Ugh.
I used to shave my legs. Badly. I still have a scar in my knee from a particularly nasty incident. I wear glasses and I have terrible eyesight without them, so shaving in the shower was dangerous. I’d nick myself and bleed, and then shave again, and bleed, and the results were pretty unpleasant. When I’d take a longer break than usual between shavings, my leg hair made me self-conscious.
I was tired of being a mess, and of participating in the consumerism around shaving-razors, lotion, shaving gel, all of which was pink. I thought about the consequences of not shaving-people staring, people calling me a lesbian (!). I thought about the beauty standards that call for women being smooth. Body hair is messy, cluttered, wayward and masculine. Women who don’t shave their legs are subverting a norm that at its heart is about the gender binary- they’re punished not just for not conforming, but for refusing to rid themselves of a quality that’s seen as specifically masculine instead of basically human.
And who else is smooth? Babies, little girls, pre pubescent boys-those who aren’t grown, who haven’t developed the thick skin that’s necessary to survive in this tough, ugly world. Demanding that women be and maintain hairlessness keeps us vulnerable, bare, childlike. Once I had that thought, I couldn’t do it anymore.
In her April 13th piece in Salon, Tracy Clark-Flory discusses the recent debut of two hairy-legged female celebrities-Mo’Nique and Amanda Palmer, who both claim that their decisions not to shave were based on personal choices, and not because they were trying to make feminist political statements.
I have some news for everyone involved in this situation: not shaving your legs is making a political statement, and being able to go out in public—as a celebrity no less—is a direct benefit of work done by feminists. Part of feminism is about exercising choice, being able to control your own body, life, actions, etc, but another part is about having an analysis around gender and power (and race, and class, and sexuality…). To pretend that subverting any norm is not about making a political statement isn’t doing anyone any favors, even if everyone sees your hairy lady legs.
I have some privilege in my situation I’m deeply confident in my politics, but I’ve worked in very casual environments. My leg hair isn’t thick or unwieldy. I spent four years in Oberlin, a community of strident anti-shavers. Of course, it’s not just about our legs (it’s not hard to imagine what my opinions are regarding the bikini wax). I certainly behave differently towards the hair on my face-a difficult reality for a lot of women-which I feel great shame and frustration around. I won’t even go into the lengths I’ve gone in order to remove it, and I’m sure a lot of readers would recognize themselves in my confessions. There are so many levels to this madness, but the most glaring for me is how we’re made to feel shame about our bodies, how hard it is to fight our way out of that, and to give credit when credit is due-to other women and our allies.
You can check out Chanel’s other work at her blog, idiverge.
“I have some news for everyone involved in this situation: not shaving your legs is making a political statement…To pretend that subverting any norm is not about making a political statement isn’t doing anyone any favors, even if everyone sees your hairy lady legs”
I don’t think this is fair. Just because you see my unshaved legs and interpret them as a political statement doesn’t mean they ARE. Maybe I’m too broke to buy a razor. Maybe I’ve been depressed lately and haven’t bothered to keep up with any of my personal hygiene. Maybe I was planning to shave this morning but I overslept and now it has to wait until I get home from work. Maybe I have a controlling boyfriend who insists that I don’t to reduce my perceived desirability (is that a word?) to others. Maybe I have a skin condition. Maybe I was raised to believe that only “whores” shave their legs and I don’t want to seem loose. Maybe I thought I could skip it this week because I was planning to wear pants, but when I got dressed I realized I hadn’t washed any of my pants and have only skirts to choose from. Maybe I forgot.
Maybe I’m getting a little carried away with the examples, but the short version of my point is that I don’t think it’s necessarily “subverting a norm” if a random lady on the street, like me, hasn’t shaved her legs today. At the very least, it’s not necessarily a deliberate political statement.
However, I DO agree that if a celebrity female doesn’t shave her legs and then goes out wearing clothes that reveal her unshaven legs, she can’t help but be making a statement. Because she’s a celebrity, whose every move is scrutinized by the public. Everything she does is a statement.
I go back and forth on leg shaving. Sometimes I don’t shave, because I don’t feel like it. Other times I shave because I worry about weird looks at the pool. Other times I shave because I really love the feeling of freshly shaved and lotioned legs inside of silk pajamas. Right now, I shave to the knee, but not above it. It’s like a weird compromise.
