Sunday, April 26, 2009
"Every time I go and shave, I assume there's someone else on the planet shaving. So I say, 'I'm gonna go shave, too.'" ~ Mitch Headberg
The American Laser Center found women will spend $10,207 in their lifetimes on hair removal. I’ve always wondered why people worry so much about body hair, especially women. It must be waxed, shaved, plucked, and lasered into submission. Anyone woman who dares dares to let her hair grow is labeled as unclean or deviant, which is ridiculous when you remember that men are allowed to to roam free with hairy legs, armpits, and chests. It's a terrible double standard, I know guys who have complained about shaving their faces, I just laugh. Hairy men are seen as more manly, hairy women belong in a side show.
Shaving is all for aesthetic appeal, and some people out there have some strong opinions on why a hairless woman is considered more attractive. In “Shaving is the Pits” Robin Friebur states that “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.” I don’t think shaving is really turning men into pedophiles, but humans do place youth on a pedestal, so it is understandable that women would want to shave to appear more youthful.
Since the popularization of the bikini women have been spending massive amounts of time and money making sure that they are hairless down there. Recently there was an uproar in New Jersey because of a law that was aiming to outlaw bikini waxes. It started because two women got infections after having bikini waxes. Passing a law against waxing seems like overkill, especially when you know that there are risks to waxing before you have it done. Luckily for the women of New Jersy, the law did not pass, and they are still free to do what they wish to their bikini lines.
I’ll end this post with a video that I found rather humorous,
there is also a not so subtle version that aired in the UK.
I read a lot of comments about both videos on Jezebel.com and saw that a lot of women found the commercial rather offensive and immature, but most of them agreed that decisions regarding body hair should be up to the person who has it.