To not want Office to tell me I need to shave my legs?

[AliceInWonderland3]

I got an email this week from Office trying to sell me summer shoes, the email also told me not to forget to shave my legs.

AIBU to not want a business who wants female customers telling them they need to shave their legs? I shave my legs because I know people I encounter day-to-day will be horrified by body hair on a woman, but I don't need a business trying to make me feel bad if I choose to go outside without doing so. Or trying to make me feel disgusted by something natural

was thinking the Office Paperclip was getting a bit personal.

There's a blast from the past

Op...you do realise the email isnt just to you but a few 1000 others as well.

That's a really twattish thing for them to write in an email.

It makes it okay, because. It's nothing personal

You really are missing the point, aren't you, Ilive? It's a direct email in effect telling all women that they must shave their legs - which has nothing whatsoever to do with the product they're selling, but does imply that you're not fit to wear it unless you have shaved. It also says that all women should shave as a matter of course - witness telling us not to forget.

It's pointless telling OP to ignore it, it's pretty obvious she's going to. What bothers me is all the women who won't ignore it, and who will think they are somehow inferior or not "real women" if they dare to leave the house showing so much as a strand of leg hair.

londonrach: it's perfectly obvious OP knows it wasn't directly addressed to her. Why do you imagine her post refers to "customers" in the plural.

I don't get the problem with leg hair, I mean so what if we have hairy legs?

Op...you do realise the email isnt just to you but a few 1000 others as well.

Of course the OP realises the mail isn't just to her.

The point is that Office (nor any other company) shouldn't be telling anyone to shave their legs, whether individually or as a class. It's promoting stereotyped expectations of how women should look and behave - and only women. It's deeply sexist.

Besides, women who chose to shave their legs are unlikely to read it and think, "oh, I really needed that reminder!" So it's patronising as well as sexist.

Ahhhh Clippy!

Some people seem to be looking for anything to be offended about, I say that as someone who currently isn't a massive shaver.

Just write them an email and ask them to reconsider using words which may put pressure on women to live up to a unfair beauty standard.

YANBU. Shaved legs have nothing to do with shoes. Women who want to shave their legs don't need a shoe company to remind them.

It's clueless rather than malicious, I think. Writer of the email is trying to be 'friendly' towards customers, and is either a man, or a woman who shaves her legs and can't imagine that anyone else wouldn't. Either way, it's body-shaming and sexist, as others have already pointed out.

From the title I thought it was someone in the office you worked in, though! I'm very glad to be wrong about that.

FWIW I haven't shaved my legs this century and haven't had any 'horrified' reactions, OP. A few surprised ones.

I don't think OP is offended, I think she's justifiably pissed off at the never ending messages from advertisers and society at large that women are never good enough.

Even if she is offended, she hardly went looking for this offensive email, did she?

Can't see anything wrong with being offended anyway, if something is offensive, the correct reaction to it is to be offended. Stephen Fry went off on one about how terribly gauche it is to be offended by things, and then got all offended at people reaction to him being offensive that he flounced from Twitter.

I suspect that if you're not offended by sexism or racism, or other things that are inherently offensive, then it's something wrong with you, not something wrong with the people having the reasonable reaction to it.

No it isn't personal but it's the repetition of this sort of shit that means women are constantly trying to keep up with beauty standards! And it is - don't care about shit like that and you're disgusting; do care and you're shallow.

YANBU OP. I'd unsubscribe and if asked for a comment would tell them why.

I see that The Underthinkers have been joined by The Professionally Unoffended......

Quite.

How fucking big of them, to not let the subjigation if 50% of the population wash over them.

How terribly fucking clever.

You have to remember as well we women are being fed this shit at a younger and younger age.

I'm 31 and to be exposed to this crap about how women look I had to buy a magazine to read it. Thinking back to Sugar and J17 mags.

These days kids have facebook accounts at 9 and just because they set their profile up with 'female' ticked have these target adverts and if you don't log out of FB or clear your cookies FB tracks your viewing habits (as does google and other web based companies). Ads are targets based on what pages you've visited, what FB pages you've liked.

Signing up for newsletters from blogs, Shops etc. They know your gender when you fill out the form and target the ads to you. Its a constant stream of it.

No it isn't personal but it's the repetition of this sort of shit that means women are constantly trying to keep up with beauty standards!

Yes, exactly. Sending it to thousands of women doesn't make it OK.

Some people seem to be looking for anything to be offended about

Pervasive, insidious sexism that I'm supposed to just accept is my young DD's lot?

You don't exactly have to 'go looking for it' since it's everywhere, as the OP's thread is all about.

Thank God some people actually give a crap about this stuff, because 'oooh get you, looking to be offended' is a bloody awful attitude.

It's one thing to not give a crap about how women are treated in the media and advertising; but to scoff at women who notice this shit and try to do something to improve things for the next generation for is pretty hard to read.

CaptainMarvel, how on earth does this constitute looking for something to be offended about? The email was sent to OP, she didn't go looking for it. It's not just expecting women to "live up to an unfair beauty standard" (which is none of a shoe company's business anyway), it's saying to half of the population "You're inadequate and ugly if you don't shave your nasty disfiguring hair off". If you don't find that offensive, that is worrying in itself.

Yes, if something's there right in front of your nose how is that "looking for it"?

I see that The Underthinkers have been joined by The Professionally Unoffended......

Indeed. There's a lot of WELL YOU DON'T HAVE TO SHAVE BECAUSE AN AUTOMATED GROUP EMAIL TOLD YOU TO THAT CAME FTOM A COMPANY IN A COMPLETELY UNRELATED AREA. THIS KIND OF UNASKED FOR ADVICE TELL US NOTHING ABOUT COMMON PERCEPTIONS OF WOMEN AND WHAT THEY ARE EXPECTED TO DO. IT'S COMPLETELY CRAY CRAY TO WONDER WHY THEY THOUGHT THIS WAS APPROPRIATE AND WHY SHAVING IS SO NORMALISED AS A FEMALE MUST DO THAT APPARENTLY THE POTENTIAL FOR A CUSTOMER TO LOOK ASKANCE AT THIS WAS NOT CONSIDERED.

ALSO, NOTHING MEANS ANY THINK. EVERYTHING IS JUST A WHO LOAD OF UNRELATED STUFF THAT DOESN'T "MEAN" ANYTHING UNLESS YOU'RE LIKE SOMETHING KIND OF FEMINAZI SO-CALLED "INTELLECTUAL" WHO HATES WOMEN BEING FEMININE. I JUST INDEPENDENTLY STARTED SHAVING MY LEGS WITH NO SOCIAL PRESSURE OR MESSAGES BECAUSE IT IS INNATE TO PEOPLE WITH VAGINAS. THAT IS JUST FACT.

Were the caps necessary?

Yeah, I think so. They differentiate the views I don't agree with from mine.

Italics would have worked better.

Thanks, I'll take that on board for the next time.

Good.