Braun, V. , Tricklebank, G. and Clarke, V. (2013) It shouldnt stick out ...

GENDER AND HAIR REMOVAL 7
The experience of having facial hair in the current Western context is often
psychologically difficult for women. 1 Tying in to the cultural archetype of the freak-show, the
“bearded lady” (Thomson, 2006), women often experience “excessive” facial hair as
psychologically difficult and as having a negative impact on quality of life (Lipton, Sherr, Elford,
Rustin, & Clayton, 2006; Maziar et al., 2010). Women with medical conditions which cause
“excessive” hair growth on the face (and body), such as polycystic ovarian syndrome, report hair
as one of the most distressing elements—part of a cluster of factors which can result in a
questioning of their femininity and female identity (Kitzinger & Willmott, 2002). 2 In Beauty
Secrets, Chapkis (1986) theorised women’s private shame around a belief that they are
unnaturally hairy, compared to other women, and “uncontrollable” body hair growth has been
described as women’s greatest hair-related fear, with visible (uncontrolled) hair seen as a betrayal
by the body (Lewis, 1987). Shame and anxiety can be found in both research and personal
narratives, such as the deeply sad personal account by British journalist Liz Jones (2009), where
she describes her body hair as something that both rules, and ruins, her life, as well as her daily
struggle to maintain the veneer of embodied female hairlessness. This idea of an ever-present
threat from an out-of-control hair-producing body lurking in the wings ties in with Ussher’s
(2006) analysis of the female (reproductive) body as “monstrous”—an ever-present source of
vulnerability and danger.
Until recently, hair removal might have appeared to be a clearly gendered practice, but
Bromberger (2008, p. 389) claimed a “recent neutralization of differences in hair practices
between the genders,” and others have suggested that “the gender gap in body hair removal…is
narrower than you might think” (CristenConger, 2011, para 4). For Western men, body hair can
be a significant body concern (Martins et al., 2008b; Tiggemann et al., 2008), and body hair