I shave below the knee, because the hair on my calves grows in thick and really, really unruly, for some reason the hair on my thighs has always been really blonde and fine. The same goes for doing Brazilian waxes. I have the thickest, unruliest, getting-stuck-in-the-elastic-of-my-panties, adhered-to-maxipads, caught-in-zippers (even THROUGH panties, I might add) pubic hair in the history of pubic hair. I get tired of constant tugging and tangling of my pubic hair, so when I can afford it, off it goes.
With the leg hair I thought, “Well, hell, I wear opaque tights 95% of the time, I can go without shaving.” Then it started getting caught in the tights, and pulling, and getting caught in socks. And fuck it.
Honestly, I don’t know how guys deal with HAVING that much hair.
So, shaving, in my case, not a political statement, a matter of personal avoidance of pain.
“I have some news for everyone involved in this situation: not shaving your legs is making a political statement…To pretend that subverting any norm is not about making a political statement isn’t doing anyone any favors, even if everyone sees your hairy lady legs”
I beg to disagree. If you look at my unshaven legs and assume I’m making a political statement, how is that any different from someone else seeing them and assuming that I’m “a lesbian (!)”? In my mind, placing your judgment and values onto my choices is just as misguided as someone else doing it, regardless of the supposed motive.
I’m also not sure I agree with the statement that it’s a political statement. I don’t shave my legs because I am lazy and can not be arsed and never really cared about it. I don’t mind if it’s seen as a political statement but in all honesty I never shaved simply because I didn’t see the point, which doesn’t really strike me as particularly political. I haven’t bothered to do my upper lip or my eyebrows in the last year either but in that case it’s because I am too clumsy to tweaze myself and too broke to bother to pay to get it done. Also as mentioned I am lazy, very, very lazy.
I will add this is not a post-marriage laziness – I’ve never been arsed about beauty regimes and had my eyebrows done for the first time when I was 24 – coincidentally or not the first time I spent time in the US, and only then because all the women I met in New York made such a big deal out of it that I felt obliged to to make them feel better.
Actually I suppose in that context it is a little political because I’m not really sure why I felt that I should have my eyebrows done just because a bunch of Americans went on and on about it and I wouldn’t really care if they did these days. (She said, rambling on incoherently).
I would agree on the political-ness of not shaving. Sure, if you’re lazy or one doesn’t see it as political or do it to be political, it is still going against the norm and almost demands an explanation in some cases (esp. in the cases of the celebrities).
I don’t shave anything but still struggle with the perceptions people may have against facial hair or how long my leg hair gets. I don’t mind my armpit hair and the reactions for some reason. I shouldn’t care about what others think but man, is it culturally indoctrinated in us to fear other’s response. So yeah, I know by not conforming I have to “answer” so to speak to society and it’s rules, so for me, it absolutely is a political statement.
I loved your post and it truly could have come from my own experience! More like this!
I think the problem with any personal hygiene regime is that it is personal. I know that sometimes leg shaving is a total drag (and I have the same eye sight problem as the OP, so I totally understand the inch long gash along your ankle) but other times in my life it has actually been cathartic… almost a cleansing ritual, if you will.
Also, shaving takes time and in my life is almost a selfish act since the shower is the only place I am truly left alone by my kids. So, just as a philosophical question, is it more feminist to make a statement with unshaven legs or to demand my right for five extra minutes in the shower to shave them?
The feminist choice is your choice, imo. Feminism exists to validate our choices, in big things or small.
I stopped shaving under my arms when I had a mastectomy in 1990. I was very worried about cutting myself since I could no longer feel there, and then ending up with lymphedema. I haven’t always been comfortable going out in public with underarm hair, but I’ve done it anyhow, and now I don’t think about it much.
Our daughter was 2 when I had my surgery, so she doesn’t remember me shaving. When she developed body hair, my mom strongly encouraged me to tell her to shave so that no one would make fun of her. I told her that she should do what made her feel comfortable. She chose to shave, and it’s fine with me.
FWIW, I don’t shave anywhere and would discourage her from shaving her pubic hair unless she had a situation like geekgirls. I think that hair actually does serve a purpose and that most of the shaving that goes on is a result of the warped and misogynistic presentations of women’s bodies you get in porn and men’s magazines. I am not in any way interested in supporting that rubbish.
