#body hair removal for women

[hirsuteandcute]

It is so so hard and sad to have a conversation with people who wont or can’t confront their anti–female body hair bias/socialisation esp re cleanliness. I feel like I might actually scream if I have to hear “but it just FEELS cleaner/I just FEEL dirty with body hair” one more time. I know we’re not supposed to police people’s decisions especially regarding their body but tbh statements like that shame women who DO have body hair whether they’re intended to or not.

You’re admitting you believe there is an inherent dirtiness to WOMEN’S body hair specifically. Even if you believe you’re talking about your own feelings, these assumptions don’t exist in a bubble. And quite frankly its so bizarre to me how many women will saying this whilst sleeping with their boyfriend who may or may not wipe themselves after they urinate, wash their hands regularly, have flakes of shit in their butt crack hair etc. Men sweat more too, so shouldn’t it be even more vital that they shave their body hair to “feel clean”?? But no, its just assumed their hair is the norm, in fact people find it weird when men shave.

I truly believe it’s because a lot of people believe women’s bodies have an inherent dirtiness, and have a severe lack of understanding of how women’s bodies (including their own) actually work and so have a lot of shame towards their body. This girl was saying to me how she just feels ‘cleaner’ with no pubic hair and I didn’t want to argue with her or anything, I was just trying to understand what the logic is and in my head I’m thinking - i know why. You think its gross because its hair on a vulva and therefore must be gross because vulvas are gross because women’s bodies and their functions are gross (obviously this isn’t what I actually believe, but I believe a lot of people are encouraged to feel this way).

I said to her, is the hair on your head gross then? Because it gets exposed to more pollution, dirt, germs, etc, so wouldn’t it “feel cleaner” to shave it? And she was like “nooo i could never!!” In fact women are encouraged to grow it as long as possible and even shamed for cutting it short let alone shaving it! I shower every day including washing my body and pubic hair, but I only wash my hair three times a week and most women I know do the same. So what is the logic there? There is none because this thought pattern is so stupid. How is my freshly washed body hair and soft skin any dirtier than shaved skin with ingrown hairs, whiteheads, and shaving cuts?

Anyway, there is no real point here, just to say that when you look at the structure of so many of the beauty standards enforced on women they really are so dumb and misogynistic. I honestly pity women who feel this way but it’s agonising as a hairy woman to constantly feel like you have to defend your hygiene, especially to people who seem to make up hygiene standards on the spot lol.

[alliluyevas]

person who wrote this is genuinely an idiot

[marzipanandminutiae]

“Marzi, why are you thinking about historical women’s body hair right now?”

well, I’ll tell you.

first of all, I’m turning 30 on April 2nd. kind of a big birthday, so I’m planning a Fancy Party with some close friends. and for that party, I’m making myself a brand-new c. 1879 evening gown. deep red silk taffeta, self scalloping, black lace, rose theme, etc. very exciting. I was talking to my mother about  this and mentioned that it would be sleeveless

“oh.” she said. “well, some people might. get distracted from the dress by underarm fuzzies. and you don’t want that happening, so you might want to...”

(she was referring to my rather lax body hair removal policy, namely: If It Annoys Me, I’ll Do Something About It. this drives her crazy, because a conventionally unacceptable amount of it doesn’t annoy me)

to which I responded, “Mother. at least some of the women who originally wore this style didn’t remove armpit hair” 

depilatories did exist and were used cosmetically, and you can find erotic images of Victorian women who have hairless armpits, but the concern seemed to be much more about facial hair and hair on the arms themselves

and now I’m on a research tear on Google Books, as is my wont

[fobnsfwdoodlesbackup]

the Patrick nude sketch is so beautiful oh my god when you draw that man it is like... indescribably beautiful, it's like historical art pieces depicting naked people but it's Patrick beloved

Thank youuu 🥺 I'm very passionate about treating bodies as art, and especially bodies that historically aren't associated with beauty

I'm really grateful that so many people find beauty in the same things/people I do 🫶

[theblackfemininesociety]

Which one do you prefer? And if you would like to share your reasoning on why and leave tips for ladies to try please share them below in the comment section! 💗

[highladyluck]

I think I might care too much about women to finish this L. Sprague De Camp anthology

[schizowitchic]

also like i partially found out i might be intersex because i was looking at trans stuff and there was like "(however many) months on t and finally seeing some bottom growth" and like pictures of t-dicks and i was like.... um.... that's kind of just what my clit looks like anyways. so i was like "hey google give me a quick rundown on this" and learned what clitoromegaly was and then i was like. hm. intersex resources. and it's like a sign? symptom? side-effect? of certain intersex conditions

[cosmogyros]

It is fucking amazing how often I have to unfollow people for bodyshaming others related to their choice to shave or not. And the fascinating thing is that this judginess is ALWAYS aimed at women. Men who don't shave? Fine. Men who do shave? Also fine. It's their body, they can do what they like with it, right?

But as soon as we're talking about women, suddenly it's totally okay to prescribe what they ought to do about their OWN bodies. I never used to see this many "women shouldn't shave" posts here, and the recent uptick is concerning to me.

I understand that it's rooted in a pushback against patriarchal norms that pressure all women to remove their body hair. And I fully support that. But you've gotta understand that if you react to these norms by saying "women should all shave? actually no, women should NOT shave!" ...YOU'RE STILL BEING SEXIST. You're still saying that women "should" do something different with their bodies because YOU think they ought to.

