Lot's Wife - MSA Women’s & POC Edition Five

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Art by Yesha 22 Lot’s Wife • Edition Five
Lot’s Wife • Edition Five Getting the Monkey Off One’s Back Why We Go Ape Over Women’s Body Hair Words by Xenia Sanut I have never shaved my legs. For the 20 years that I have been alive, I have never – not once – put a razor, wax strip, scissors or any hair removal tool to my legs. After reading that statement, you probably felt a mixture of shock, disgust, indifference and resistance. I feel that way about my body hair every single day. I have a drawer full of leggings and tights because wearing dresses or shorts in the summer makes me anxious. I still shave my armpits before I wear a sleeveless shirt or bathing suit because I feel I would be judged harshly for having visible body hair, and I have. A guy called me ‘Bigfoot’ once after he saw my leg hair. I have a tan complexion but thick, black hair – it is not easy for me to hide it. We call this hair, the kind that does not grow on our head, ‘excess hair’, ‘unwanted hair’ or ‘unfeminine’ and we have a billion-dollar industry dedicated to its removal. We see smooth and hairless women in films, TV shows, advertisements and music videos. In fact, I was 14 when I first saw a woman in popular culture with body hair. It was during a sex scene between Penelope Cruz and Nicolas Cage in the 2001 film adaptation of Captain Corelli’s Mandolin. I was not even paying attention to the movie because I was too busy staring at the hair on Cruz’s armpits. My mind was going through a million questions a minute. Why did they show her armpit hair? Why am I so shocked to see her armpit hair? Why do we even care about body hair? One theory is that our body hair helped keep our ancestors warm until about three million years ago when the Earth warmed up and having too much hair became a liability. As a result, we lost most of our hair thanks to natural selection. Another theory comes from Charles Darwin in his book Descent of Man, wherein he suggested that those who had less hair among ancestors were more sexually desirable. However, before the 1920s, few women ever removed their leg, underarm or pubic hair and it is believed that advertising campaigns and the popularity of photography in the 1930s made body hair removal the norm. If you are more concerned about the health benefits of hair removal, it is a mixed bag. Our hairiest areas carry eccrine glands which are needed for cooling the skin and apocrine glands which secrete pheromones, a body odour that causes us to stink after a run but also helps us attract potential mates. Body hair also regulates body temperature, keeps us warm in colder climates and protects our body from outside elements. However, shaving can cause ingrown hair and cuts, waxing can cause inflammation and infection, laser hair removal can cause discolouration and permanent scarring, and all can increase the risk of sexually transmitted diseases. Removing pubic hair protects us from lice, but not removing it protects genitalia from friction and infection - there is no clear winner here. But what about the social reasoning behind it? Many women begin removing their body hair during adolescence as it is expected and almost unconsciously done. But in doing so, we internalise many problematic societal expectations of beauty and what is considered the norm. Here is what one study has discovered about the perception of hairy women compared to hairless women. They were described as: • Less sexually attractive. • Less intelligent. • Less sociable. • Less happy. • Less positive. Another study interviewed women who claim that hair removal is a personal choice because it reduces body odour or feels less dirty, but these perceptions were often subconsciously projected onto other women, considering those who do not shave as “look[ing] like a man” or “lazy” and “not taking care of [themselves]”. However, the views of these women were influenced by negative comments from their own families and partners, with a mother calling one of the participants a “dirty Mexican” if she did not shave her leg hair, a boyfriend saying that she “needs his permission to grow [her] body hair”, and a man telling a bisexual woman that it would be difficult to get a girl or a guy if they grew out their body hair. Different women also have different coloured body hair, bringing the issue of race and ethnicity into the picture and the debate of whether having lighter coloured body hair - a Caucasian genetic trait - means that you are more easily accepted into society. It is easy to change the topic, to call body hair trivial and say there are other issues relating to women that we need to worry about. However, we fail to recognise the discussions that arise when we talk about body hair, and how it overlaps with not only sexism and racism, but also classism, ageism and homophobia. These are conversations we need to keep having and social issues we need to keep addressing, which is why I will be keeping my hairy legs. My decision might be baffling to you, just like the existence of Bigfoot, but at least he and I have something in common – we are always trying to shake the monkeys off our back. 23
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Lot's Wife - MSA Women’s & POC Edition Five

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