Female body hair.

[MontyGlee]

Lots of people said this can't be done because society's controls are too strong.

Well, I'm not sure. Ok, so it's just a small-scale online trend just now, but you've got to start somewhere.

[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/10968079/Womens-hairy-legs-I-hate-myself-for-shaving-but-I-just-cant-stop.html?placement=CB2]

Ha! :)

Well I don't like underarm hair. Even on DH. But I just tolerate it. But I don't mind other body hair. Strange. I agree with people shaving where they want to shave or not shaving at all or shaving everything.

Public parts of your body will be judged. Hairy legs and pits on a woman will be judged, so many just prefer to shave and escape scrutiny.

What I find rather worrying is the rise in pubic hair removal. It's worrying for the reason that by the time you get so intimate and vulnerable with someone you shouldn't be worrying about judgement, you should be accepted with generosity and warm heartedness. (Sorry for sounding like an ol' Joy Of Sex hippy with that sentence.)

I know many people shave for hygiene reasons etc, that's a different thing.

Picklepest, I think that body shaming young women into conforming is sexist. I think that calling other women the horrible names you and others have called women like me, is body shaming.

Think what you want Almondcakes. Spin my posts all you want to too.

The thing is that one can make tenuous links between things and get into the weeds and yet miss the obvious.

To answer your post:

1. Not everyone shares the views of what is, in effect, an academically-led clique and you can't write off all those people as trolls, convenient though that may be. I'm often wrong, but I'll admit it when I find out. Yes, I'll provoke debate, but after reflecting on issues that have been considered at length by people that are, admittedly, more eloquent and educated than me, I may realise that my original position is incorrect and withdraw. I don't that as being a trait shared by those long immersed in a subject, however, who are often unable to accept simple facts that don't conform to their long held core beliefs.

1. It's just common sense that if one of two sexes spends more time on its appearance, it's appearance will become more important. You can't criticise the objectification unless you also acknowledge the complicity.

That mirror article is just so depressing but it does show that a lot of very beautiful women don't think shaving is necessary. I think that photo of Julia Roberts was so widely publicised that she probably did some good with it. if it's good enough for one of the highest paid actresses to refuse to shave...

We'll know the tide is really beginning to turn when we see photos of celebrities with hairy legs.

As far as the history goes, underarms started to be shaved in the 1920s but legs weren't shaved until the 1940s (despite us having had a few decades of above the knee skirts by that point).

Almondcakes,

Do you think this thread is 'goady'? Women are objectified > unnecessary grooming is part of that > let's support a movement that seeks to reduce this aspect of unfair judgement. Simple stuff really.

I suspect you think you own feminism and can slyly cast aspersions on whatever you want in related forums like this?

I occasionally have my legs and underarms waxed. When I can afford to. Shaving is too time consuming and grows back too quickly.
As for men....my ex OM had a thing for shaving his chest when I first met him. I told him I really didn't mind either way. He had a hairy back too But the fact he looked so manly fed into the sexual chemistry there was between us.

The obsession with appearance worries me greatly There is another thread running on another board at the moment where an MNer says she tells/shows her DD where she can pinch more than an inch. I asked whether she did the same to her DS. No answer to that one.

Ive NEVER eveb trimmed my pubic hair and I wont. ANY man who makes a comment about it will be shown the door.

On a thread on the Relationships board which got zapped an MNer posted that her partner actually SULKED yes SULKED because she had a small amount of hair on her face. And didn't stop sulking until she removed it.

I also remember another thread where an MNer posted that she had a Bartholins cyst and her H told her it was her fault for not shaving. I wouldn't be able to even bear to look at a man after that let alone get into bed with him.

I have a small amount of hair on my chin. I also occasionally get that waxed. It didn't appear till last year when I turned 40. Unfortunately im dark haired.

I have intermittently not shaved my armpits, but the legs are a shave-zone.

I have noticed that this Summer a few women who I woukd have thought would paint their toenails have got nude nails.

I had been wondering if this has become more of a thing.

I shave my legs and underarm because I like the look, I have very dark hair and very pale skin so for me I don't like the look, also it's a social norm. I know bad me for following a social norm but I personally could not be arsed with the questioning that would come from not being shaved.