I shave below the knee because I have trichotillomania (the compulsion to pull out my hair). If I don’t shave, then, when I’m especially stressed, I end up with tweezers, ripping it out by hand–only on my calves, for whatever reason.
I’m already on a medication for a chemical disorder, and I don’t really want to be on additional medications (nor could I afford diagnosis and treatment for this, since I don’t have any health care), so as long as I can self-manage my OCD, I do so. That involves taking hand sanitizer with me everywhere I go and shaving my legs below the knee.
What is interesting to me is the defensiveness of women who DO shave their legs/body hair when presented with an argument like this. I shave my legs and my armpits and pluck hairs that appear in other places. At the very base of it? No one is MAKING me do it, no- and that is the very thing about the patriarchy. It gets to sit back and let us do most of the work for it, and we DO. Why do I shave my legs? I have a million reasons that aren’t political and I could give you all of them…
But if I were to be completely and utterly and shamelessly and unapologetically honest, I’d tell you it is because I don’t want people to think I am gross. Because I am already fat and people are already offended by my presence. Because I don’t have the strength of character to subvert what has become the societal norm. Even in the middle of the winter.
Hmm, shaving.
I started shaving my legs and armpits at the first year of secondary school (age 12?) after hearing some of the girls iin my class discussing it. I started plucking my eyebrows when I was 13 after lots of teasing for having ‘man-brows’. So, I started this grooming to fit in with the group’s idea of ‘female’.
Shaivng anywhere leads to lots of in-grown hairs for me and I have scars on my legs from picking at them. I also can’t use anti-perspirant as I get painful clogged sweat glands.
So, I have not shaved my legs or armpits in nearly a month now, out of a combination of pain minimisation, laziness and curiosity. This is the first time I’ve seen what I look like with leg and underarm hair! I have only one friend amongst all my friends and aquaintances who I have seen with underarm hair…
That I have not shaved recently is not currently *much* of a problem (I worry ‘someone’ is going to spot my unshaveness) as it is winter but when it warms up I will want to wear singlets and so will have to make a decision about my underarm hair.
The fear that keeps me (and the rest of us) in line is of rejection and of being a social outcast. We females self-police. You only have to read a fashion mag or woman’s gossip weekly to see the b*tchiness in action and the scorn heaped upon those who fail to follow the rules.
So, in a roundabout way. Is the choice not to shave a political statement? Maybe. If you are a celebrity then of course it is, even if you don’t intend it because the women’s mag will get you. Maybe a better description would be a ‘social’ statement. I don’t really know. Ideas?
What I do know is that I don’t want to go back to shaving. I hate the effort, the stubble and the pain. But, I do not want to have to explain myself to the ever-present ‘them’. I am toying with the idea of using beard trimmers to keep my leg and underarm hair short enough that it is not too noticeable once the weather warms up. However this feels like a capitulation to the group-think which makes me feel a bit of a failure as a feminist. Which is in itself internalised mysogeny!
*headdesk*
Short version – what Jess said.
What Xenu01 said.
Shaving/not shaving is a matter of choice, but as with many ostensibly feminist choices women make, it’s damn near impossible to pretend that they are completely free and uninformed by what the patriarchy WANTS us to choose. I don’t want people—and yes, men—to find me unattractive on account of my leg hair, so I shave. It’s something I’m willing to concede because it doesn’t harm my body or cost me enough money to cause me economic hardship, unlike, say, getting implants that would turn my naturally small breasts into patriarchly-appealing C or D cups.
I do think, though, that for women who choose not to shave, it will be interpreted as a political statement whether they intend it that way or not. We live in a patriarchial world, so anything women do that defies the patriarchy’s accepted beauty standard will be seen as defying it for political reasons, no matter what our real reasons might be.
And personally, while I shave my legs as a concession to bullshit beauty standards, I tame my lady-forest for the same reasons as GeekGirlsRule. She and I could have the most fabulous pube-off ever—one that would permanently scar those objectifying dudes who’ve only ever seen bald-snatched porn stars.
Long response coming – this is a topic close to my heart. Apologies in advance.
I have super-pale skin and very dark hair – and lots of it. LOTS. Every hairdresser who has ever cut the hair on my head has remarked upon it. That means that if I didn’t shave my legs, they would look hairier than most men’s. I also have more hair on my chin than your average 80 year-old (I pluck daily, and rather obsessively – when I am sitting at my computer reading I often run my hand along my face and tweeze whatever stray hairs I find – I’m so practised at this point that I don’t even need a mirror). I even shave my arms, people.