It's absolutely wild to me how often internalized misogyny can be revealed by simply asking oneself "If the genders were switched, would I be saying this (in any context except as a joke)?" And if the answer is no, then... maybe don't say it.

Freedom is always more revolutionary. Letting people make their own choices is always more revolutionary. If you react to someone's attempt to enforce a certain standard by attempting to enforce the opposite standard instead, you are not on the side of freedom.

[salt-cedar]

On the topic of hair removal, women I know often argue that they don't like the look of body hair. Even one girl I know who also doesn't shave, sometimes laments that she still cannot accept herself because she doesn't see her hairy legs as beautiful. To which I say: self-acceptance is not seeing yourself as beautiful. That's taking pride in yourself and it's a cool feeling to have but it's unrealistic to expect to feel this way about your whole body. It's unhealthy, too, to constantly scan yourself in search of beauty. And the opposite of beauty in self-acceptance is not ugliness, it's being normal. Your toes are not beautiful, they are normal. Your hairy skin is not beautiful, it's normal. If you don't see your whatever as beautiful and it's healthy and pain-free - it's a normal body part. Stop fussing over it. You don't see males routinely breaking their bodies into parts to analyze them on an arbitrary beauty scale. They don't fidget with their leg hair lamenting how dark it is and how ridiculous it makes them look in shorts. I think most of the time, they don't care. It's just normal. That is acceptance. And I believe this is the next step after quitting body hair removal, to stop trying to fall in love with our body hair. That's not what they are there for!

(Functionally, though, they are the best)

[trash-and-trash-accessories]

New video! I talk about body hair, child marriage, religion, Charles Darwin's weird kink, and how much I love @scrupulosity-comics

[hirsuteandcute]

Something I wish that more people understood abt hirsutism is how very thick and strong the roots of our hair is. All of the roots on my body hair are comparable to men’s, even when the hair looks thin above the skin, the root is absolutely atrocious and aggressive. So much of my body (arms, back, stomach, nipples, legs, bikini line etc etc) has scars and pigmentation that are years old because of scabbing and rashes and bleeding from removing the hair. Even shaving is painful because cutting the hair makes it so sharp the regrowth literally feels like it’s cutting my skin. I’ve had skin infections that required prescription meds just because of the extent of damage hair removal did to my skin.

And it’s just absurd to me that it’s so crucial to so much of society that women play into this weird charade that we naturally don’t have any body hair and must immediately remove the hair we grow, that they would rather we go through this than just.. not remove the hair.

[spinef0ryou]

On anon bc this is a personal topic but THANK YOU for your tags on the body hair post. It was driving me insane. I shave because of sensory issues and that's literally it. I have a cis male partner and he is very aware I do not shave for him, but because I'm autistic and the physical feeling of having body hair makes me want to d*e. Like yes!! It's great that we're challenging beauty norms!!! but also I feel like saying women only do "feminine" things to appeal to men is still taking our power away in a sense

yep. like i do understand the whole shaving vs not shaving from like. a feminist standpoint but so many paint it as just a feminist thing, and they just flip the script instead of actually supporting body positivity. it’s so obvious that they’re not really about supporting actual body positivity, and the shame they heap on woman who do remove hair just feels so off to me :/ like it comes across as if they don’t think sensory issues in that regard are a thing, or they act like you personally removing hair is an affront to all women.

bodily autonomy extends to people doing things to themselves one might personally find not their vibe, and until that’s fully accepted by someone, that person doesn’t fully support bodily autonomy. saying a woman should never shave because otherwise she ‘looks bare’ is still body shaming

how the fuck is this an acceptable thing to say about someone’s body?? it’s so fucking disgusting to say that someone else’s body ‘jumpscares you’. like how fucking gross is that to say??? there’s no circumstance in which it’s okay to say that?! how are you not ashamed to say such a thing? not to mention a healthy dose of biphobia!

also the shit about coats and sweaters rubs me wrong

why imply that a lack of hair makes someone naked? huh? what’s so bad about nakedness that you’re implicitly shaming it??

body shaming isn’t cool just because you’re slamming what’s considered normal. stop being fucking weird about other people’s bodies and stop acting like a woman’s choices are anti feminist because they’re doing what makes them happy

beauty norms can really suck but there’s ways to subvert them that don’t include dragging people down and implying motives that haven’t been declared 🤷🤷

[stellaluna33]

Thinking about the time when I heard my kid say, "[Indiscernible mumbling] armpit hair is really long!" And, knowing that I hadn't shaved in a while and was wearing a tank top, I assumed she was talking about me, so I nodded and calmly said, "Yep, all adult humans have body hair!"

And then she looked at me like I had two heads and said, "I was talking about Romeo!" *points at the cat lounging on top of the kitchen cabinets with one arm propped over the edge, shaggy black armpit hair clearly visible*

Me: "Oh. Ok, yeah! You're right! Hahahahaha!"

[mishkakagehishka]

Every time someone tries to make feminism palatable to men by saying "but boys have it hard, TOO🥺🥺" an angel loses her wings

[catgirlapologist]

people on twitter are so fucking stupid "i just don't like body hair bc it's gross and i feel more feminine if i don't have any, it's not that deep! shaving is good actually!" i'm surprised you have enough braincells to form a full sentence like do you hear yourself

[blujayonthewing]

seeing posts about pantone's color of the year (peach fuzz) lowkey makes me wanna do nyssa art about it-- her skin is actually a little darker than that, but it's evocative of her whole vibe-- BUT the color also makes me think of vellus hair so I kinda also wanna do art about that but I don't think my rendering skills are up to it oTL