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Hear me out. We women are automatically lambasted if we’re seen with even a spattering of unshaven pits. Julia Roberts and her brunette a-hairs never lived down the ridicule she faced after walking the red carpet with those offensive strands in plain sight. Seriously, it was international news at the time. This simple act made major headlines around the world, I kid you not. The same thing would happen if she, or another A-lister did it now.
What better time for you fellas who claim to be menimists (that’s male feminists for those in the know) to get out your Gillette razors? Just slather on some scented sensitive foam and start trimming those man pits. In fact, let’s take it a step further. I dare you to post a video on Instagram of your silky smooth arm crevices. I even think we should start a new hashtag:
#realmenshaveevenwhentheydonthaveto
Let’s take this thing viral. I guarantee you it would start an uproar. The dinosaurs would be up in arms. Yes, pun intended. They’ll be flinging around the word snowflakes faster than you could spell it. That Gillette ad just didn’t go far enough. They could have had a 30-second ad for a ¼ of the price and made the same statement if they just showed manly straight men shaving their armpits with the above hashtag.
For those of you who don’t quite get it. The whole premise of this controversial suggestion is a statement about blind conditioning. Women who blindly follow the rules of what’s acceptable without question. Those demeaning jokes aimed at women who ‘dare to hair.’ All the finger-pointing and references to the French and their hygiene that go with it.
It’s that blind acceptance of the rules of what female bodies should look like to be deemed acceptable, that I’m highlighting here. Women needing to remove the signs of their animal nature is a stereotype that’s barely questioned. The endless shaving of legs and armpits. The intimate area waxing. The plucking or waxing of chin hairs. The threading of eyebrows.
All this, so women can be seen as acceptable to the general populace. In fact, other women are just as likely to ridicule a woman who allows herself to go au naturelle. They can be just as crude and cruel as any insensitive man.
Well, I think it’s time to make a clear statement. I believe that we are more than our hairy bits. I think it’s time for us to take on the dinosaurs and enjoy the game. Maybe I’m wrong. What say you?
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This post is republished on Medium.
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