HAIR!!!! Let me repeat HAIR!!!! For a woman, those four letters make or break our idea of beauty and the consequences it imposes on our psyches. Too much, too little, or none at all are the few choices that are granted to us by the “beauty gods.” Managing our “head hair” has even been the main subject of movies and every beauty salon in the past (that narrative will not be addressed in this writing) but there is a new arena of hair that has in past times been a private discussion and decision by ladies for decades- body hair not connected to the scalp. Shaving, waxing, lasering, plucking, and tweezing are some of the many ways body hair is removed. American women who shave spend roughly $10,000. American women who wax spend about $23,000 or more. As a society, we police how women groom their body hair, because body hair is not seen as ‘feminine’ and is instead seen as an undesirable trait. This idea invites many questions but …show more content…
In the text, Body Hair Removal: The ‘Mundane’ of Normative Femininity, the authors look at the body hair removal trends in the United Kingdom and Australia. According to their research, “Over 99% of participants reported removing some hair, most commonly from the underarms, legs, public area and eyebrows.” (qtd. from Sue Wilkinson 399)
It has been argued that the policing of women’s body hair is a form of gender control. This has been proven time and time in our societal norms. Men are allowed to be proud of their body hair. Once men hit puberty and they grow a single hair on their face, chest or genitalia area, it’s seen as an accomplishment. Contrasting this is when women grow hair during puberty, they are “encouraged” to shave by parents other women and media. Hairlessness is applauded and celebrated every time a woman raises her arms in the media via commercials or movies while wearing a sundress or tank top- not to mention any swimsuit
For example, during the Renaissance, well-born European women plucked out hairs, one by one, from their natural hairline all the way back to the crowns of their heads, to give them the high rounded foreheads thought to be beautiful at the time. Those who didn't want to resort to plucking used poultices of vinegar mixed with cat dung or quick-lime. The latter often removed some of the skin as well as the hair.
My mother was taught, as her mother before and so on, that these conversations are to be kept private and talked about quietly. In response to this, the power of men has an increasingly strong hold on the ideal physical beauty and how the changes of the body, such as menstruation, are in private and never spoken of. The Body Project gives a disturbing look at how women in the past few centuries and the present should act, look like, and keep hidden in response to what men think is most desirable. No matter how free women think they are, we are still under the control of men, even if it is not directly. This book opens the conversation on the problems that are still plaguing women and how society needs to change to have a healthier environment for women to be comfortable in their skin.
This essay is concerned with issues of identity, body image and the politics of hair within African American culture. It discusses the lived experiences of a number of African American women and is no way generalizable to all African American women. Nonetheless, body image and hair politics are prominent features in African American culture because they have deep historical roots and still feature in present day. Body image is generally understood as a mental image of one’s body as it appears to others (Featherstone 2010). This mental image produces body consciousness, which Samantha Kwan describes as an amplified mindfulness that one’s body does not conform to hegemonic cultural standards (Kwan 2010). In today’s modern context, hegemonic cultural norms are reproduced and widely disseminated by the mass media with the help of new technologies. These new technologies Elliott’s discusses, with some in the form of satellite television and other widely utilized media, give viewers unprecedented opportunities to view and scrutinize their favorite celebrities in close proximity (Elliott 2010).
“Beauty might bring happiness, but happiness always brings beauty” (the daily quotes) If you have ever been unhappy about your appearances remember, it is a very familiar problem every human faces. Cosmetology was created to help those that are in need of their desired look. To express every moment was second of who they are or will become to be. Even though, we have abundant stylist today throughout the country. This career may not be the most satisfying, fun, or even a high-ranking in income, but the satisfaction of each smile is more than enough. However, challenging cosmetology is one of the most creative of all art.
Prior to the Victorian era, men in England maintained cleanly shaven faces. With the mid-eighteen hundreds came a widespread shift toward facial hair in a multitude of styles (Camellia). The ability to grow whiskers began to be regarded as a sign of manhood. In pictures and photographs from the era, it is rare to find a male, past the age of manhood, depicted without facial hair in some capacity. As the century continued, the preferred style of facial hair grew progressively longer, bushier, and more pronounced (Nunn), but it remained “stylish for men to wear facial hair of all sizes and descriptions” (Camellia).
When examining femininity, one notes that it is constantly being altered and shaped by the beliefs of those who participate within the patriarchy. There seems to be a set standard on how women should display their femininity, and boundaries that should not be crossed. Although many people believe that women are reclaiming both their sexuality and femininity, I feel as though that hasn’t been totally possible. I believe that the surveillance of women’s bodies can prevent them from reclaiming their sexuality and femininity or encourages them to regain it.