So yes, the patriarchy has totally got to me and made me embarrassed of my hair, but on the other hand my situation really is quite extreme (I long for the day I can afford laser treatments/electrolysis).
That said, I can’t stand the idea of a bikini wax – I once tried to wax my legs and the pain was terrible, I can’t imagine what it would be like ‘down there’. Keeping things neat and tidy is absolutely enough for me, and I do think there is something sketchy about the expectation that women will go through the pain and expense of bikini waxes regularly to meet a ridiculous ideal.
I used to wonder if I should do it, since so many other people seemed to, but Germany cured me of that. Women there are much more relaxed about the hair thing and seeing other women totally unshaved in the hamam made me realise just how culturally conditioned this all is. It was really very liberating. (Actually, I recommend naked saunas for getting over body complexes in general, you see such a variety of body types there that I think it helps you to accept your own).
I’ve seen pictures of Alicia Keys with unabashed hair-on-the-legs. I think she was performing at the time, too, not just hanging out~
I depilatory-ize my legs and certain other spots because that feels and looks better to me. Don’t give a fuck (or, I think, have even asked!) what anyone else thinks, whether I’ve recently shaved or am in a fuzzy in-between period.
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Maybe it would be more descriptive to say not shaving your legs is “politicized” rather than “political.” Perhaps saying it is inherently “political” focuses too much on intent, when what the writer is saying is that because it is still expected that women shave their legs (and is considered disgusting, deviant, “lesbian,” etc to not fulfill this norm) that– no matter what your intent is– not shaving your legs is politicized.
I think a racial lens is missing from the analysis– it’s not just little girls, babies, etc who don’t have hair. A lot of East Asian people (men, women, and everyone else) don’t have a lot of body hair. In fact, when I (a white woman) was growing up, a lot of my East Asian-American female friends would clip their eyelashes in order to try to get them to grow more, and would shave their arms in hopes of having more arm hair.
A lot of non-East Asian men’s fetishization of East Asian women may have something to do with this– being attracted to women who are racialized through looks/phenotype and stereotypes to seem more easily dominated and submissive.
Put me in the “it’s political” camp. (I am a man with probably enough body hair I will eventually face pressure to reduce, though thankfully it hasn’t spread to my back yet.) I think the weakness of merely seeing feminism as a series of choices falls short: this is a perfect example of our how choices don’t exist in a vacuum. Since certain actions we do are publicly visible, and we are not going to sit down with every person we see (thank God) with a lengthy explanation, our actions take place in a political context. That doesn’t mean there is one “right choice” but we should be aware of the context and limits on our choices and feminism can help us to determine that, as well as the great art of reclamation, should we do so. It can also give us spaces to tell these stories.
@treyfe
word. i know full well even when i *do* have shaved legs etc (not that often) that the main reason i appreciate the look and/or feel of it is that pretty much every fucking godddamned waking moment of my life has reinforced that individual “feeling”, despite growing up with feminism and an exposure to women who chose not to shave for whatever reason.
i also remember when bikini waxing wasn’t as common, let alone the whole enchilada getting removed. makes me nostalgic for a time prior to everyone “choosing their choice” about removing pubes.
so yeah, it’s possibly to choose to go along with something more socially conditioned and acceptable and yet be fully aware that at the end of the day it’s not important or even surreal.
yoyoyo,
The eyelash clipping is actually really common among East Asian mothers (I don’t know how new this trend is), who clip their daughters’ *and* sons’ eyelashes in the [erm, futile] hopes that they’ll grow longer/fuller.
@trefe: Right, but by normalizing behaviors that have been loaded with political meaning, we can help de-politicize them and bring them into the realm of everyday choices. So if enough of us stop shaving, that will become as normal a variation as head hair differences.
@Mischiefmanager, right on! I always think we are fighting for the right of many things to not be such a big fucking deal, like say our equal right as queers to serve in oppressive institutions like marriage and war!
Thanks for acknowledging your privilege. I have really thick Middle Eastern body hair, and I wish I could not shave my hair and have cute white-girl leg hair. Unfortunately, my hair would look all kinds of crazy and be uncomfortable if grown out. Bleh.