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?

Had!! Darn phone

So we should stop being bullied by the media and start being bullied by the OP?

Yep, makes sense, sign me up.

FFS it's other people's armpits! Do they really bother/upset anyone that much? Frankly, I don't want to become closely acquainted with someone's armpits, they're not attractive shaven or unshaven, they're just the bit that links the underside of the arm to the chest. Does anyone outside of a Dove deodorant advert really think they have 'beautiful armpits'?

Are you the one in 50c heat, in boiler suits?

We are conditioned. Well, I know I am. It would not have occurred to me, living in a vacuum, to remove my (frankly minimal, I'm barely hairy anyway) body hair. I first did it because I was teased at school, because of the blonde hairs on my legs. Aged about 14, maybe. Shaved legs and the 4 underarm hairs I had at that time.

I shave my pits because it is the Thing To Do and I feel uncomfortable if I don't. It is not "for me," any more than any other social convention. I don't shave my legs, because the hairs are blonde and I generally don't wear skirts anyway. Any man close enough to notice the hairs will be too busy worshipping me and weeping with gratitude to complain, I expect.

And I do a bit of lady garden topiary because I like the way it feels during sex, but again, that would never have occurred to me if I lived in a social vacuum.

It's a funny area, because I flout social convention all the time in other areas, but that one is really ingrained and stays with me.

theodorakis - do you really not get what I am asking...?

You give all these reasons to as to why you de-hair. The heat, the boiler suit outfit, the location, etc, etc.

All I am asking is - whether the men that suffer the same heat, and wear the same clothes also feel the need to de-hair their bumholes and their pits...

Thanks - sensible contribution from CrunchyFrog.

I'm another one who de-hairs to the best of my ability - I shave my legs and pits, I tweeze my brows and I tend my pubic hair as well. I do all of that, but I'm not in denial as to why I do it, nor feel the need to justify why I do it, unlike so may on this thread...

After they stopped laughing, the men in the offices just now have given a mixed response. It seems to be based on nationality so better not go into too much detail in case it sounds like stereotyping.
All trim their pubic hair, about half for religious reasons as well as practical.
The westerners all do apart from the British but only 1 so not a great sample.

I personally do not give a tiny little fuck whether they do or not but you clearly do so I hope you enjoy.

I think you are embarrassed because you think you can bully and preach but, thus far, have been unable to come up with any valid reasons.

And 99 per cent of all Arab men I have ever known socially laser their armpits because of sweat. Grey vests under the shirt to absorb the sweat went out in the 70s. Most of the guys I know, including 100 per cent of the Qatari guys in the office now also have Botox to block the sweat, manicures, facials and pedicures.

Who is bullying? Who is preaching?

Why are you being so defensive?

I asked a simple question. You gave a set of reasons for why you did something; I simply asked whether the men also gave the same reasons. Why has that offended you so much?

I hate the conditioned argument.

We all know we're friggin conditioned. Every single one of us. It's not a bad thing. If we weren't we wouldn't be eating with knives and forks. We would pushed streets as toilets. We would fight.

Why don't you accept that some people don't what their hair. The ancient Egyptians removed hair

Use*

Because your question is stupid, that's why.
Why do I have to take a straw poll of what the men do before I do it? Maybe they do but in the interests of equality I am not going to start smoking 60 Marlboro a day or visiting Philipina dating sites just because they do. I am a vegetarian, they seem to exist on sausages and bacon, should I join in?

I'm on team Theodorakis. She gave her reasons for shaving which are absolutely legitimate (heat/ work conditions/ boilersuit)

Yet you are still banging on about what she does compared to men, I very much doubt that she will go up to a man she works with in a boilersuit and ask if he dehairs his bum just so you can compare who has legitimate reasons.

She can only speak for herself and has done so quite plainly and well.

When I lived in the Uk I didn't bother doing anything apart from legs on holiday. It simply didn't occur to me. That's what I am saying. It isn't ALWAYS because we are influenced by the media or society. Sometimes it's just nicer. I don't think I even really knew you were allowed to until I was about 30. I wish I had known, as a kid I had really nasty periods and it would definitely have helped.

It's poor that we're comparing ourselves to men. Completely throws the feminist argument out of the window

Why is my question stupid?

The whole point of this thread is that it seems even in this day and age, different rules apply to men and women.

Why is my question stupid?

You said you do something to make yourself 'cleaner' and more 'comfortable'. But apparently me asking whether men do it is 'stupid'.

Go figure...

Why do men shave their beards?

It's stupid because how can she possibly know

She isn't going to conduct a fucking survey of the men in her workplace before she does
What she deems best for her.

They could all be hairless too but why would you talk about it? It's a private matter for each individual

You seem to not acknowledge individuals and have conveniently ignored my earlier post. You just seem to see 'men' and 'women' as one huge mass.

That's why it's a stupid question, because no one can answer on behalf of anyone one else

Hmmm well I thought I would come back on and point out that the REAL point of the op is that it IS a moral issue that people (more so women than men) are being made to think they are unattractive and need to change themselves. In a moral society people would be accepted for who and what they are, regardless of how closely that mimicked the average look of a human being.

The media in general are therefore amoral in the extreme for failing to represent humans as they really are and focussing intently (to the point of sacking female newsreaders for the crime of getting old) on appearances unattainable to the rank and file.

Discuss.

I am old enough to remember a time when UK women did not feel unclean or unhygienic because they had body hair; it just didn't occur to people.

I can also remember a time (lasting possibly half a decade) when attitudes had changed in the UK but not yet in Sweden: so the same amount of body hair would make you feel smelly and unhygienic in the UK and not in Sweden. Now expectations are the same in both countries.

But it does kind of bring home that it is very much about societal expectations. I remember how we laughed in my class when a returning language exchange student told us how she had been gently nudged in the Americal school she visited for having forgotten to shave her arms: to us it sounded like a tale of the Ancient Egyptians, shaving your arms, we'd never heard of anything so funny.

30 years later, we shave.

Discuss why men shave their faces.

Not all do, Ghostship. Over half my male colleagues have beards.

My DH swings between bearded and non-bearded. No-one blinks an eye either way.

And interestingly enough, the reason dh shaves is because he was unable to grow more than a feeble goatie. A beard can work very well as a sign of manliness. But it needs to have a certain vigour.

Are you seriously suggesting that if a woman goes out with hairy legs and hair pits, that no-one would bat an eye?!

Not the same as a bearded man...