THE POLITCAL ECONOMY OF CHOICE
I started waxing at
the age of 13, not using a razor cut shave off unwanted hair, but applying
burning hot wax on my legs, arm pits, and the genital area, and pulling it off
feeling a burn that can’t be described in words. For me, it wasn’t a choice. As
soon as my mom spotted so called “unwanted hair” around my body, she took me to
her beauty salon for an appointment with Maria, so that I could get all that
hair removed as soon as possible. Did it bother me? Of course not. Why?
Absolutely all of my friends were doing it.
It was never seen as harmful to wax, or threatening in any
way. Going to the wax salon was a monthly routine for all women and young women
in Brazil. We were welcome with hugs and smiles by the ladies who did the
procedure, the ladies who got so intimate with us that we called them friends.
I never heard a single problem about waxing until I made my way to the United
States.
First shock, “the Brazilian”. Making it clear, barely no one
in Brazil waxes all of her genital hair. Second, its price! In Brazil I would
be paying $50 dollars for a full leg and genital hair wax, and here, it
wouldn’t even cover the leg! I was still planning on keeping on waxing until
one of my friends told me, “be a feminist and don’t do it”. What does waxing
has to do with feminism? It never occurred to me that removing hair would be
making me seem less powerful, it was only something I was used to doing at
home.
After reading Herzig’s article, I wondered to myself, why do
we all do it? Do women wax for themselves, or do they do it for men? I mean, in
Brazil I will get a bikini wax because I don’t want genital hair showing near
my bikini, but is it really that gross? Because no one seems to have a problem
when men show off their hair. I wax because my mother tells me to, and she does
it because her mom told her the same thing. If it’s really a matter of freedom
of choice, why do we feel so embarrassed if we don’t follow the norm?
MALE BEAUTY WORK
When growing up it’s common to see girls getting in their
mom’s closets and trying on their clothes and putting up make-up, but a seeing
a boy having such behavior is considered almost rare. A boy who dresses up will
most likely be made fun of by his friends at school, or at least that’s the way
things used to be.
Men wouldn’t wear make-up, nor care about how their hair
looked in the morning, taking care of himself in such matters would considered
almost loss of their male power. But now, we see more and more men in fashion
magazines, we see our male friends having hair and facial products, and some
even not being ashamed of putting some bronzer on to go out at night. When a
girl has such behavior she can be considered to be turning herself into an
object, so, does that mean that men are leading towards self-objectification?
Men considered women waxing, getting pedicures, facials,
plastic surgeries, tanning, completely normal and acceptable, so why is it that
it is such a shock that men are down going through the same procedures? Men
never took a stand when women were spending thousands on the beauty industry,
but it is unmanly like to have such behavior. In a world where men and women
were supposedly created equal, why is it strange for both sexes to go through
the same beauty procedures? It is somewhat only fair that now men can “feel on
their own skin” what women have been going through for decades. If the media
has the right to idealize female beauty standards, it should have the same rights
to do it with men’s.
This article is just making it clear that women hate chubby
hairy men, just as much as men hate fat hairy women. We are a society built on
beauty standards, once only with females being affected but now paying a much
larger attention to male beauty. We don’t have anything or anyone to blame but
ourselves, because these are the ideals we’ve created.
MISS REPRESENTATION
What are we going
to do? Us that grew up believing I could never be president, that all I could
have in the future was a job as a housewife? I never heard of empowered women
during my childhood, I grew up watching top models. I grew up believe that the
most empowered women in Brazil was Gisele, because she was the first Brazilian
to actually become well known outside of Brazil. And now, only now, I am
introduced to this. What am I supposed to do if I wasn’t raised this way?
Since my sister passed I believe I
had to be perfect, but for me, in Brazil, the idea of perfect wasn’t becoming
class president, or the top swimmer on my team, but the thinnest and prettiest
girl of them all.
“You
can’t be what you can’t see”
I was never
introduced to a powerful female politician, or a great female surgeon, I was
introduced to top models, actresses, singers, how as a teenage girls, was
supposed to believe that doesn’t weren’t the kind of women I should look up to,
that I should try to become?
The media has
always been overwhelmingly in hands of men, thus, men are the ones making us
sick, making us hate ourselves. I would rather look like Adriana Lima than have
a perfect GPA, because being like Adriana Lima seems like the right thing to
be, but having the perfect GPA is scary, because girls aren’t supposed to be
that smart, because that gives them power, and they aren’t supposed to have
that either.
After reading Aline’s article, I was quite surprised that young girls in Brazil start waxing as soon as they start to grow unwanted hair, and I find it really interesting that it is the mothers who are the advocates for their daughters to start going to their first waxing appointments. As Aline said in her article, her mother brought her to her first waxing appointment at the age of only thirteen, but she did not mind because all her friends were too; it was the norm in her culture. In the culture that I have been raised, my mom would never have even thought of such a thing, especially at such a young age. I don’t even think I knew what waxing was when I was thirteen, and even if I had and wanted to get waxing done, my mom would have said no. As I have gotten older, I have friends who wax; they mostly only do it in the summer when its bathing suit season or they do it so they will not have to shave for a little while, which can be a time-consuming, tedious task. I don’t in any way think it is unusual to wax and I know many people who do, but I do not think it is an extremely prominent norm in our culture or society. Many people wax and many people do not, and I think you could call either option a norm. I find it interesting that in Brazil, it is a prominent cultural norm for women to wax all of their unwanted body hair, starting this process at as young of an age as thirteen. Then again, I shaved my legs for the first time in sixth grade, which is also quite young, but my friends were too, and I remember feeling like I should. Waxing and shaving are different in the sense that waxing is more extreme and painful, but both methods are the process of hair removal. Different cultures endorse certain practices more than others, but this shows one of the ways in which girls are being taught to change themselves to look more attractive. In the “Male Beauty Work” article, I found it extremely surprising that men were focusing so heavily on their looks as well. I don’t think of men putting a great deal of effort into how they look everyday like women do, but as Aline describes, women do not care for unattractive, unfit, extremely hairy men, just as men dislike fat, hairy, unattractive women. Therefore, as culture of men and women, we set the standards for how we expect one another to look.
