Every year, as Halloween draws nigh, I am reminded of the drag we all don on a daily basis. When spring rolls around again, I’ll be reminded of what’s beneath the drag: body hair.
I have always had this burning question as to what compels people to shave their legs. I have shaved mine in the past out of heavy family/societal pressure, hated it, and do so no more. For me, the daily maintenance requirement and discomfort of 5 o’clock shadow are not worth bearing for something I never had an inclination to do in the first place.
Ok, enough about me, lets talk about you. I am curious to know why most women shave their legs, and most men don’t. Please weigh in on the Poll below. NOTE that poll answers starting with “F:” are for readers who are or identify as female, and “M:” are for readers who are or identify as male.
This paper, “Caucasian Female Body Hair and American Culture by Christine Hope, seems to be heavily cited in the scholarly world. Sadly, however, I don’t have access to the internet version of the journal it is in, or to other journals that have printed articles that cite it. Maybe someone out there does?
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I’d be interested to read comments from non-Caucasian people. In the mean time, I’ll tell you a little story. It may be filed under TMI, so you have been forewarned.
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It all happened waaaay back, when I was a teen and still forced to do such barbaric self-mutilating things as scrape hair from pit ‘n legs. I was in Checkoslovakia with my sister-in-law. We were staying in a small hotel in Prague that had sex-segregated communal showers, like in a locker room. My sis-in-law and I and other women present acknowledged each other with smiles, and attended to our personal ablutions. For sis ‘n me, this eventually required whipping out the razor. The moment we started shaving our legs, the women gathered up their girls and hustled out, giving us uncomfortably disapproving glares. It wasn;t until some time later that we learned that leg shaving was, in that time and place, the realm of prostitutes.
My wife is not Caucasian.
I am.
I could care less if she shaves or doesn’t shave her legs.
I see no reason to shave my legs (or my face, for that matter).
is that in the US, it isn’t just a Caucasian thing. Until I can read one, I will assume that that papers focus on Caucasian women because it was easier for the (probably Caucasian) researchers to find lots of them locally to survey.
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But my observations are that it is not just Caucasian women in the US who shave their legs. It seems almost universal. However, there are many US ethnicities that I never come into contact with, so my personal observations are biased.
Why?
…that’s what we learn to like growing up as boys and young men?
i can see how that might be the case for some – one of those social norms that seems so mundane that it goes unquestioned. like the necktie & hat used to be? is that what you mean?
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if so, just how important of a social norm is it? how severely would you limit a relationship with a woman who didn’t shave her legs? friendship? relationship? sex?
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZING.
that’s not my experience. but if it’s true for you, why don’t you shave your legs too?
“smoother”…shaved…smoooooother…
…shaven hair (or cut hair) oftentimes leaves stubble that has rather sharp cut ends. It scratches. That’s not the case with uncut hair.
…to see that I’m feminist.
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But, if I examine my standard of beauty, ie the qualities that I find physically attractive in a female, they are informed by (but not limited to) the dominant culture’s idea of beauty. I would not go for a woman who did not shave her legs and under arms.
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I imagine if I grew up in a time and place before razors and no women shaved their legs that I would not give a second thought about it. But this would not happen for me today, though. It’s ingrained. Perhaps I could evolve, but it would take a long time. I’d never rule it out and perhaps if a long term partner decided one day to stop shaving her legs I could learn to adjust – after all I wouldn’t stop loving her. But I’d prefer not to cross that bridge.
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Based on conversations with my friends, I do feel I have a wider and more diverse standard of beauty than many caucasian men and I appreciate that the current constructed beauty ideal (constructed by a misogynist, white patriarchy) is ridiculous and harmful to women’s bodies. But I do appreciate many aspects of western modern femininity (as well as masculinity in my own identity) that I’m not yet willing to give up. I know there are certain feminist philosophies that promote androgyny in both physical appearance and in social customs as the best method by which to achieve an approximation of gender equality, but I disagree – a hot woman is a hot woman. I’m too selfish to break my conditioning and give up on my beauty standard, a standard that does include the grooming of a woman’s body hair.
…I don’t mean to imply that I want my partners to shave every day.
to shave your legs regularly? i gather you don’t shave your legs or pits. why not? have you tried it, to test the look and feel?
…depends on how into the woman I end up being.
you may be surprised to learn this, but i didn’t stop depilatorizing myself out of some duty to any philosophy beyond “mind your own business”. i stopped doing it because it was physically uncomfortable and a nuisance i didn’t need.