The kids I went to school with, the boys I had romantic relationships with, and even my family members, all made negative comments about my body hair. As a young kid, I believed my body hair was a personal problem. Experimenting with different hair removal procedures, some even painful. I wasted hours removing the hair on my body, in attempts to feel better about myself. My low self esteem became linked with the hair on my body. I believed I had too much body hair for a girl but according to Mills (1959) and the social imagination, I had too much body hair for society. My peers, as well as my family, had been socialized to believe that women’s body hair was gross, and unfeminine. Women had been taught to remove their body hair for decades now in the western world, and it was showcased or the lack there of hair was showcased in all forms of media. As a young girl, my mom bought me my first razor and paid for the electrolysis for the hair on my arm. It was in these actions, where the idea that it was my own problem started to form because it felt like I needed treatment for this problem of mine. I was perceiving a deep seated public issue as my own personal trouble. I can’t blame my mother or my peers because by the time my peers and even my parents were born, the western world had already determined that women should not have body hair. Christina Hope (1982) explains that in 1914 in America magazine’s had just begun
Shaving, applying makeup, and curling hair are a few practices that if a female does not partake in, society, and the social norm are stunned. Those are just a few disciplinary body practices in today’s society. Disciplinary body practices “Are practices because they involve taken-for-granted routinized behaviors and they are disciplinary because they involve social control in the sense that we spend time, money, and effort, and imbue meaning in these practices that regulate our lives” (Shaw 193). These practices can extend way beyond the basic beauty routine of a female as well. Plastic surgery plays a huge role in these body practices. Even men have practices that they are expected to partake in. They are less extreme in terms of price and just simpler in general. But for example, men are expected to have shaved necks, large muscles, and a broad upper body. These standards are causing body and beauty shaming around the world. Disciplinary body practices relate to the adamant consumer culture, constant media advertisements, widespread globalization, persuasive colonialism, and powerful imperialism.
It has been two months since Makahla Rivers has pulled out her hair. In fact, that’s the longest she’s gone without pulling out her hair since she was 12 years old, she said.
"The barber's trade is an extremely ancient one. Razors have been found among Bronze Age and barbering is mentioned in the Bible by Ezekiel who said "And Thou, son of man, take thee a barber's razor and cause it to pass upon thine head and upon thine beard."". The barbers practice dwindled in importance and repute in the light of advancing science, and in 1745, the alliance between surgeons and the barbers was dissolved. The history of today barbers and hairstylists has an combined path of medical practices and evolutions which has created many of today's professional trades. The advanced training of today's stylists and barbers include but are not limited to the human anatomy, personal care, therapy, cutting methods, chemistry, and etc... Even though performing a haircut is not as simple as it looks. A haircut takes time and knowledge so I have to be efficient and productive while performing this task.
Both men and women feel the need to look ‘ideal’ in today’s society, however these pressures fall more on women than men, although a lot of men do feel the need to under go procedures as well, “ A quarter for the Harley Medical Groups liposuction customers are now male.” (Nicolas, 2007) However according to BAAPS , 90,5% of women have cosmetic surgery where as only 4,757 of men have a cosmetic procedure (BAAPS). “Men began to dress soberly, paying little attention to their physical appearance, while women were increasingly concerned with altering and beautifying their bodies” (Davies, 1995) This means that the female body is the centre of attention in today’s society highlighting how women are expected to look ‘flawless’, at all times due to cultural expectations as well as emphasizing ...
Traditional gender roles are the behaviors and practices we adopt from learning and what has been passed on from past generations. We learn these from our fathers, mothers, grandparents, and peers. It’s a set of unwritten laws that each gender operates under. These roles have no exception. This soon becomes a problem in society because it creates sexism based off of traditional principles on what each gender should be doing or how they should be acting. Research suggest that “Sexism is defined as prejudice or discrimination toward people based on their gender” (Marks & Zaikman, 2014, Pg. 334). Sexism correlates with the double standard of women on the aspect of it being acceptable in society for men to promote sexual activity and women being bashed and looked down upon when they promote their sexuality. There has been more prevalent news of women taking the stand on their sexuality and bodies. The double standard that exist in America has more recently raised attentiveness in society with such campaigns as Free-the-Nip. The free the nip campaign is a fight for equal rights amongst women. The main ideology of the campaign is for women to have equal rights when it comes to being bare chested in public, the same rights that men have (Reporter, 2015). The double standard here is society saying that women should not be allowed to be bare chested taking
I am a student of the IB program in Abu Dhabi, and I have read your
One of women’s constant struggles is upkeep with culture and society’s ever-changing definition of beauty. Although both genders have hair on their bodies, the views and acceptability of the amount or the location of body hair vary immensely. In fact, women are often thought to be hairless and men to be hairier (DeMello, 2014). Women must then put in effort to uphold a standard, in which the idea that being feminine is natural and effortless (Toerien and Wilkinson, 2003). That being the case, I will argue that the hairless female body has been transformed over time to represent beauty and youth. More importantly, I will argue that it has now become normative in Western society and deemed unacceptable if women do not conform to the hairless
Within the past five years, there has been a growing trend in facial hair for men. This popular trend has men growing out their facial hair for extended periods of time and this has caused the men’s shaving industry to suffer a loss in sales, (http://www.ibisworld.com/industry/shaving-razor-manufacturing.html). The drop in sales has made it difficult for manufactures to deal with the increasing price of materials such as steel and plastic. Leaders in the industry have begun to combat this problem by creating new innovative products that deal with caring for facial hair and skin.