AIBU to think armpit hair is a moral issue?

[ICBINEG]

How did it come to pass that the natural appearance of an adult woman has become socially unacceptable?

Adult women have hair on their arms, legs, fanjo and (if you can bear the disgustingness of it all) armpits.

In a not at all surprising turn of events the natural appearance of an adult male is still considered attractive including (god forbid) hairy legs, arms, balls and armpits.

Why have we adopted a prepubescent look as the optimum for women but mysteriously not done the same for men?

AIBU to next shave myself when shaving becomes compulsory for EVERYONE and not just those without a Y chromosome?

Observation of my SIL suggests it can take over a year to unlearn the societal conditioning and start seeing your own hairy armpits as attractive....a whole year to stop thinking the natural female form is repulsive....AIBU in thinking that society is totally fucked up?

I used to be completely hairless and or tweezed. I don't have the time or money now but I trim.

I style the hair on my head, I don't see any difference to that and the rest of my body hair.

FWIW my DH would be man scaped , not completely bald but trim.
He would also trim underarm hair. He doesn't wear moisturiser, false tan or eyeliner and he would work in a very physical, male dominated, job.

Why do you give a shit about someone else's hair OP.
Should we all just leave our bodies alone.
No haircuts, no hair dye, no moisturiser. What's your cut off?
Why aren't we all naked and free.............

yanbu

Please don't worry on my behalf, I don't need my choice to laser all the stinky ugly hair away to be validated by you. So yes, you are. many more important things to worry about.

YABU purely for the use of fanjo. Talk like an adult with adult words.

Why do people make a fuss about what other people do to their body? Each to his own I say!

solidgold where the hell I have I said it's a big deal if other people don't

larks I don't know really. Tbh I only shave them say once a month. I'm really blonde anyway so it hardly shows. It's just my arm hair gets real long.

I didn't really think about anyone else when I had the laser. Please feel free to try living in 50c plus climate and having a job that means wearing boiler suits and spending at least half the day outside on site visits or driving an open truck.

Agree with the fact that if you are a feminist and concerned for the welfare of poor little ladies like me, use the actual words, not euphemisms, there is nothing rude about vagina.

Free will, marvellous thing. I practice it. That would include shaving as I have no desire to walk round like a 1970's sterotype of an East German shot-putter.

I seriously do not believe in everyday conversation, people go round asking 'shaved your minge??' (love that word... minge... minge... minge... it just rolls off the tongue)

I love how lots of posters are saying, "I shave because I want to and it looks better, not because I've been conditioned.I couldn't care less what people think."

Um, like it or not, you think it looks better because we've been conditioned to think it looks better. Like having a nice tan and being slender in build.

In previous times, pasty white has been the ideal, in other places, obese is seen as attractive. These are all socially conditioned responses.

So shave if you want, don't if you don't. Do it for yourself, but why deny that the social norm has an influence on what looks nice?

For what it's worth, I shave my legs and armpits mostly because my husband prefers it and in summer wearing clothes that would reveal hair, I feel self conscious if I don't.

Those of you who insist you remove sections of body hair of your own free will and not to conform at all, oh no, why do you think it's such a big deal that other women don't?

I don't. Why would I care what others choose to do?

I bet large chunks of the "moral issue" brigade conform to other constraints of society wrt clothing, hair styling etc.

Everything we do is a socially conditioned response. Which kind of makes it irrelevant.

I don't think it's irrelevant Soup. It's worth examining where our ideas come from and thinking about what implications they have for us. Admittedly hair removal on its own isn't a massive issue, but it is part of a greater tendency for women to be judged very harshly (much more harshly than men) on how they look which is a huge feminist issue, because it leads to women being belittled for not being glamorous or pretty enough, regardless of their achievements.

All female politicians for example come under scrutiny for what they wear, while male politicians rarely do. I can imagine if a female politician went out with hairy legs what a furore it would cause. How women look is used as a way of evaluating them, which isn't a positive thing IMO.

"...I have no desire to walk round like a 1970's sterotype of an East German shot-putter."

Well done for coming on and rather beautifully (and clearly completely unwittingly ) proving the point being made by the OP.

I thought I'd feel nicer and cleaner after shaving. But great bubos leaking smelly pus are not particularly conducive to that feeling.

nursebernard that's why I put stero type

Do female politicians come under scrutiny for their clothes though. I can't say I have noticed that like.

Shouldn't you be more concerned that Cameron's reshuffle has put less women in important positions?

cory well I can safely say I've never had that..

It is a fascinating subject, really.

I get off as much hair as I can, but it is definitely NOT for DP's benefit, who is a bit of a hippy with a beard and long hair, and does not care at all if I would shave or not, and is even against fanny shaving though he politely refrains from comments.

So it is really really not for him. IMO men my age (40+) donot care either way.

Yet, about 8 years ago, it suddenly became unacceptable for me to have a 'brillo pad'. Why? It must be a fashion thing, same that I now wear skinnies instead of bootcuts.

It is a youth thing too, about being with the young uns, as they all shave. I bet most of the hairy posters on this thread are my age?

Yesterday went out with a friend who was wearing a vest top and untouched free range armpit hair. Nobody stopped and stared. So not sure people are ridicuked for not shaving tbh.

LST Sat 08-Sep-12 08:39:47
"cory well I can safely say I've never had that.."

The doctor said it's becoming increasingly common: he attributes it to the new habit of shaving. As I said earlier on this thread, 4 courses of antiobiotics and 40 minutes of very painful surgery have failed to shift it so far.

And to answer the OP, the natural appearance of women ( and men) has become socially unaccetable a long ong time ago! Thousands of years, I reckon.

Apart from maybe on naturist campings.

I started shaving my armpits when I was 10, because I did ballet in a sleeveless leotard, was an early developer and felt to be the only one in the class with hairy armpits. Have continued to shave ever since.

BUT I have never shaved my legs. Or plucked my eyebrows. And until about 5 years ago didn't realise that everyone else does. (except my mum ). I thought it was only the over-groomed who shaved legs. I didn't have any close female friends from about 14/15, and left school at 16, so I never learned to be a girl.

The only trouble is that now I have realised I start thinking people are looking at me and judging, which isn't nice. But I don't intend to start at 49

I haven't said anything about looks. I said I work mainly outside in 50c plus climate and have to wear a boiler suit and usually protective clothing on top of that. Pubes do not help in that environment. By the fact I work in a male dominated industry (oil and gas) in a Muslim country (Qatar) in a senior role in a male stereotypical job means that if you think I need rescuing from the dreadful patriarchal brainwashing of men and porn, please save your sympathy. I am fully capable of making my own decisions and am more able to make an informed decision about what is best for me than a surburban British woman on an internet gossip forum.

You could say this about so many things that it becomes a joke. You could say women are socially conditioned to have a clean house
Women are socially conditioned to like dresses
Women are socially conditioned to wear bras
Women are socially....

When does a woman get considered in her own right as an individual with choices of her own? Is it only considered a valid decision on her part if she goes against these things but obviously it's not her own choice if she likes them

Poor soul can't help being pressured by society at every turn

I think this whole issue is pathetic and those crying out about it just do as much generalising of women as the 'society' they deem to be conditioning 'women'

like we are all one huge hairless mass. How many people have said - well I shave here, but not here and here, well I do this , but by that

They are individual women with their own preferences and practices and I just get so frustrated with all this.

"It's worth examining where our ideas come from and thinking about what implications they have for us".

My idea came from not wanting a sweaty vagina and bumhole and smelly pits. Sorry to be blunt but that really is it.