This is a comment by Christopher on the post “Keep the Rug: an Appreciation of Male Body Hair“.

“I think ‘rage against the machine’ is becoming a tiresome rallying cry. A lot of men and women shave, wax, or pluck their body hair because they genuinely believe it makes them look more attractive. In other words, they do indeed accept themselves for who they are and desire to present themselves to the world in precisely the manner they’ve chosen. Just because a certain manner of grooming is not the result of nature left to its own devices does not mean that the person who follows that manner of grooming is a slave to media representations of beauty.

“We’re all affected by the grooming habits and styles we see around us. That’s inevitable. And there’s nothing wrong with adopting those habits and styles as our own. The bottom line is, follow the grooming style that you believe to beautiful. To talk about ‘questioning the media’s portrayal,’ ‘accepting [yourself] for who [you] are,’ and ‘not being self-conscious’ shows that perhaps that you struggle to do that yourself, which is unfortunate. If you feel the need to ‘beg’ other women to adopt such ways of thinking shows that it’s something that you’ve yet to become comfortable doing yourself.”

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