However...down below that's up to me 100% me! Nobody except DP sees that, and it's has it's various hairstyles from clean shaven...I did not like it, then me and DP had a bush growing contest.. we do strange things, oh I won now I just keep it neat, tidy up the edges and give it a trim so it dosnt fluff out my knickers if that makes sense. DP has no say in how I garden and he dosnt care, he just wants sex he does not care how the house is furnished lol

I shave my legs, have hairy armpits and have my bikini line waxed.

Some preferences are cultural/ethic, too.

Many Latino people with a large percentage of Native American heritage have very little body hair, as do plenty of eastern Asians and black people.

My father, for example, has no visible hair on his legs, arms and chest. My younger daughter has nut brown skin and again, no visible hair on her legs and arms.

People's perception of what is a norm or attractive varies across the world.

Sometimes shave, sometimes not. Aesthetically I prefer shaved legs, but I am painfully aware that that preference does not arise spontaneously but is a product of cultural conditioning, and also that it require effort (and I am deeply lazy).

Re. the smell thing - I actually find (personally - others appear to have different experiences) that I sweat less when I have hairy pits - hairy pits plus deodorant works for me.

I have a young DS and try to vary things partly for his sake. It is amazing how early messages from TV ads for razors/wax/veet get internalised as "the state of nature". He actually said recently "why have you got hairy armpits mummy? Girls don't have hairy armpits." So I explained that all grown up women grow hair, just some choose to shave it off - and told him it was a bit like grown up men deciding whether or not to have a beard. Of course it isn't... it should be but it isn't... but I'm not going to go into that level of detail about sociological pressures this early in life (though having said that, his personal preference is to have his hair longish, and we've spent a lot of time talking about strategies to help him resist peer pressure on this one, and googling male footballers with long hair - the thing that eventually had him asking me to cut his hair was not other children, but adults who kept telling him he looked like a girl ).

The tumbler thing was intriguing for me because I'd always thought that I was super-hairy, yet it seems from those pictures that I'm really not.

It's crazy that a woman in her 30s has no idea what a womans legs really look like because (almost) every single woman removes their hair if their legs are on display.

Yes, it really should be a personal preference, just like beards. I don't know how we're going to get there though.

You're right chunky - it goes to show doesn't it when I have no idea of the range of hairiness for women (including ethnic differences as expat says), because in (western) society anything more than none is generally unacceptable

Slowly, chunky. But why not in a generation?

I mean, we weren't here once, were we? Everyone was once completely happy with hairy armpits and legs etc. It's not so long ago either....

Hasn't it all got something to do with prostitutes and lice? Not really relevant now.

I don't think it looks attractive on woman at all . I like hairy men - but would not grow leg hair !

Why do you think a woman's natural state is unattractive blossum?

I shave my pubic hair round my vulval lips

Only so it doesn't poke dh in the nose for cunnilingus

I don't shave the rest, legs occasionally, underarms occasionally

I've never met anyone who had a problem with it

darkest eyes "Ive NEVER eveb trimmed my pubic hair and I wont. ANY man who makes a comment about it will be shown the door."

My OH sometimes asks me to trim my pubic hair, just around the labial opening, not to alter the appearance, but it gets tangled in his tongue and mouth.

Not sure if that's worth asking hime to leave the family home for.

Just my personal opinion - I think hairy legs look best on men !

Blossum do you have relationships with women?

combust in your case its for more practical reasons. It doesn't sound like he would judge you for it if you didn't do it.

It should have been obvious that that is what I was getting at by the rest of the examples I put in that post.

www.newstatesman.com/culture/2014/07/enough-enough-tv-s-crime-porn-endemic-violence-assault-women-has-stop

From the above link.

My first TV job asked me shave my legs and I refused. The cameras all zoomed in on my leg hairs and the 40-strong male crew treated me to a rendition of “Gillette, the best a man can get”. I unfortunately bumped into Jim Davidson in the corridor and he shouted “Not only has she got hairy legs, she’s wearing men’s shoes!” as he pointed at my Doc Martens.