For Some Women, Being Hairy is More Practical Than Political - Reported from Alternet
I was weeding through my email that I had missed due to my absence last week. Quickly scanning through my news headlines (I receive daily from a couple of sources) my eyes caught the headline of this article.
"Wait... did I just see.... yeah.... "
I wondered what this could possibly be about as I mulled over the headline, Shaving: Worth your time? It seemed to ask a question whose answer was quite obvious. Right?
Not necessarily.
To be honest, there is nothing really even compelling about this article. The headline is the most intriging part of the whole thing. It tells of a normal girl who grows up not wanting to go with society's norms that tell us that women should shave their legs.
I grew up in a "different" type of family than most people my age. My parents lived through the sixties and were at the age where they could indulge in the festivities so to speak during that era. My parents are pretty much hippies... still.
Anyways, I was around 15 when I finally got the balls up to ask my Mom if I could shave. Yes, I asked her. Kind of a foreign concept nowadays, but I knew it showed her I respected her because talked about everything and she would rather I don't shave at all.
My mother actually asked me why I wanted to shave my legs... she said I was too young and the hair was nothing to be embarrassed about.
Try telling that to all my hairless friends.
Now that I look back I can reflect upon just how huge an impact society has on the way we act, even when we are young... still kids.
I did take a few good things away from my upbringing - that I have no room to make judgement on others for being different. So in high school when one of my girlfriends revealed to me that she wasn't shaving her legs anymore I didn't act any differently towards her. Why would I? Because society says hairy legs are not feminine? I don't think so. I was brought up to think for myself. (Which some people find very hard to deal with!)
To conclude my review/story as it pertains to the subject of whether women should shave or not...
Your legs don't define who you are, and although this article (and my review of it) are rather irrelevant, there is a lesson to be learned.
