Jill Dahrooge

            Ninety nine percent of women in the United States have removed their body hair.   This percentage is far larger than what I imagined.  The article "The Specter of Excess" written by Breanne Fahs and Denise Delgado, discusses the high social importance of women's removal of body hair through an extra credit project.  This experiment showed the expected rejections of society.  The students were stated as "dirty", "gross", "repulsive", and also "less attractive, intelligent, sociable, happy, and positive" (13).  The distinction between classes also heightened due to the differences in hair appearances between colored women and white women.  It has been proven that shaving leads to "unhealthy dieting, cosmetic surgeries, and general body dissatisfaction" (14).  If the result of the experiment created a positive revelation for the students why did they not continue to rebel against society?  The students realized that the removal of body hair has created a disturbing discrimination against women's natural appearances.  Going against this norm made the students feel proud to be females and has created a new idea of beautiful to them.  However, they would not dare to continue this experiment without an authority figure giving them permission or an excuse.

            Conformity was a huge theme that I noticed during this experiment.  At the beginning of the assignment only a group of women were willing to try it.  As the experiment continued others, who were at first apprehensive, decided to join in.  Some students also noted that outsiders began to take part in the action even though they were not part of the class.  The outsiders gain respect for these women for being so bold and were inspired to go against society with them.  This positive group conformity worked well to carry out the experiment but did not last after it ended.  Some women said that they started to not shave as often but they still continued to shave.  The main lesson that was proven during this experiment was the strength of conformity.  I believe that if larger numbers of women fought for the acceptance of their natural bodies that would become the new social norm.   Because society as a whole still promoted shaving after this experiment the students felt pressured to continue shaving.  Therefore, if a societal movement of not shaving was created women would be apt to conform to this new trend.