The Veet commercials - which show a lover, a taxi driver, a paramedic, and a nail technician disgusted with a girl who has hair growing back 12 hours after she shaves - have a slogan screaming "Don't risk dudeness. Feel womanly around the clock." Other slogans say "Never again say 'But I just shaved yesterday!'. . . Don't manhandle your underarms- wax the dudeness away!. . . Embrace your smooth feminine side and never be caught off gurad with VEET."
An Ad Week article brings up five reasons why these Veet commercials are wrong: 1. It shames women by telling them they are less womanly if they have body hair on their legs and armpits. 2. It's mildly homophobic. In one commercial, the two lovers are in bed, and the woman- who didn't shave- became a man. Her boyfriend is horrified that he woke up next to a man. 3. It's dumb because of the exaggerated way the taxi driver leaves the hairy woman and because they use the word "dudeness". 4. It's empirically wrong because no woman "turns into Chewbacca overnight." 5. It makes fools of both men and women. "The burly guy in the nightie speaks in a baby-girl voice, doing neither gender any favors." These main points add a lot of insight on how ridiculous these ads have become.
I agree with one blogger that commented on Veet's commercials stating: "I generally like having freshly shaven legs and armpits. . . But there is seriously nothing that makes me want to let my naturally robust and thick body hair run wild more than someone saying that I need to be hairless to be (attractive as) a woman- especially if that someone is a company that is looking to profit by stoking anxiety and shame about gendered beauty norms."
A Huffington Post article talks about an artist that shows how body hair can be beautiful. Ben Hopper, a photographer, started "Natural Beauty" in 2007, taking pictures of willing models showing off their armpit hair.
The article goes on to say that his project plays on the "fact that armpit and body hair have been stigmatized [in the United States]." You very rarely see a women embracing her body hair, she is more like to be shamed away from showing it. Ben Hopper explains what he wants people to get out of the project: "I don't want to say that I want women to start growing their armpit hair. I just think that it's a possibility and people shouldn't dismiss it. I'd like people to question [beauty standards], the whole thing."
I think what is more important than holing yourself up in the bathroom, is to focus on your career, education, and other hobbies that interest you. I want to better myself and not just my looks. Frankly, I don't really care if I'm stubbly, as long as I got to do something more important.
I agree that overall, women are encouraged to shave in Western culture, because it is more feminine to shave, rather then embracing what our bodies do naturally. I read an article written by a feminist author, who actively contradicted the beauty standard that has been set for women. To go against the idea that women should be hairless, she actually let ALL of her hair grow out during the summer, and prepared herself for the comments and jokes that would result from her choice.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I think that there is a beauty standard set for women in this area. We are taught through experience and the media that we must shave, or else we will be unattractive. However, I don't see anything wrong with shaving, and I don't think it shows a weakness in women if they habitually shave.
The article that I read (http://feministatsea.wordpress.com/2009/03/28/the-feminist-hair-dilemma/), was a bit too severe for me. I don't think that shaving necessarily makes you a conformist to a male ideal. I shave, and I do not think I am succumbing to the male-created perception of beauty. Overall, I believe hygiene to be an important quality in an individual, and as long as you are clean and hygenic, it doesn't really matter to me if you shave/don't shave.
Like most women in our culture, I regularly shave. However, the degree that women are supposed to be hairless is getting slightly ridiculous. Not only are we expected to shave our legs and our armpits, but also our arms, feet, and stomachs. The only acceptable hair on a woman's body seems to be the hair on the top of her head, and her eyebrows, but even those have to be neat a trimmed. Getting rid of all of a woman's body hair every day takes up a lot of time, a lot more time than most women have. Instead of shaming women for not shaving for a few days, we should be celebrating the accomplishments she made during that time.
ReplyDeleteI shave but I have some friends that don't. They always seem to get weird looks when wearing capris but unlike others, I don't seem to mind it. I feel like society make women feel like they have to shave everyday or get waxed all the time to feel sexy. My friends feel just as sexy and I don't see where it makes a difference. If women feel sexy with body hair that is nature than let them be. It doesn't hurt anyone so I don't feel like they should deal with the judgements.
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