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philosophy-wise, mine is that all individuals, male and female, should be able to make such choices without repercussions. of course, as per your example, there can be justifiable repercussions on a personal level because we all have individualistic preferences and tastes. however, there should be no societal repercussions or finger-pointing (it happens a lot) when individuals ignore the norm. in fact, there should be no norm. the idea of having a norm on such a meaningless thing as leg hair is truly silly in my book.
… to expect to make choices that alter one’s appearance “without repercussions” or “no societal repercussions”. Certainly one could argue about what repercussions are overreactions, but certainly we humans are biologically and culturally apt to react to appearance. To the extent that a large majority of people might react in the same way you can say that this defines ‘society’s’ reaction. Norms are an inevitable by-product of (and an interaction between) biology and culture.
…I imagine most woman who don’t shave their legs do so because it sucks. If I have facial hair, it’s not because I want a beard, it’s because I hate shaving.
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On a society-wide basis, I agree – whatever floats one’s boat and people shouldn’t get shit for a personal choice.
I’m a guy, and I’m quite the hairy fellow, like my father. For the sake of not freaking out the females, once in a while I take hair clippers to myself for the sake of not being a huge furball. This is legs, chest, etc. The only time I’ve shaved something besides my face is last halloween when i shaved my chest to be the 40 year old virgin.
and i appreciate your candor. i am curious as to whether this was done as a preventative measure, or if your fuzziness ever actually freaked someone out (and i mean freaked out rather than just a turn-off to someone who has no taste for fuzz*). but it is an unkind question to really ask, so i just drop it here rhetorically.
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this year, try shaving the face of a werewolf onto your chest. đŸ™‚ you’re giving me ideas. maybe i’ll shave lightening bolts down the outside of my calves. will have to turn up the heat in the house, though!
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*some people do prefer lots o’ fuzz. i hope you’ve already found this out.
It wasn’t my idea. I have three older sisters, and I was sitting around in my underwear one day (it was hot) and one of them recommended I buzz myself. Since I pretty much take whatever advice I’m given (be it fashion, manners, whatever.. they’ve been right 100% of the time) so I just did it.
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And for the record, the part about your calves creeped me out to the max. I’m sorry but like…I don’t even want to picture that on a woman. Maybe I’m a little old fashioned like that.
excellent! then it will indeed be the best halloween costume ever! };-D
Dropping by BMG before bed… “Leg shaving poll” ???!!! And so here I am reading about various furry ones’ shaving or non-shaving experiences. If ever I complain about newstainment, just remind me which headline I clicked first tonight.
….the whole feminist movement regarding being defined by how others saw you in societal stereo types. I guess because I grew up through the 60″s where a woman who did shave was not all that unusual it doesn’t bother me. On the contrary it looks like a lot of work just to satisfy what others think. What amazes me is the trend toward men removing chest hair. (What ever happened to Burt Reynolds http://www.cinematic… read the commentary too as this picure really points out the same issue for men) But a further bug a boo I have can be summed up in the evolution of the weather channel women. Until 4 years or so ago this was the last bastion on broadcast where a woman could have her own body type, hair, clothes and makeup because being a really good weather person was the point. Then even though it had great ratings somebody got the idea that they had to make it sexy and all the new female forecasters started to come out of central casting and the veterans only stayed on after a trip through 10 years younger. (There was a complaint filed by former female employees regarding discrimination about this a few years back but I never heard how it turned out). The most stinging satire about this point was done by Samantha Bee on the Daily show: http://www.thedailys… And as to Sex, two day stubble is the same regardless of what part of the anatomy it lies on and nothing kills that Viagra moment like forgeting to shave first.
…”didn’t” shave in the 2nd line.
I started shaving my legs in 8th grade because I noticed Lisa K. shaved hers, and she was cool so I figured I should start shaving mine if I wanted to be cool. During the following 35 years, there have been times when I didn’t shave (the “filling up and spilling over years, in particular) and times when I did (the high femme period – both days of it). But to confess, I just like the act of shaving, so I do it when I’m not in a hurry and think I can manage it without slicing skin off my shin, which means I rarely shave in the shower because I don’t wear my glasses there but often shave in the tub, where I do wear my glasses. Talk about TMI. I’ve never cared if my girlfriends shaved – it’s all good.
Having never shaved legs in the shower, I don’t relate to that problem.
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HOWEVER, have you noticed when you go to a hotel, and they have the little bottles of shampoo, conditioner, mouthwash, et al, and you try to read those little bottles in the shower. No glasses, 4 point type, mouthwash in the hair again.