At Temple University, the student newspaper is seemingly excited about a trend that has been “gaining momentum”: “body positivity,” which entails women ditching the idea of shaving their legs, and in other cases, their armpits.
The Temple News trumpeted, “Body hair positivity is gaining momentum as women are increasingly shrugging off the need to follow beauty standards.” The newspaper spoke to two students eschewing traditional standards; one, a 6’1” senior, asserted that she had stopped shaving her legs in high school, explaining, “I’m 6-foot-1, so it takes a lot of time and then the hair grows back right away. I have blonde hair, so it just seems pointless.” She recalled, “I was on the water polo team and there were a lot of guys … who were like, ‘You’re so disgusting. That’s so gross.’ My comeback for a lot of guys who say things like this to me is, ‘When was the last time you shaved your legs?’”
The senior added that the number of people judging her for her refusal to shave her legs has dwindled in college, adding, “Most people are indifferent because what are they going to do? Tell me to shave my legs?” She concluded that the razor industry and media outlets propagate the idea that it’s necessary for women to shave their legs, saying, “It’s the same for any beauty standard. If you see these beautiful women on TV or on billboards and they have this perfect hairless skin, why wouldn’t you want to look like that? But that’s not what women look like.”
Another college senior posited, “If you’re going to not shave as a particular feminist statement, then you also need to analyze how people who are more marginalized often have the greater pressure to uphold beauty standards than people who are already more Eurocentric and privileged.” She added, “When you think about it at all, clearly, it’s not a hygiene thing because men aren’t seen as unclean when they don’t shave their bodies.”
In November 2018, Lourdes Leon, the daughter of Madonna, made news when she appeared at the 2018 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Anniversary Event in New York City with her armpits and legs unshaved. Daughter and mother posted a photo of themselves together to celebrate New Years 2018 in which Leon wasn’t bashful about her choice:
We are Ready For You 2018! ♥️💃🏿♥️💃🏿♥️💃🏿♥️💃🏿♥️💃🏿♥️💃🏿♥️💃🏿 #love ♥️ pic.twitter.com/WSsj28bcDa
— Madonna (@Madonna) January 1, 2018
Huffington Post reported in January 2017 that actress Lola Kirke claimed she received death threats when she appeared at the Golden Globes without shaving her armpits. HuffPo wrote:
Because of the world we live in, some people evidently decided that death threats were an appropriate reaction to seeing Kirke live in her natural state. The actress, however, was nothing but graceful and classy in her response. “Thanks to all you beautiful people who didn’t send me death threats on account of my #awesome #hairyarmpits! You rule,” she wrote alongside an Instagram photo of her red carpet look.
The Guardian reported in 2019, “Despite dissenters, hairy armpits are undeniably en vogue. Alongside adverts, social media has reignited a trend for unicorn armpit hair – a look popularised by bloggers who have dyed their pits in rainbow colours.”
H/T The College Fix