Venus Gillette advert: Don't forget shave your arms ladies

[JoyceDivision]

Not just your legs, armpits, fanny, Gillette want to remind you as a woman to be ready for anything,make sure you've shaved your arms.

So at least if I forget to tell DD, she might catch the advert and realise she needs to shave her arms.

DD2 shaves her arms. She has sensory issues and it helps with those. We all have our reasons.

Me, I rock the Yeti look.

Has this always been a ‘thing’ and I missed a memo? As a teen I knew about shaving legs (and did/do) plus tidying up the bikini line, which then become wax it off Brazilian by the early 2000’s and Hollywood by mid 2000’s (which I now ignore unless going on holiday!) but I never heard of arms till now. When did this pop up?

No has not always been a thing

Not for everyone anyway irrespective of hair / skin colour - I am fair so well aware that my hair is less visible and that it's different if you have v dark thick hair on pale skin

So the shaming and embarrassment and so on that I have read dark haired women talking about on here has now become > or the advertisers are trying to make it become > the norm.

I first became aware of this with an instagram post by a fair woman showing a ring or something and you could see her blonde arm hair (us blondes are actually hairy but it's fine and not so obvious against pale skin, like I have hairy fingers hairy toes etc) I'll see if I can find it and I was like WTAF so now this woman who ticks all the patriarcy approved western looks boxes is getting slated because she has hair on her ARMS???????????

I saw the advert last nigth and was ranting to DH.

So now young girls are presented with this as yet anotehr thing that it's the norm to shave, maybe they should be shaving it etc

Fuck that I was really pissed off.

Found it

www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3502874/Blogger-comes-fire-Instagram-posting-photo-showing-gross-hairy-arms.html

Why is hair on women considered revolting. Is the question.

Woman who got told off for arm hair said this:

"In her blog, Courtney also added that until this week, she'd never given any thought to the possibility of shaving her arms.

She wrote: 'In fact, it never occurred to me that people would shave their arms. Okay, I know Olympic swimmers do, but…! Frankly, I don’t feel insecure at all about my arms. This is how they look.'

'Don’t we already have enough pressure on us to meet society’s arbitrary standards of beauty? Why are we encouraging (or more accurately, pressuring) each other to have more insecurities?' "

2019 Gillette takes it to mainstream knowing full well girls will be watching who will shave their arms as a response to seeing the ad. WIN!!! For their sales.

Bloody hell...good job they haven’t seen my hairy toes and knuckles

I've known girls shave their arms, where anything more than slightly downy! Yes, stubbly, of course, as it slices a tapered hair tip to a blunt. I think more for the more hirsute.

Iv not shaved my arms for weeks or my legs actually due to CBA Feel sick and being preggo 😁 they are not stubbly they are soft and blonde! My sis has very dark thick arm hair so if she shaved it would probably come back stubbly 😁

Just to ad to the hair shaming adds...recently overheard a college lad telling a female peer that her legs were hairy and why on earth didnt she shave them?!?!

A boy who has clearly gone way too far, and has no business trying to insist the world conforms to his desires.

However, can I just throw this into the mix...
Teenaged boys get the same steady stream of media/consumerist messages about what they are supposed to fancy as teenaged girls get about how they are supposed present themselves as desirable. 'Boys' magazines are stuffed to the rafters on articles about how to gain favour with the opposite sex thru consumption of stuff (not thru respect or anything like that as that doesn't generate any sales of anything). In return for this consumerist behaviour (right car, house, watch, deodorant, shoes, suit, gym bod, hair style, sporting achievements, job, bank balance, credit card, holiday destinations, TV, tech), they can be rewarded with the trophy bride - a set physical description that they must aspire to achieving (and no doubt contributing to the commodification of women). It takes a huge amount of courage to ditch the social-normative construction of what 'should be' attractive and be content to pursue your own desires without essentially admitting you have settled for something lesser. Some boys have the ability to do this, just like the girl in the poster's story: I heard her say, well I don't much like blokes that want me to change; but not many will.
I get to say this as someone with the luxury of a very weird life that left me detached from those pressures of conformity - giving me something of an outsider perspective on this, which is much easier to see the threads at work. Sadly, I can't claim any special moral superiority here - I lost nothing by being anti-normative, so it wasn't hard for me; and I see how hard it is for both sexes to break from behaviours that are consumerism-driven.

Wow didn't even know this was a thing...

Do you just do to elbow it the whole arm?

Because that's a lot of effort for a body part people rarely notice... especially in the U.K. where you are covered 70% of the time.

I see your argument Adam and raise you the claim that as a direct result of 'normative' hyper-consumerism, men then feel women actually only want them for those reasons, that they are only after the money. Grabby.

men then feel women actually only want them for those reasons, that they are only after the money. Grabby

Not quite that ruthless. More that to stand out in the herd, men require these consumerist trinkets; a sort of 21st century variation of courtship rights - just with less tree uprooting and poo throwing.
I think the underlying assumption is that all else being equal, the wealthier suitor gets the girl (not exactly historically inaccurate; but completely ignoring any concept of the wishes of the woman involved).

More mysognisitcally, the same reasoning argues that the 'winning' male purchases his bride along with his trinkets (again, somewhat irrespective of her wishes; though the theory was posit that her desire is for the 'winning' male).

My larger point though is that we are being conditioned en-masse to subscribe to views of beauty and desire that suit the companies that sell the products to move you closer to that standard.

It's a TV advert made by people who sell razors. Of course they want you to encourage you to shave stuff? It's not an obligation. If you don't want to shave then simply don't. I don't buy Finish dishwasher tablets just because the tv advert says they are the best. Think for yourself folks...

I've shaved my arms since I was a teenager. I have very fair skin yet dark body hair. I started shaving them when someone said my arms looked like man's arms, and you know how sensitive you can be at 16. I really only bother in the summer now, and as I have aged my body hair doesn't seem to grow as strongly. Yes, it can be bristly.
I really wish body hair on women was as ignorable as hair on men. Perhaps one day it will be. I'm not brave or confident enough just to leave it. Daft, isn't it?

Not quite that ruthless well, yes, absolutely that ruthless, this is exactly what it leads to, shoring up mysogyny (pop to the courts to hear exactly what men will blame women for, being grabby)

I really wish body hair on women was as ignorable as hair on men. Perhaps one day it will be. I'm not brave or confident enough just to leave it. Daft, isn't it?

I grew up to believe back hair on men is bad. Chest hair and beards are polarising, and (increasingly) intimate depilation is favoured (back sack 'n' crack). I have no idea what anyone thinks about men's legs.

The judgements are implicit in the aggressive advertising.

Look what companies used to claim, ohsoarrogantly, about formula milk, that it was best, that it was superior because of the 'science', same now with pet foods, the ones with the money always know best is the supposition.

Not quite that ruthless well, yes, absolutely that ruthless, this is exactly what it leads to, shoring up mysogyny (pop to the courts to hear exactly what men will blame women for, being grabby)

Perhaps the inevitable end of the journey for anyone not turned off it; or merely panicked finger pointing by those refusing to take any responsibility for their own actions.
Likely both of those things.

I remember my friends shaving their arms back in the 90's, I never did. But I do know men and women who shave their arms because they have tattoos on their arms so I thought that was a 'thing' people with tattoos did.