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

Cheers Zaurak - I might also do a Billy Connelly and dye them purple

AIBU to be really peeved about part-time school when DD3 starts reception in September? I'll have to take 6 days off work if I can't find childcare - tell me your reception starter horror stories so mine doesn't seem so bad - starting 2 days later than sisters and then 2 weeks of half days!!!

Whoops! Epic fail!

Can't blinkin' delete now - the hairy legs made me do it! Help!

I don't see why boys being under pressure about appearance makes it okay that girls are. Surely the equality we should be aiming for is that no one is subjected to pressure about expectations of beauty, not that everyone is.

So depressing that "I am the mother of sons" seems to have become a synonym for "I am an anti feminist"........

Pretty much.

I picture the person who thought that email was a good idea like this:

I am the mother of feminist sons. They certainly would not require nor expect women to shave their legs.
Many mothers of sons are feminists and have feminist sons.

Women can shave or not shave their legs. Entirely up to them. I've chosen not to this year. Sometimes I have in the past. It just depends how I feel.
I've never much bothered about what people think of me. It may be because I am pretty successful and earn a lot so I'm not clamouring for fawning approval from others on my visual appearance or other aspects of me or it may be I was successful because I never much cared about what people think of me.

Godwin's lesser known laws: any poster who is told she is 'overthinking this' is almost certainly right to think about this, and any poster who asks whether there aren't more important things to worry about has automatically forfeit the right to any discussion.

Funny the things that are considered insults these days. Over thinking, professionally offended, liberal, do gooder................

It would be the crowning glory in any woman's life to be an under-thinking, impossible to offend, illiberal do-badder, right?

Might just be worth your while totting up whether it's feminists or non -feminists who get the most mockery and piss taking...............

Feminists get by far the most criticism.
Obviously an advert suggesting women should shave their legs because it's summer is very sexist. I am not surprised people are objecting. Lots of women don't shave their legs.

*If only 'feminists'

YADNBU Everyday sexism. I bet they didn't tell the men similar!

Has put me off Office tbh

"I agree with this, to a point. I don't like the kind of feminism that requires sneering at or judging other women for their choices. It seems to me to be counter-productive"

The problem is that questioning a woman's choices in any way is seen as sneering and judging.

The problem is that questioning a woman's choices in any way is seen as sneering and judging.

Having been on the receiving end of it, this may be where it comes from, but it's not how it feels.

I thought you meant the hr department at your office emailed you asking you to shave your legs! This ties in with my 'beach ready' razor annoyance!

Its just the tone used by objecting is all so very 'you must be an idiot if you don't understand', attacking other women's choices. It makes me cringe it's so hypocritical.

Yeah, I've seen this. I would much prefer feminism in general to be a more welcoming space for women too. And I'm a feminist. I don't really have any answers as to how, though. We're all just people.

Re shaving - I know, for myself, that I only do it if my legs are going to be visible. I am conscious that, for me, it's massively influenced by societal expectations and I just don't have the stones to go out all hair-ahoy. So I'd like those expectations to change, not women to be forced to make different choices. So emails like in the OP are reinforcing these ridiculous expectations, they are not encouraging a society in which women have the freedom to do what the damn hell they want with their own body hair. That's why it pisses me off.

"Its just the tone used by objecting is all so very 'you must be an idiot if you don't understand', attacking other women's choices. It makes me cringe it's so hypocritical."

It seems to me that this thread has been very much "you must be an idiot if you see this as a problem", frankly! The OP was laughed at, told to chill, that she was overthinking, that she should be thankful that's all she has to worry about. All within the first 20 or so posts!

lol wtf