beginnings of the shaving craze in much greater dept, but let's leave it at this).

So not only women were pressured to shave, men were as well, even before women started shaving. The difference was that having body hair for women meant the total absence of any potential love from other people, while men just were promised additional love by the media, but their body hair didn't mean the total lack of it.

These days, the decision of "to shave or not to shave" doesn't fundamentally change other people's perception of men, but when a woman doesn't shave, she's still seen as lazy, dirty, un-feminine...you can add an endless list of negative adjectives.

The topic of shaving has been present in feminism for quiet some decades, and while "not shaving" was seen as the ultimate boycott of the patriarchy in the beginning (I still see it that way), shaving in the present is seen as a "woman's choice". Let us decide if we want or don't want to do it.

What I see a lot on the web these days are young girls who feel pressured to NOT shave just in order to come across as feminist, strong and indipendent. Actually, real indipendence is coming from making your own choices and questioning old traditions, and you can be shaved and still be feminist. So all I want woman (and men) around the globe, who shave, is to ask themselves:

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"Do I really want to shave for myself or do I feel pressured by others to do it? Are the reasons they give me for shaving justified or logical?" 

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Naturally, there are no reasons to shave off any of your body hair. If it's not painful or annoying to you, you don't have to do it. Period. I believe that without the ideas of the advertising industry back then, people wouldn't even think about shaving or finding shaved bodies particulary attractive. 

So I want to challenge those who shave, simply because they prefer the aesthetic of shaved legs, to ask themselves as well on why they prefer it this way: 

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"Do I really do it because you like the look of it, or because: subconciously, I like hairless legs since all the beautiful women I've seen in my childhood in magazines and on tv screens, had hairless legs as well?" 

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It can be hard to get behind that subconcious layer, but it is something worth doing.

The feeling of not shaving can be quiet liberating, at least it is to me. I always strive to be different, and since every other female in my life shaves (I live together with my mom and 3 female silblings), I am running against the current, and somehow that strenghtens my own identity. 

But you know what's also liberating? Saving time, pain and money. 

No more 30 minutes of trying to shave all the hair away and missing half of it in the end, no more cuts, irritated skin and red bumps. No more money spent on expensive shaving supplies. 

I am free to be LAZY. I am lazy. I don't want to shave, I have better things to do, like lying in my bed all day while starring at my laptop screen. And I'm an awesome female, I am worth something, even if i'm lazy. Ha, take that, patriarchy!

At the same time, we have to recognize that the pressure to shave varies from individual to indivdual. I personally have very light blonde body hair, it is definitely visible but not from a-far. plus i'm a white tall slim female who is living in a rich country. I don't have many other things to worry about, so I have enough energy to put up with people who don't like my body hair.

People who have dark body hair on the other hand, are faced with much more attention drawn to it, and social pressure and stereotypes of the "traditional female" change from country to country, so we have to recognize that there are different challenges for different people. 

But I will never grow tired of encouraging everyone to be themselvesand to find things that could liberate them.

In the end, for each and everyone goes the same, no matter if male, female or nonbinary: Question your believes and choose what is possible for you at this moment and what you think will change the world. You are powerful shaved, just as you are being totally hairy. Just don't let anyone else tell you that natural parts of you are dirty or unwanted. 

There are weeds groing in the garden that people call unwanted because they destroy the purity of their flowers. Your body hair does not make the rest of you ugly, it does not destroy your beauty. Sometimes I still feel ashamed of my "dirty" armpits, my ghostly looking stirdy leg hair or the light fuzz above my lips. But in the end my body hair is everything but an unwanted weed, it is a part of my personal garden. 

Sincerely yours,

Maria