ReplyDelete-Charlotte Sargent
Lily Cannon
ReplyDeleteReading Aline’s post was also a very interesting post like Charlotte said. I never thought about how in different countries women’s month routines were different than ours in the United States. My mouth dropped when reading the part on how she first started waxing at the age of 13! Like Charlotte I didn’t start shaving until very late. My mother didn’t want me to start shaving but as being an early teenager I went against what she had said and started shaving to feel “older”. This I should have never done because as said mothers are always right. I didn’t have a great deal of hair on my legs or underarms and learned the hard way since it grows back that much quicker. I thought it was another good point when she compared little girls to boys and trying on their parents clothing and also how society shouldn’t be surprised with the great deal of expenses and drastic measures men go to to look a certain way when women do the same thing. Men are finally realizing what women have to go through to “fit in”.
Aline, your response was so surprising. I had no idea that girls were getting waxes so early in their childhood in other parts of the world. Like Charlotte and Lily said above, my mother would never make me get a wax. She has always wanted me to preserve my childhood and innocence as long as possible. I remember in 5th grade when I wanted to shave my legs because all of my friends were doing it and a boy I had a crush on teased me. My mother made me wait until 5th grade graduation to shave because she was so appalled at how early the girls were doing it. Now, as I am sufficiently older and more mature, I don’t think waxing is a problem in society. But after reading this article, like Aline, I now question why women even wax at all. As for your response to Male Beauty Work, I like how you said, « In a world where men and women were supposedly created equal, why is it strange for both sexes to go through the same beauty procedures?” It really shouldn’t be strange. But because of gender differences, biases and stereotypes; men who actually care about their appearance are being called “feminine”. And you’re right, Aline, we should blame ourselves for all these flaws in society because we technically create them and abide by them.
ReplyDeleteKelsey Warkentin
Natalie Bennett
ReplyDeleteI, too, was quite shocked by what you had to say here. When I was younger I desperately wanted to start shaving because I was so embarrassed to have hair on my body. I can remember one day in the Spring of fourth grade when I wore this really cute purple tank top to school, but the whole day I was extremely uncomfortable, and during circle time I didn't raise my hand even though I wanted to say something because I was concerned someone would see the hair beginning to grow beneath my arms. I wasn't allowed to begin shaving (or wearing a bra for that matter) until sixth grade- it was horrible! My mother just absolutely refuses to let me grow up- I just got my first pair of wedges this summer. So to me it was extremely surprising to hear how much your mother pushed you to start doing these things. If my mother had it her way, I would have never grown boobs or leg hair in the first place.
I like what you said about little girls dressing up in their mom's clothes or make up. I did that too when I was younger- my sister would help do me up. But as for my little brother, once he was old enough to refuse to let us put him in dresses, the only dress up he ever did was to be like daddy. We have this really adorable picture of him completely naked with his little tool belt on and hammer in hand- he wanted to help daddy build the new home for the TV. I just find it interesting how we can see so young girls dressing up to change their appearance, but boys only do it in a practical way, to portray a profession or show something much more powerful than little feet in heels.
I find Aline’s post very interesting. Coming from a different culture, she has experienced different beauty trends and styles than from in the states. Even though they’re different, the beauty ideals are very much the same. One thing that stood out to me in particular is the term Brazilian wax. How did it get that name? As Aline pointed out, women in Brazil don’t get waxed down there any more than women in America. Another interesting point that Aline made is that male beautification is becoming more mainstreamed. Clearly in Japan it is expected that men go to great lengths to maintain their appearances, but I didn’t realize that some beauty industries are also changing in America. There are industries for male hair removal, face wash, and other hygiene products. These products are advertised to be very manly and almost disguise the real purpose of the product.
ReplyDeleteI think that Aline’s story of waxing really made the question: do we have choice? all the more compelling. If she did it because her mother did, because her grandmother did, and was okay with it because all her friends were participating as well, did she ever really choose to get waxed? Like Wolf stated in her article “The Beauty Myth”, Banks stated in “Hair Matters”, and Herziq stated in “Genital Modification and the Global Cosmetic Services Industry” we are all at risk to have our personal choice removed and replaced by societal norms. Not only women, but also men, as Miller implies in her chapter “Male Beauty Work”, have been pushed to achieve unrealistic ideals (ex. a hairless body). Aline states that this is not surprising, however, I think it really is. If our male dominated, patriarchal society has pushed men into objectifying and beautifying their bodies, I think we have, in turn, somehow shifted one of our core habits. If men no longer have a choice (in relation to their bodies) if they want to have a bride, than have our classic gender roles switched? Miller states that they surly haven’t, but I am unsure. --Gracie Hall
ReplyDelete