Body Hair Removal

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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

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