In response to my request to
Veet
Asking them to remove their ads
Purporting that hairiness will turn a woman into a man
My friend wrote about
“The poor girl
With the hair on her upper lip”
Poor
As in tragic, bad, ugly
Because she was born into a society
That deems body hair
On women
Ugly, unwanted, uncool
Unfeminine
I read a book as a child
The story of a baby
From the baby’s perspective
Where
Daddy = hairy
Mummy = smooth
And I thought
Well, I’ll never be a mother
At least not the quintessential one
Because I’m not smooth
I am hairy
And I grew up in a family
Where that was a bad thing
Hair = Ugly
And must be shaved off
Gotten rid of
My body was a place of shame and disgust
This notion reinforced by
Magazines, films, music videos where
Women did not have hair
And those who did
Were Unattractive
Or Hippies or Deviants and Therefore
Socially. Unacceptable.
And for someone who is
Naturally hairy
That is utterly, utterly crushing
It made me nervous to go swimming
Terrified to wear a bikini
“But you’re so skinny! Show off your body!”
I could never say why I was afraid
Being hairy was less than womanly, less than feminine
Less than human
We live in a world
Where there exists a
Multi-billion dollar industry
For the removal of hair
Waxes, razors, lazers
Bleaches
Lotions, creams, gels
Epilators, tweezers
And sprays
To serve the purpose of
“Looking Good”
There was a magazine
In the University Women’s Room
(A safe space for women)
That someone had defaced
By drawing hair on the models
Adding in eyebrow hairs
Underarm hairs
And sprouting pubic hairs
And I thought it was shocking
That someone would do that
Hair was Ugly. Inappropriate.
Distressing.
Let me say this
Because no one ever said it to me
In varying degrees of
Darkness, thickness, and density
Women. Have. Hair.
On our heads
On our legs, on our arms
On our hands
On our knuckles
On our feet
On our bellies
On our lower backs
On our nipples
On our pubic bone
In our underarms
On our upper lips
Sometimes even from the chin
And cheeks.
Women. Have. Hair.
It is not ugly.
It is convention, history, and the desire to control women’s bodies
And what happens in them and on them
That states that hair on women, in particular places, is ugly.
Hairiness does not make you less attractive
Hairiness does not make you a failure at life
Hairiness does not denote how feminine or masculine you are
It exists.
And it is a Woman’s. Personal. Choice.
Whether she wants to get rid of it or not.
Stubble on her legs
Does not make her manly.
Hair on her upper lip
Does not make her ugly, unfeminine, or unworthy
If your judgements on a human being
Go no further than the presence of hair
I ask you to please
Re-assess.
The world is full of far more important things
Worth pulling your hair out for
The end.
For an amazing story about dealing with hair, go here.
